Conquest (1983) Review

 A young man must battle monsters and mutants on his journey to fulfil his destiny with a magic bow which fires blue arrows of light.

Director Lucio Fulci takes the Conan the Barbarian (1982), Clash of the Titians (1981) and La guerre du feu, Quest for Fire (1981) copy-cat films to the extreme, making the likes of Throne of Fire, Ator, The Sword of the Barbarians, The Sword and the Sorcerer and a flurry of other early 1980s similar films look tame with his surreal, dark, fantasy exploitation offering.

There's plenty of atmosphere in the caves, barbarian marshlands courteous of cinematographer Alejandro Ulloa using fog machines and a soft-focus. It's staple Fulci, plenty of zooming camera movements, there some wonderful imagery, who pulls no punches in terms of nudity and head bashing. There's wolf people, little monsters, creatures, dolphins along with crucifixion, blood, gore, masked mayhem and violence. That's said, there's some lighter moments between the leads. Mexican actor Jorge Rivero has plenty of screen presence as warrior Mace who helps Illias played by Andrea Occhipinti on his journey. Occhipinti coasts his way through, if somewhat over shadowed by Rivero, reminiscent of animated film (released of the same year) Fire and Ice’s characters. Conrado San Martín is notable as Zora. Sabrina Siani's screen time is limited and she is masked as Ocron. Unfortunately, hiding Siani's face in a golden mask while it offers some mystique is a debatably oversight by Fulci.

It's hampered by the typical issue with Italian films of the time, poor dubbing, editing, clunky script, iffy effects, over the top sound design and the like; but it's what gives these films that je ne sais quoi. Claudio Simonetti delivers a dreamy melodic score perfectly in keeping with Fulci's on screen quest shenanigans. To compare it to Fulci's City of the Living Dead or The Beyond would be unfair given the entirely different genre. There's a standout marsh-zombie sequence to appease Zombie Flesh Eaters fans. To the fist-full of writer's credit there's some genuinely surprising and interesting story beats.

Overall, it's a B-film, Spanish-Italian-Mexican surreal fantasy of its time and you're unlikely to see anything like it again. It's a dream for Fulci and arthouse fantasy fans. Overall, it’s a B-film, Spanish-Italian-Mexican surreal fantasy of its time and you’re unlikely to see anything like it again. It’s a dream for Fulci and arthouse fantasy fans.