MrTaft

Another of the endless post-apocalyptic dramas out there that for a change lays the blame for the end of mankind at a "plague", and not a nuclear war! The film starts with some survivors having a meeting about a band of vicious killers who are targeting them for no reason other than to have complete control over "New Idaho". Half-way through their meeting, these killers (led by William Smith in a cape) show up and sure enough shoot the lot of them, apart from a mother/son combo who manage to get away, and the group's leader (an old guy) and his daughter (a hot blonde), who are captured by Lucas and his posse (which includes an apparent lesbian second-in-command), and taken back to their headquarters (a castle on a bridge) to be held prisoner and interrogated.

The daughter just happens to be the surviving son's girlfriend and he is most distressed about leaving her. He tells his mother that he wants to go back and save her (he "knows" she is alive, even though he didn't see her get captured), but while they are on the run some more of Lucas's band of merry men, all done-up in the usual leather-n-chain outfits of the post-apocalyptic era, appear and kill mom. Luckily for sonny (his name is Harris), a seemingly-random tough-nut woman out on a joyride in her futuristic jeep spots the commotion and saves Harris from the same fate as his mother, by blowing the evil gang away. She (Danielle) befriends Harris and takes him back to her hide-out, which is an open camp run by two Vietnam-vets. They are planning an assault on Lucas's fortress, and Lucas knows all about it. That's why he wants Harris's girlfriend's father, who is knowledgeable in their whereabouts and wants to send out his gang to kill them before they can do the same to him. He puts the daughter in all kind of perilous situations (including what appears to be lesbian rape from the second-in-command!) to make him talk, and once he does, the second-in-command blows his brains out. Then, after she and the gang is sent out to find the vets (or "arms dealers") and Danielle, etc, Lucas reveals his big plan for the daughter - he wants her to carry the baby of his own father to keep their little "tribe" going into the future and honor his father's wishes! Once that bizarre revelation is out of the way, the movie kicks into more high-gear with endless action sequences and mind-boggling scenes.

Watch Harris, Danielle and the vets battle cannibal survivors of the plague, Lucas's army and boredom as they play strip-poker with two blondes (who keep losing and must strip, of course)! They also have a prisoner, who was the arms expert of Lucas's gang, and a computer that talks with a female voice and can fly a helicopter just from sitting on the seat. There are copious amounts of action, which are all horrendously executed, thanks to the films low, low budget. People get shot without squibs (well, some of them), and in most cases the explosions are little more than sparks and smoke cannisters, while the same people are shot over and over again. All of the gunshot sound effects are almost muted, and you can barely hear the damn things go off, while every other sound is loud as day. That was a real bizarre element of the film. The acting of course is pathetic, and the old guy who is supposed to be Lucas's father is clearly middle-aged and wearing excessive make-up and a terrible wig. Check out the bogus abrupt ending, and the "futuristic" cars that are totally trashed on the exterior, but have perfect engines and tires. Oh, and thankfully the hot blonde daughter (Claudia) is spared her "rape" by the old fool in the nick of time. The girls and the wacky action sequences might be enough for you to enjoy this film, but it's certainly an odd-ball!

A poor excuse of a horror movie, made worse by the idiotic, annoying killer, who seems to have some sort of brain damage and goes around murdering young girls for no reason. This guy lives with his mother who controls his life (sound familiar), and won't let him date girls, because they'll take him away from her, she proclaims! Years of this kind of "mothering" has turned him into a pathetic, whiny-voiced madman, who crawls around parking lots in his huge Buick looking for new female victims, to lure back home, rape and kill.

The movie starts off with some blonde nurse being abducted by our killer, and taken back to his house. They seem to know each other (from where?), and while mother is yelling at him the nurse makes her escape. Humiliated, the killer strangles his mother and sets about seeking vengeance on the nurse, who lives with a bunch of scantily-clad female friends. They decide to enact their own revenge on the killer, and funnily enough, run into home quite quickly in the middle of a suburban street! Determination now gone, they flee and manage to call the police while he chases them in his Buick. After being cornered, the killer stabs a cop and speeds off with two units in pursuit, all three cars driving very slowly so as not to crash, because with the lousy budget this film has they wouldn't have been able to pay for any damage! Eventually, they reach the waterfront and the killer jumps into a rowboat to sail away. The cops run up to a pier and open fire with shotguns, eventually causing the WOODEN rowboat to EXPLODE! That's right - the killer is rowing away with oars in a wooden boat and when shot at with guns it blows up into a plume of fire! I laughed so hard at that scene, especially when the cops lower their guns, stare at the fiery wreck and then just walk off, without even attempting to recover a body! Can you believe this shoddy writing? Anyway, with the killer presumed dead, a few months later the nurse and her friends decide to take off to some wilderness cabin for a week. A couple of girls stay behind. But low-and-behold, the killer is still alive, sitting in his old house (what about the bills?) and complaining in his whiny-voice to his mother's headstone (which he put in himself). He decides again to get the nurse and her friends and goes to their house, only to find the two stragglers and their boyfriends, whom he kills. Then he conveniently discovers where the girls are staying via an answering machine message, and takes off to the cabin. There he kills just about everyone else in standard format until only two girls are left. What a good plot! Bah. Apart from the terrible writing which pits characters into the most ridiculous of situations (one girl goes out to photograph trees, for God's sake), the killer will really get on your nerves with his teeth-setting laugh and expressions that are not frightening to the extreme. He also has a habit of sneaking up behind his male victims to kill them so they don't have the chance to defend themselves, because it is clearly obvious they are all much stronger than he is and would easily win in a fair fight! I could only shake my head at such stupidity when we're supposed to be "afraid" of this killer, who dispatches of his victims with red-hot fire pokers, lumps of wood and the hood of a Mustang.

Gore-wise the film barely rates in that department. There is minimal blood in most of the kills except for one where a girl is offed in the shower, which is also a frequent moment of nudity, although that is all very lame in itself. These girls are nothing special. The acting is also ridiculous, the worst being the killer, and the fact that he keeps regaining consciousness after some of the things that are done to him by the survivors defies belief. Watch out for the twist ending! Ha! I'm sure you can guess what it is... I don't even remember which two girls survived (I think one was the nurse), and all they do is hobble off into the woods, not even bothering to check if the killer is dead. The killer also has the habit of being in two places at once or getting between places in rapid time, and there is no sense of continuity or style in this film at all. A very average horror that has its moments, but there aren't really enough of them to give it a decent rating. The only laugh comes from that boat explosion, which is a must-see!

After her all-woman tribe gets wiped out by some nasty men for no reason, Hundra takes off in search of a man to impregnate her (hopefully with a girl) to ensure the tribe does not die out for good. After giving the aforementioned men what-for, Hundra, her horse and her pet dog that follows her around everywhere, travel in search of the perfect man for the job. After a failed attempt with a drunken slob who Hundra ends up thumping, she arrives in a near-by desert village run by a chauvinist pig and his merry men. This "prince" likes to select the most attractive-looking female residents of the village and uses a hot mistress to teach them how to be the perfect woman, so they can then serve the drunken, brutish town aristocrats. Hundra stumbles upon the plot and tries to stop it, but is abducted and forced to undergo the same "training". Meanwhile, she falls for the village doctor and wants him to be the father of her child, but he is not very willing...

Hundra could possibly be the world's earliest feminist. She hates men and is strongly for women's rights, trying to force her beliefs on every woman she comes across later in the film. She is also well-versed in fighting and weaponry, making her no novice when it comes to taking-on these men. After she is forced into "training" by the prince, she discovers that her teacher has an illegitimate son, which the prince would kill her for. In exchange for keeping this secret, the teacher agrees to help Hundra win-over the doctor so they can make a baby. Hundra tries and tries and finally convinces the teacher to fight back against the prince and his merry men, and stand-up for her rights. There are many women's lib speeches from Hundra, almost as much of that as there is sword and sorcery, so you get my drift when I say feminism...

As for the sword and sorcery, it's a grand old fare with much slicing and dicing. There's a fair amount of blood and heads coming off, and even the poor old pet dog gets into a fight with a prince! There also seems to be a few horses who didn't get the good end of the bargain, falling all over the place. Speaking of horses, there's a strange scene where Hundra rides her horse through the ocean naked, presumably to bathe them both? You've also got a tiny bit of slap-and-tickle and the acting is fairly ordinary. No one stands-out much. The ending is what you'd expect, with the oppressed women rising up against those brutal men. None of them just seem to be as good with a sword as our Hundra! She also does it with the doctor and gives birth to a baby, but when she says "Give me my daughter", the doctor and the teacher exchange concerned glances, as if the baby's actually a boy. But Hundra says nothing of it later, so who knows what that scene was about... It must have been a girl, then! Doing her bit for the women of the village, Hundra takes her baby and rides off into the sunset, ready to try and replenish her tribe so that they may thrive again...

With the feminist themes, this film is an interesting twist on the abundant sword and sorcery plot. The locations were very well used and the film was well edited. Can't say much of the music, but there's nothing there that will truly annoy you, except for some of the storyline, of course! Not a bad viewing.