Lucio Fulci is a man known for his horror movies and more specifically his zombie movies. If you take a closer look at his filmography you will see that he has also tried his hand at a number of other subjects including the western (Four Of The Apocalypse), post-apocalyptic action (The New Gladiators), and gangster (Contraband) genres. Following the success of Conan The Barbarian, Fulci and many of his peers provided entries to the sword and sorcery genre. While this is definitely not his forte, Fulci still gives us a unique take on this type of film and even manages to incorporate his beloved zombies at one point.

Andrea Occhipinti stars as Ilias, a rather wimpy looking warrior who is sent by his people to rid the land of evil or something like that. He is armed with a magical bow and arrow and wanders around for a while (hence his nickname 'the wanderer') until he eventually rescues a girl from a snake. In the process of doing so, he is attacked by a group of barbarians and werewolf-like creatures that look like they are wearing cheap Chewbacca Halloween costumes. There are the henchmen of an evil witch named Ocron (Sabrina Sellers) who wants Ilias dead. Ilias is saved by a cool-guy nomad named Mace who dispatches the creatures and joins him on his journey. Eventually, Ocron rubs snakes on herself to summon an assassin named Zora (Conrado San Martin) to take out Iliad. The rest of the film has our heroes battling Zora, more Chewbacca-men, some swamp zombies in a short sequence, and even a gang of cobweb covered green-eyed creatures that look like they should have been on "Land of the Lost".

Everyone from Jack Hill to Don Coscarelli had entries into the short-lived sword-and-sandal craze with varying results. I found Fulci's entry to be a somewhat strange film that had me wondering what was going on a lot of the time. Creatures kept appearing and disappearing out of nowhere. Some creatures had the ability to turn into animals and there didn't appear to be many rules as to how anyone could be killed. A Beastmaster influence was evident as Mace had the ability to communicate with animals as "they are his only friends" (even though he has no problem eating them for dinner). The fight sequences with the wolfmen (who had a strange pig-like quality) were poorly choreographed and mainly consisted of shots of the wolves leaping in the air in slow motion like The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night. The other action scenes were just more jumping, grabbing, with the occasional blow to the head. No kung-fu antics here, just boring and confusing free-for-alls.

With all the wandering and boring action sequences, what's to like? Well, Sellers spends the whole film wearing only a g-string and a golden mask. Similar to her performance in White Cannibal Queen, she didn't have to do too much other than look hot which was alright by me as at least there was something interesting to look at. There were a few gory sequences that you would expect from a Fulci film including a couple of decapitations, some brain bashings, and a woman being ripped apart like a wishbone by the wolfmen. This was a brief sequence that could have been a lot nastier but we still got some intestines-a-spillin'. Fulci did his signature close-ups of nastiness especially during a sequence where one of the main characters is covered in pus-filled boils that start leaking. I have also never seen a body in a funeral pyre burned in extreme close-up so that we could see the flesh melting off the bones. Some other strange sequences include an underwater rescue by dolphins and a bit of cannibalism when Ocron cracks open a skull and starts slurping on the brains. The score by Claudio Simonetti (of Goblin fame) was a little too much like an annoying soundscape for my liking although things became a little more rocking once the zombies showed up.

As far as sword and sorcery films go, this is one that you can do without. If you are curious about Fulci's slow and surreal vision, knock yourself out but don't be expecting much as far as plot or action go. This one had a few moderately interesting parts but as a whole, was pretty bad.

Occhipinti was also in Fulci's The New York Ripper and Lamberto Bava's A Blade In The Dark. Jorge Rivero starred in Rio Lobo with John Wayne. (Josh Pasnak, 10/21/06)

Directed By: Lucio Fulci.
Written By: Gino Capone, Jose Antonio de la Loma, Carlos Vasallo.

Starring: Jorge Rivero, Andrea Occhipinti, Sabrina Sellers, Conrado San Martin.