Director – Hector Olivera, Screenplay – Howard R. Cohen, Producers – Frank Isaacs & Alex Sessa, Photography – Rudy Donovan, Music – James Horner & Chris Young, Makeup/Special Effects – Arny Alfieri & Willy Smith, Art Direction – Julia Bertram. Production Company – Rodeo Productions, Inc..
Cast
Lana Clarkson (Amethea), Katt Shea (Estrild), Dawn Dunlap (Taramis), Frank Zagarino (Prince Argan), Susana Traverso (Tiniara), Arman Chapmn (Arrakur), Andrea Scriven (Dariac), Victor Bo (Strymon)
Plot
Amethea is preparing for her marriage to Prince Argan when the village is raided by the warlord Arrakur. Argan and most of the villagers are either captured or slaughtered, while Amethea’s sister Taramis is raped. Amethea puts up a fierce fight but is defeated and left to be burned alive in a hut. Surviving, Amethea gathers several of the other girls and sets out to free her people and bring Arrakur down.
With the success of Conan the Barbarian (1982), the early 1980s brought a spate of B-budget sword-and-sorcery films. These ranged from the decently budgeted such as The Beastmaster (1982) and Krull (1983), but were mostly on the cheap side such as Hawk the Slayer (1980), The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982) and the Italian Ator films. Barbarian Queen was one of several B-budget sword-and-sorcery films made by Roger Corman’s New Horizons production company during this era that were shot in Argentina, including also Deathstalker (1983), The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984) and Wizards of the Lost Kingdom (1984), all produced and sometimes directed by Hector Olivera.
Barbarian Queen is okay as one of these low-budget sword-and-sorcery films go. It has been produced on a noticeably low-budget – Frank Zagarino is a prince with a kingdom that seems to only extend to a small village, although there is a decent looking city built later in the show. There are some vigorously directed swordfight sequences where the respective actresses thrown themselves into the action with a good deal of energy. There is the odd modern phrase that seems out of place – people in a mythic kingdom talking about going for ‘lunch’ and meeting on ‘Sunday’. For a film that falls within sword-and-sorcery genre, there is a lot of sword but zero sorcery – indeed, give the film an historical setting and it would have no trouble acting as a purely mundane work.
Barbarian Queen came out three months before Red Sonja (1985), the companion piece to the Conan films with Brigitte Nielsen as Robert E. Howard’s warrior woman. This makes it one of the first in the sword-and-sorcery genre to visit the warrior woman trope, although Hundra (1983) had been there earlier. Ahead still would be the smash success of tv’s Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001).
(l to r) Amethea (Lana Clarkson) and Estrild (Katt Shea)
Lana Clarkson was a model who had earlier been in Deathstalker and would go on to appear in several films for Roger Corman. Her greater notoriety today came in 2003 when she was shot by record producer Phil Spector, who was later convicted for her murder. She was aged only 40. The drawback of the casting of Clarkson is that she plays a Red Sonja/Xena role more as a standard Malibu beach bunny/Playboy model who has been cast as a warrior queen rather than someone who lives and breathes the part and simply lacks the presence required.
The more interesting name in the cast is Katt Shea who plays Lana Clarkson’s off-sider. Katt Shea, also known as Katt Shea Ruben, later became a director, also under Roger Corman’s aegis, with Stripped to Kill (1987) and Dance of the Damned (1989), before going on to the likes of Streets (1990), Poison Ivy (1992) and The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999). Frank Zagarino found a certain fame as a B movie action heavy, particularly in Project Shadowchaser (1992) and sequels.
The sequel was Barbarian Queen II: The Empress Strikes Back (1990), featuring a return performance from Lana Clarkson.
Director Hector Olivera made one other sword-and-sorcery film for Corman with Wizards of the Lost Kingdom, as well as produced Deathstalker and The Warrior and the Sorceress and subsequently returned to work in his native Argentina.
