Wild, Wild Podcast - WARRIOR QUEEN (1987)

Slave auctions, lavish orgies and gladiatorial combat at the dinner table; no, it's not the Tory Party Conference, it's American adult film director Chuck Vincent's straight-to-video Pompeii-set Warrior Queen, starring Donald Pleasence, Sybil Danning and David Brandon. Pleasence is having fun, Danning looks thoroughly bored and Brandon is doing his best, so will Warrior Queen live up to the expectations set by the fabulous VHS cover art?

This season is dedicated to that great quiet man of British cinema, Donald Pleasence, who spent a great deal of time in the 1980s in Italy (and the Philippines). We would love to hear from you about your favorite Donald Pleasence films from this period, or if you have ever had to flee from a molten lava flow. You can get in touch with us, follow us on social media, buy our merch, and all that stuff, through our LINKTREE.

What I Watched in September 2025

2025 has brought us a brand new Red Sonja film, and before I ever got the chance to see the film I heard so much bitching about it that I knew that it had no chance. It had been condemned sight unseen and no matter what, it was going to become a dismissed work. I despise this kind of prejudgment of a film before anyone has actually seen the subject, especially when it is obvious that it is primarily the genre of the film that has the nattering scum feel that attacking it is safe. Surely, no one thoughtful can take this type of cinema seriously – it’s trash and therefore fair game for derisive snobbery.

I have been looking forward to a new Red Sonja film for years. I’m a fan of the character even though I haven’t read many of the comic books produced in the last twenty years or so. I'm a fan of the character as created by Roy Thomas for Marvel Comics back in the 1970s as a part of their long running Conan the Barbarian series.  The comic character of Red Sonja is not really a creation of pulp writer Robert E. Howard but she springs from the same fertile soil.

There was a character named Red Sonya of Rogatino who was in a single Howard called ‘The Shadow of the Vulture’, and then the comics altered her a bit and plunked her down the Hyperborian Age. I'm a big fan of the original Marvel version of the character, especially when Frank Thorne was drawing the comics. And as ridiculous as it is, that's where the chainmail bikini idea originally came from. Iconic but impractical, to say the least!

I saw the first film based on the character back in the 1985 when it premiered and I wasn't impressed at the time. But it's one of those movies that, as time has passed, I've grown to really love. It hasn’t changed but my ability to enjoy it has grown until I find it a complete joy. As a matter of fact, on The Bloody Pit podcast a few years ago Cort Psyops, and I talked at length about the movie so if you want my lengthier (much lengthier) thoughts about the previous Red Sonja film, that's the place. So, understand, I've been hoping for a new Red Sonja film for a very long period of time.

Before I got to watch the 2025 version I couldn’t find a single positive comment about the movie online. As a matter of fact, I was inundated with negative reviews before I ever got the chance to see the thing. It seems as if this has become the latest target for every smarter-than-thou pseudo-critic online to hone their meager typing skills and go into great detail about how awful it is. This was never going to stop me from seeing it, of course.

The first thing I noticed is that it was directed by M.J. Bassett and I am a huge fan of her 2009 Solomon Kane movie. I also remember liking the slasher effort WILDERNESS (2006) but details have faded. So, to my mind, she was an excellent choice to take a shot at the character. She understands the genre and handles visceral violence with style.

I’ll admit that I had lowered expectations because of the mountain of bad online comments but I'm the perfect audience for a sword & sorcery film. As you may have guessed, I enjoyed the hell out of it! I'm not saying it's perfect. There are a couple of moments where I wanted some fine-tuned clarity in the editing. An example is a scene with a character suddenly buying it with an arrow to the eye and we then see Sonja, in the distance. She is presumably the character who shot this person in the head from across a battlefield but she is not holding her bow. Instead, she's charging on horseback with a sword in her hand. I'm not sure if what was trying to be communicated was that one of the other people who we are then shown riding in to help her fired the deadly arrow. That is clumsy editing and while I understand why it was done it is a hiccup in the flow of the scene. My assumption is they wanted to immediately introduce the character in motion and headed toward the people that she's threatening. This is a fairly minor problem considering how much I was impressed with the surrounding sequence.

The only other real complaint I have with the film is that in about four cases they use CGI to craft backgrounds and distant vistas which would have have been done using matte paintings in the past. Normally, I love those things and they usually look great rendered in CGI but these don't look as good as I wish they did. I'm assuming that all boils down to this being a lower budget film, which is a shame.

About the only thing that most people who are hating on the movie can agree on is that Matilda Lutz, who plays Sonja, is fantastic and I have to agree. She is believable throughout this story both as an actress and in the physicality of the role. It can’t be easy to play this kind of sword wielding action hero but she is superb. There's something about her that makes you invested in the character from the beginning. In a better world she would be a major star and if I could work my will upon cinema, she would play Sonja at least a couple of more times. 

THE LIST

RED SONJA (2025) – 7 (what is all the complaining about?)

CAUGHT STEALING (2025) – 8 

WHEN EVIL LURKS (2023) – 9 (rewatch)

THE FLYING SAUCER (1950) – 3 (deadly dull Alaskan travelogue) 

REPTILICUS (1961) – 6 (rewatch of AIP cut on Blu) 

HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944) – 7 (rewatch on Blu)

PRINCE OF TERROR (1989) – 7 (Lamberto Bava chiller)

THE CONJURING: LAST RITES (2025) – 7 

REPTILICUS (1961) – 6 (rewatch of Danish cut on Blu)

THE LONG WALK (2025) – 8 

THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE (1971) – 6 (rewatch on Blu)

THE NIGHT THE WORLD EXPLODED (1957) – 5 (rewatch on Blu)

SHADOW OF ILLUSION (a.k.a. Ombre Roventi) (1970) – 5 

REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES (1943) – 5 (rewatch on Blu)

AND THE BONES CAME TOGETHER (1973) – 6 (TV movie ghost story) 

SPINAL TAP II: THE END CONTINUES (2025) – 7 

ZORRO THE AVENGER (1962) – 5 (weaker Spanish Zorro effort)

QUEEN OF BLOOD (1966) – 7 (rewatch on Blu)

MYSTERE (1984) – 5 (flat giallo crossed with spy tale) 

OBSESSION: A TASTE OF FEAR (1988) – 7 (fascinating futuristic giallo) 

HIM (2025) – 7 

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES (1983) – 6 (rewatch)

 

Video - Rahan - Spirit of the Bear (2008) S01E01

And the unexpected surprises continue! Here is the first episode of the 2008 cartoon adaptation of Rahan and it is dubbed in English. It seems aimed at a more juvenile audience than the 80's series but it has fine qualities on its own terms. Check it out! 

Video - RAHAN, SON OF THE FIERCE AGE - Episode 1 (1987) a.k.a. Rahan, fils des âges farouches

File this under 'You Discovery Something New Every Day'. A recent FB post about reprints of the AXA barbarian comics caused friend Nicholas to point me toward this earlier comic character from France. I then spotted the 1987 twenty-six episode cartoon version above. The YouTube generated English subs are, at best, serviceable but they help to get across the story pretty well. Its a shame this stuff isn't more easily viewable and I'd love to read the original comics as well. 

Poster Art for Barbarian Movies

Spring brings thoughts of sword swinging muscle men!

 

YOR, THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE (1983) Poster Art

Day of the Sword Man?

 

Yor, the Hunter From the Future Comic Books!

In answer to my Euro-Cult loving prayers, the original YOR comic books are being released in a four issue mini-series in the US. I'm so happy to be able to finally read these!

The Bloody Pit #196 - SONS OF STEEL (1988)

John Hudson and Bobby Hazzard join me for a raucous discussion of this bizarre Australian oddity. Are we able to figure out the story? What do we think of the main character? Do we maintain our sanity before the invisible chimp rears his furry head to fling poop everywhere? Thank goodness for the laughing audience in the room to keep us on track and aware of how silly we can be.

SONS OF STEEL (1988) is a film built out of bits & pieces of earlier movies but without the budget necessary to pull it off. It seems to be assembled from random parts of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Blade Runner, Back to the Future, Max Headroom and a little barbarian imagery for texture. The film follows Black Alice, a pompous singer strutting around a dystopian near-future momentarily mourning his dead girlfriend and trying to become a rock star. Strangely, he is also somehow an environmental peace activist – or at least we are told this by agents of the Oceana government. (Did I mention that 1984 is ripped off as well?) The movie is a series of music videos struggling to tell a tale of revolution, love and violence but the most memorable moments are the very 80’s songs scattered across the soundtrack. In Spiritus Wank’em!

If you have any thoughts on Black Alice, SONS OF STEEL or the sequel novels penning by the writer/director, thebloodypit@gmail.com is the place to send them. Thank you for listening to the show!

Umberto Lenzi's IRONMASTER (1983)

The flood of barbarian movies that stormed across movie screens in the early 1980s was at best a mixed blessing. A direct result of the big box office of CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982), the slew of rip-offs was inevitable as was the variable quality level from production to production. Barbarian movies don’t require much in the way of big budgets and if you’re fairly clever it is possible to create a moderately believable fantasy realm with sword wielding men and women saving oppressed people from evil warlords. If you want to include a wizard slinging around magic spells the price tag might go up a little (‘Find me a cheap FX man, now!’) but there were ways to make that pay off well if it made the film stand out from the crowd.

To be completely clear, none of these movies are classics of cinema. In fact, I would say that most of them would be considered bad movies by non-aficionados of strange cinema. But when you get the desire to see muscled non-actors swing swords and flatly toss out poorly scripted dialog about their beloved princesses and nefarious evil plans there are few options other than cueing up a barbarian movie from the 1980s! The crazy costumes are a big plus as well with the evil characters often wearing objects that a lively audience can spend the film’s entire running time trying to identify.

One of my favorites of the barbarian rip-off genre is Umberto Lenzi’s IRONMASTER. This film is a cut above the average of its type with a good story, some impressive South Dakota scenery and a good amount of well integrated stock footage of dangerous animals. The battle scenes are well done and usually believable in their harshness as the actors work hard to sell the physical nature of their characters. And only a group of mad Italians would have the audacity to conclude such a gory, violent movie with a call for non-violence and pacifism. Chef’s kiss!

 

 

The Bloody Pit #180 - CONQUEST (1983)

I am joined by Troy Guinn and Jeff Nelson to talk about a Lucio Fulci movie once again! This time we swipe away the fog and try to get a clear look at CONQUEST (1983). This was the director’s one entry in the brief 80’s resurgence of the sword & sorcery genre inspired by the success of CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) and THE BEASTMASTER (1982) and it has many more detractors than defenders. Where do you think we fall?

 

We talk about the history of bad VHS prints of the film and make a defense of the foggy, misty visual style of the cinematography. We do not defend the furry nunchakus, though. The film’s main characters and the mythological stereotypes they fall into causes much discussion with the older mentor and younger student reversal becoming our focus. Of course, considering the period of Fulci’s career in which this was made, we can’t help but notice the movie’s fascination with violence and depictions of damage to the human body. We examine the puzzle of the villain’s odd choice of hallucinatory substance to snort and wonder how this odd effect was discovered in this cruel world. The various cool monsters and dangerous creatures in the film get some love from us but the inclusion of zombies is questioned as a possible late addition. It’s a lively conversation and we hope you’ll enjoy it even if you don't like the movie!

 

If you have anything to say about CONQUEST thebloodypit@gmail.com is the place to send your thoughts. Thank you for listening! 

Sword & Sorcery Poster Art from the 1980's

This collection is heavy on THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER but they are all so good!  

CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) Poster Art

Random Barbarian Poster Art