Lucio Fulci is and will always be best known for his work in the horror genre, but he's also a director who was happy to explore genres outside of horror (probably with money in mind) and this is his 'Sword and Sorcery' attempt. I have to say I'm not a fan of the whole Lord of the Rings style fantasy stuff in general, so obviously my only reason for sitting through this was due to the fact that it's Fulci in the director's chair. To my surprise, this is actually fairly decent stuff; it's got nothing on Fulci's best work and definitely won't encourage me to check out any more Sword and Sorcery flicks, but still. The plot is simple at its centre and follows a young man who goes on a journey complete with a magic bow and arrow but ends up having to fight off various monsters when his plight is discovered by some evil witch. The witch, of course, wants his bow to use for evil but the young lad has plenty up his sleeve as he joins forces with some outlaw and beats off the bad guys with his shiny bow and arrow.
While the plot is quite simple, there's a hell of a lot of ideas in there - far too many for the runtime and so things do still manage to get more than just a little bit confusing. Some of the ideas are really stupid too, which harms the credibility of the film. It's clear that this was never meant to be taken seriously, however, so I guess it can be cut some slack. The film is very much a product of the eighties and it's very trashy indeed. Despite being a genre that he's not best known for, Fulci still manages to bring in his trademarks as the film features some fairly graphic scenes of gore - a scene that sees a woman ripped in half being among the best parts. We also get to see Fulci's other trademark zombies, in another highlight sequence. The music is also very good and in fitting with Fulci's other stuff and is composed by respected musician Claudio Simonetti. The acting is not great and the guy in the lead role looks a bit too camp, but nevermind. Overall, I can't highly recommend this film; but fans of silly Italian movies will probably get a kick out of it.
While the plot is quite simple, there's a hell of a lot of ideas in there - far too many for the runtime and so things do still manage to get more than just a little bit confusing. Some of the ideas are really stupid too, which harms the credibility of the film. It's clear that this was never meant to be taken seriously, however, so I guess it can be cut some slack. The film is very much a product of the eighties and it's very trashy indeed. Despite being a genre that he's not best known for, Fulci still manages to bring in his trademarks as the film features some fairly graphic scenes of gore - a scene that sees a woman ripped in half being among the best parts. We also get to see Fulci's other trademark zombies, in another highlight sequence. The music is also very good and in fitting with Fulci's other stuff and is composed by respected musician Claudio Simonetti. The acting is not great and the guy in the lead role looks a bit too camp, but nevermind. Overall, I can't highly recommend this film; but fans of silly Italian movies will probably get a kick out of it.