Conquest (1983) Reviews

Acclaimed horror director Lucio Fulci infuses the sword-and-sorcery genre with gory decapitations, pus-squirting lesions and flesh-eating zombies in this uneven fantasy. The hero of the piece is young Ilias (Andrea Occhipinti), who, along with his bolo-swinging friend Maxz (Jorge Rivero), battles monsters, mutant tribes, and an evil queen (Sabrina Siani) on his journey to manhood. As the evil Ocron, the topless Siani wears a gold mask and bikini bottoms while writhing around on a fur rug covered with live snakes. Siani rules over a risible tribe of people in dog masks who blow narcotics up each others' noses through a straw, and conjures up wolf-warriors from her dreams to shoot poisonous straws at her enemies. The American version is missing much of the gore, but is still far too explicit for the young audiences at whom it is apparently aimed. Terrible special effects, hazy cinematography and inappropriately modernistic music by Claudio Simonetti do not make the film very enjoyable for adults either. Still, it is well-paced and Occhipinti makes a sympathetic lead, making the film worthwhile, if only for genre completists and Fulci devotees. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi