Barbarian Queen Review

This film offers more naked breasts than I've seen in a long time! And some potentially revolutionary content is seriously undermined by pornographic "barbarian" costumes and repeated scenes of rape and murder mixed in with the male pleasures and fantasies. The movie does a good job of eroticizing violence, perhaps all the more convincingly because of its pseudo-feminist political veneer.

Amethea (Lana Clarkson) is about to get married when her village is raided and plundered by a group of bandits led by a dopey and extremely unconvincing villain. She manages to escape with two of her friends, Tiniara and Estrild, and together they go out seeking revenge. Tiniara (Hispanic beauty Susana Taverso) is a fierce and beautiful woman warrior, while Estrild (pretty Katt Shea) is a rather ditzy girl with an insatiable appetite for food and a killer 80's hair-do. She also gets stuck with the film's entire stock of bad dialogues, and her high school girl delivery doesn't help.

The first thing they do is free Amethea's sister Taramis (sexy and bitchy Dawn Dunlap) who gets raped at the beginning of the film, and then the four of them ride off to the villain's castle. But things are tough at the castle, as Amethea gets captured and tortured, Estrild gets drafted as a harem girl, Taramis too is captured and decides to become the villain's love slave, and Tiniara gets killed. Damn, why is it that the prettiest one is always the first to die?

After her death the rest of the flick seems to drag, and you have to focus on Estrild's bumbling escapades instead. Amethea and Estrild eventually manage to escape and organize a rebellion that leads to the inevitable free-for-all climax.

Sure it's cheesy, but at least it's honest and sincere in its cheesiness. The girls are charming and fun to watch, and Lana and Susana have no problem swinging swords around and getting rough with the guys. But thanks to the visual treat in terms of lots of bare flesh available, one manages to remain suitably distracted for most of the movie. There are definitely worse ways to waste an evening.