User reviews

An incredibly cheesy contribution to the Sword & Sorcery genre starring the late Lana Clarkson, Héctor Oliviera's "Barbarian Queen" of 1985, is a film that is absolutely ridiculous in almost any aspect, but that shouldn't be missed by anyone who can enjoy the cheesier kind low-budget trash flicks. From a mainstream point of view, Sword & Sorcery (& Boobs) flicks such as this one may be, but they can be so much fun to watch when they're not taken too seriously. "Barbarian Queen" might be described as an unintentional comedy, but it's pretty clear that the funny aspects were at least semi-intentional as the film never takes itself too seriously. I personally can't help it - I love films of this kind, cheesy and amateurish as they may be, and always have a good time watching them.

This little film's thin plot in particular tells the story of 'Barbarian Queen' Amethea (Lana Clarkson) who, together with a few other busty female warriors, decides to free her tribe from slavery and tyranny after their village has been razed to the ground by a ruthless tyrant. It's been stated that this is set in the times of the Roman empire, but the villains really have nothing Roman about them, I'd say the movie is set in a typical, undefinable Sword'n'Sorcery fantasy time, some of the folks look like medieval knights, others like Barbarians from more ancient times...

The whole movie is quite similar to an earlier Lana Clarkson movie, "Deathstalker" of 1983, In which she played a role that was almost the same as in this one. I personally enjoyed Deathstaker more, since it was gorier and the shlock factor was at times even higher, but "Barbarian Queen" is definitely also recommended if you're looking for enjoyable trash and a good laugh. The acting is, unsurprisingly, god-awful, and the set pieces sometimes make you wonder whether the hilarious flaws are really unintentional. "Barbarian Queen" delivers cheaply made but entertaining gore effects and a good amount of sleaze and a busty female cast that gets topless every five minutes.

"Barbarian Queen" may be anything but a masterpiece, but B-Movie and Exploitation fans like myself should enjoy it. Just don't expect anything that anyone who has read the title and seen the poster wouldn't anyway.

I had a theory about movies. For every two minutes of Bad movie you need one minute of Nudity to make it watchable. This movie puts that theory to the test, and disproves it with a glorious vigor.

I think most every female in this movie was topless for the majority of it. The story is milk toast, but what I found the most absurd is just how bad the acting was. I mean it was Tommy Wiseau bad. In fact the nudity and acting are so bad there's almost a shamelessness about it. As though it's proud of how bad it is. And for that I would actually recommend it for anyone who wants to see a lot of breasts in a low budget Connan rip off.

For those who are feeling daring I offer the barbarian Queen Drinking game. This requires two teams, Team One is team acting and Team two is Team Boobs. For ever poorly acted line of dialog, team Acting takes a drink, For every set of boobs you see, team Boobs takes a drink. Please keep an EMT handy and sober as most likely more than one person will almost die of alcohol poisoning. You've been warned

An unenterprising addition to the (rightly) maligned '80s genre of the sword-and-sorcery movie (you'd be well advised to check out the likes of DEATHSTALKER and THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER instead of this uninspiring dreck) whose sole purpose seems to be to show as many naked women throughout the film as possible. But this isn't soft-core porn by any means; instead it's a low budget action epic, shot on the cheap in Argentina by a talentless bunch of guys who don't know two things about fight choreography (case in point: compare this film with a similar Shaw Brothers sword-fighting epic – no contest).

The film deserves note – and perhaps credit – for portraying some feisty and powerful female warriors who easily overthrow their male oppressors, but then proceed to turn this idea on its head by insisting that all of the female performers be naked or raped at one time or another. Although female torture, rape and molestation may sound unpleasant, rest assured that this film portrays the scenes as weakly and routinely as it can, without power.

Lana Clarkson ("I'll be no man's slave and no man's whore! And if I can't kill them all, by the Gods, they'll know I've tried!") is the Nordic beauty who leads a revolt against the aforementioned oppressors. I think these guys are meant to be Roman but you wouldn't guess, seeing as the costumes are so poor. Most of the film consists of drawn-out action sequences which are really poorly done and much less interesting than any Italian peplum from the '60s you could ever find. The middle section of the film consists of torture and contains an amusing scene of a guy being thrown into an acid bath, but that's about it.

Despite the inclusion of some muscular men in a gladiator battle, the excitement level is null. Expect to see lots of naked female flesh and some unwanted naked male flesh. Expect to see poor camera-work, shoddy and unconvincing gore effects and an utterly routine payoff for your time. Expect to see a level of film-making so cheap, unimaginative and unskilled that you can barely bother to watch the movie at all. Expect to see the sequel.

I was in college when this film was released and it really made an impression on me. Now, I'm not saying that it moved me to deep philosophical thinking. Rather, this movie is one that can be seen in fast-forward mode on your VCR and you won't miss a bit of the plot (which I'll give in a bit). The impression it made on me was one of Lana Clarkson, who plays the lead role, topless and tied to an upright rack while she's tortured with a needle by a smallish man with large glasses.

Now the reason she's there: Amathea (Lana Clarkson) was about to be married to the prince of her village when soldiers charge in and slaughter just about everyone. The prince is captured and Amathea escapes into the woods where she joins up with 3 other warriors. They plan to go to the city and rescue the prince. Along the way they manage to kill a few straggling soldiers, rescue a woman tied to fence who's topless and has been whipped, and make friends with rebels seeking to overthrow the local ruler. Amathea's sister allows herself to be captured by the ruler so that she can be his concubine and Amathea is captured while trying to rescue her. The king thinks Amathea is part of the rebel movement and orders her to be tortured until she identifies the rebel leaders. After the 5 minute torture scene, Amathea throws the torturer into a vat of acid and escapes, freeing the gladiators and the prince and creating a mediocre fight scene wherein the ruler is overthrown and the people are free.

Don't see this movie for the plot. Don't see it for the dialogue. You'll want to see it because the 4 main actresses in the film eventually have nude scenes in this order: rape, nipple play, wrestling, woman on the fence topless, rape, stripped topless, Lana's torture scene. The rape scenes are weak, the wrestling is short. I'm convinced that the only reason they made a sequel was to show Lana Clarkson on a rack again (see "Barbarian Queen II"). Unless you're into bad barbarian sword-and-sandle movies, mild rape, Lana Clarkson, and/or bondage, you can skip this movie. Me, I saw it for Lana Clarkson.

Almost typical female barbarian action with lots of swordplay and lousy plot. Allmost typical because the Mighty Female Barbarians are looking like big eyed, blond haired Hollywood bimbos. Well in my opinnion that's a winning combination.

I had the opportunity to sit down here late in 2020 and watch the 1985 adventure movie "Barbarian Queen" for the first time. And given my fascination with the fantasy genre, it was a bit odd that I hadn't even heard about this movie prior to now.

But given my unfamiliarity with "Barbarian Queen", I wasn't sure what I should be expecting from writer Howard R. Cohen and director Héctor Olivera. But I was sort of hoping for it to be akin to something you'd find in a Dungeons & Dragons game.

Alas, it was not. Nay, this movie was just another run-of-the-mill typical 1980s fantasy movie, where the women were either naked or scantily clad and the men were often buffoons and wielding large weapons. It wasn't exactly the recipe for a grand adventure.

And little did it help that the storyline felt like it had been concocted by some adolescent guy having discovered fantasy and writing the script from his mother's basement. There was a bit too much pointless nudity in the movie.

"Barbarian Queen" wasn't really an entertaining movie, nor was it an enjoyable adventure. Sure, I managed to sit through the entire movie, but my attention was only half there on the screen.

My rating of "Barbarian Queen" is a mere four out of ten stars. If you enjoy fantasy or sword and sorcery types of movies, then "Barbarian Queen" is not a movie that will bring you much joy. I sat through it, but I can guarantee you that I will never return to watch it a second time.

My discovery of B movie Barbarian Queen has to do with it is part of a four film collection of Roger Corman produced 80's sword and sorcery films. Why Deathstalker 3 and 4 are not included and this movie and The Warrior And The Sorceress are included instead is unknown. This film in question, Barbarian Queen is my least favorite of the four films and the one out of the four that does not have any fantasy elements. To be fair, it is more of an ancient world action picture and a true endurance test for me to get through beginning to end without falling asleep. Former Playboy model Lana Clarkson does look good here and so does the rest of the female cast. While this film does deliver the goods for maximum boobage, it is pretty much all it has going for it. Our story is set in Roman times, but the film does little to make it period correct or Roman. Lana Clarkson and friends unite to fight the evil empire, but mostly must avoid rape(and attempted rape) by fighting real stupid and horny men. Do not get me wrong, the Deathstalker films are totally ridiculous as well, but they pull off being entertaining where Barbarian Queen fails miserably at. Lana Clarkson appears in the first Deathstalker film to boot and has less screen time, but is much more memorable than she is here. I have no problem with women kicking ass, but this film is poor and I would have found my time better spent rewatching Red Sonja or episodes of Xena Warrior Princess.

Barbarian Queen is one of the cycle of sword and sandal flicks that were popular in the mid 80's. Back then the formula seemed to incorporate lots of sword fights and lots of semi naked girls. This flick certainly adheres to this principle that's for sure, especially the bit about the naked girls. In fact I guess if you were inclined towards political correctness you could label Barbarian Queen as a film that is a little bit sexist. But I myself am quite partial to salacious genre movies and I lapped this one up quite a bit. The story really isn't too important but suffice to say it features a group of Amazonian type women on a quest to get vengeance on a tribe of incredibly misogynistic men who opened up the movie by raping and murdering their people.

There's lots of sex and violence in this one. And for what it's worth, the breast count appeared to be astronomical as well. It's certainly a movie that delivers on its promise and that is certainly not a bad thing. Lana Clarkson plays the titular heroine with some gusto. She's pretty good in the action scenes as well as the nude ones. Of the latter there is a somewhat erotic scene where she is tied up in a torture chamber. Somewhat notably, she escapes from this seemingly doomed situation by defeating her jailer by way of a rather extreme application of the Cleopatra Grip (I'll let you look that one up!). You have to give a film marks for originality for the likes of this, that's for sure.

Barbarian Queen has a story and action that is by-the-numbers really but it gains points for gratuitous excess. They don't really seem to make them like this anymore and that is a bit of a shame.

Terrible, terrible, terrible movie, that came out during the outburst of Conan clones of the early to mid Eighties, based on a no-plot or always the same plot situation and plethora of good looking women, possibly naked and often raped, that eventually get their revenge and won the day. This one shows the beauty that was the late Lana Clarkson, already cast in several other movies of that kind, as a very unfortunate bride to be that saw her village devastated the day of her marriage and her sister and spouse ransomed by savages. She will have them back in the end, but after several efforts. Stupid, bad acted, with not enough nudes to really satisfy a voyeur and too much cartoonish violence. It is without a single redeeming quality. Avoid at all cost

The Barbarian Queen is Queen Amethea (Lana Clarkson), whose village is burned by evil warriors on the day of her prospective wedding, after which most of the people are killed or enslaved. She leads a group of rebels in opposition, including some women (like herself) whose forms fit well into the clothing of the day, and eventually leads an uprising by freeing the slaves. Not for its cultural or intellectual value at all, this film is most noteworthy for the women winning the swordfights with men but not faring so well if they are captured and/or enslaved. Nudity and bondage and fondling yes, but I have to say the most memorable scene occurs when Queen Amethea uses a unique method of escape after she has been captured and tied up in the warrior camp and is being fondled by one of her captors. Clear cut--for those who like this stuff yes, otherwise not much to offer.

41 seconds in and you have a topless woman. Thanks to Shout Factory this glorious entry into the 80's Sword and Sorcery trash cinema along with Amazons was just released on a Blu-ray double bill. All I can say is "Thank you." I remember watching this gem when it first came out, along with every other entry into the genre. Roger Corman, you sir were in integral part of my misspent teens. Is it complete garbage, yep but it's my type of garbage. Every single one of these Sword and Sorcery "films" are cinematic gold. Plain and simple. Scoff if you will but I bet I'm not alone.

After "Conan the Barbarian" became a surprise hit, there were literally dozens of imitations made of it, all across the budgetary range. As a fan of these types of movies (the "sword and sandal" genre), I have seen quite a few. Even in the most cheaply produced ones, I can point to at least something I liked in the movie.

However, with "Barbarian Queen", there is not a single good scene or even one bit of dialogue that distinguishes the film. An hour into the film, it still has not advanced beyond the "warrior women being pursued by lusty men--interspaced with swordfight scenes".

One of the most annoying things in the movie is the unconvincing nature of the lead actresses. Basically they are Playboy Playmates pretending to be Amazons. They can hardly lift a sword, and deliver unconvincing and wobbly strokes against men who are twice their size.

The music contains excerpts from other Corman films, like "Battle Beyond the Stars" and "Deathstalker". The costumes of the evil guards and soldiers (such as the headware) are lifted also from the latter film.

Of course, with a Corman-produced film you aren't expecting Ingmar Bergman-like quality. But even a low budget swordfest like "Deathstalker" was much more enjoyable than this. Zero effort seems to have been put into making even a passable script.

This movie is sure to put you to sleep.

After surviving a brutal attack on her village on the day of her wedding to a tribal prince (Frank Zagarino), a tough female warrior (the late Lana Clarkson) seeks revenge. With the help of two equally powerful warriors (Katt Shea, Susana Traverso), she recruits more rebels before taking the battle to an evil army led by an evil king (Arman Chapman).

Silly, poorly acted (and poorly dubbed) romp is loaded with action and gratuitous nudity (just about every female bares it all, including Clarkson). Nothing original here, except the heroine using her vagina as a weapon against one of her captors and he complains that she's "too tight." Trashy and entertaining at the same time. My evaluation: ** out of ****.

I reviewed the sequel to this film a while back so I thought what the hell, I might as well re-watch the first one and write a review for this as well. Anyways, Lana Clarksen stars as Amethea, all ready to marry Prince Argan. When all of a sudden Roman soldiers attack the peaceful village, kill the man and rape the woman and sell them as slaves. Amathea can't stand for that so she, and two other floozies...um...I mean "barbarians" seek out to avenge the town. Horribly acted, moronic action, and not even funny or amusing in a campy way. the bottom of the sword & sorcery barrel, fling this one in the dung heap along with it's sequel.

My Grade: F

Eye Candy: Lana Clarkson, Dawn Dunlap, Katt Shea, and Susana Traverso get topless

This film was the most horrific film I have seen in a long time. The flagrant sexist behaviour left so little to desire about this film, I got sick of seeing womens breasts and them getting raped I had to turn it off! My other half purchased it thinking it would be much like Conan or something along the lines of Zena, but as usual he should have known anything by Roger Corman is complete crap!! There is a minimal story line and the actors have no depth, even the trashiest of films has a basis to it this seemed to just have been made as an easy to get into the cinema soft porn film! I wouldn't recommend this to any one female unless you think womens bits are of any interest to you. Males will probably love it!

Another teenage fantasy film. As another review wrote 'they don't make them like this anymore'. That's because of Pornhub. They don't need to lol.

Its a wet dream of a movie and done well enough I guess :)

Nothing great.

Sort of, because there are also terrible things happening. So while this is Amazonians in Rome (not sure if that title has been used yet), there are still some questionable depictions of women gettind manhandled (not in a good way, if you can imagine a good way described that way).

But this also tries to get the best of everything and also even within the boundaries of nudity and fighting, have a decent overall statement - one would assume

(1985) Barbarian Queen ACTION ADVENTURE

Part European production that has Amathea (Lana Clarkson) who is about to get married to Aargon (Frank Zagarino) until her small village become attacked by marauders led by Lord Arrakur (Arman Chapman) taking with them are prisoners. After the invaders assume Amathea had died from the fire, she and her two swords women, Estrild (Katt Shea) and Tiniara (Susana Traverso) then goes on a saving rant, with the first person she saves is her sister Taramis (Dawn Dunlap).

Again, the action is unconvincing, the acting is second rate that looks like it takes a back seat to the nude scenes, which to some can be more entertaining than the movie itself.

This movie would've rated higher as a fun B-movie, as it's appropriately campy, hammy, and has some decent action, with a lot of pretty girls in the starring roles; unfortunately, Barbarian Queen suffers from a major, crippling flaw in the absolutely ridiculous amount of rape that occurs in the film. Considering that it's basically a medieval rape and revenge flick, plus the fact that it's a trashy 1980s movie, a single rape wouldn't be surprising to see. Yet all the major female characters are raped, forming a semi-regular interval of rather seedy and unpleasant sexual content throughout the film that the viewer can't put behind them. Watching a film with a bunch of women running around in amazon bikinis should be fun and sexy, but the constant, gratuitous rape just leaves you feeling dirty, despite the inevitable victory of the women in the film against their tormentors.

A decent pace, mildly amusing violence, entertaining if not accomplished acting, a rousing score (credited to James Horner and Christopher Young), and abundant female nudity mix in this fantasy action flick. It's really no more than average for the genre, but it does deliver the goods for undemanding fans of sword and sandal schlock.

Set during the days of the Roman Empire, it stars the buxom Lana Clarkson as Amethea, one of just a few survivors when her peaceful village is attacked. The men are killed, and the women likewise dispatched, or taken away to be slaves. Amethea teams up with her friend Estrild (played by future director Katt Shea) and the innocent Taramis (Dawn Dunlap) to take on the depraved bad guys, assisted by an underground rebel movement.

One has to give these filmmakers credit, as they know exactly what kind of movie they're making. The first shot of a womans' breasts occurs no more and no less than 37 seconds into the story, as two creeps aim to have their way with Taramis. Although there's not a great deal of actual story here, "Barbarian Queen" moves along fairly well and clocks in at an acceptable 72 minute run time. Things never get particularly gory, with doses of the red stuff being somewhat limited. The attractive cast all look very nice in their assorted skimpy costumes. The aforementioned score is pleasing, even if the compositions from Horner are lifted - in typical Roger Corman fashion - from the earlier "Battle Beyond the Stars".

Clarkson is an appealing heroine, and Shea does well as her equally strong friend. The studly Frank Zagarino is a decent hero. Armando Capo snarls adequately as our thoroughly evil antagonist, Arrakur. Tony Middleton is fun to watch as the torturer Zohar, in a sequence that's sure to delight viewers.

Filmed on location in Argentina, this can boast some respectable production value.

Six out of 10.

Set during the days of the Roman Empire. A simple village is raided by Roman troops, and most of the people are whisked off to be slaves or killed. Three women survive and set off to liberate their people. When they arrive at the Roman city, they team up with the local underground to seek vengeance and liberation of the slaves.

What do you get when you mix Roger Corman and Argentina? Apparently a bad knockoff of Conan the Barbarian. Not that this is all that terrible -- a group of tough women (before Xena came along) who take on the Romans. A little bit of butt-kicking...

The reason I have given this a lower mark than it might deserve is because I found the nudity to be gratuitous even by Corman's standards. The film opens with a sexual assault that can possibly be defended, as it kicks off the revenge plot. But the topless torture and random nudity continues throughout... it is clear the goal here was not to tell an adventure story, but merely to get women naked.

The only reason I can recommend this movie is if you want to see women showing off their tits. Sorry. I had to say it. There is nothing else worth watching here. Sloppy editing, bad acting (Lana Clarkson and Katt Shea shows their acting talents (both of them) and crap music. I have to admit that I fell asleep during the middle of this movie as well. I love sword-and-sorcery, adventure and fantasy movies but this is just tiresome. The story is promising enough (as a revenge flick), but the warrior women only manage to get captured every few minutes so that they can be tortured (topless, of course). Watch something else instead. Is it a sequel you say? Do you think that I'm going to watch it?