Barbarian Queen

• (Also known as Queen of the Naked Steel)
• Directed by Héctor Olivera
• April 26, 1985 (US)

A warrior and a few companions go on a mission to free her people from a brutal monarch who destroyed her village and enslaved her people.

There were plenty of low budget fantasy films in the wake of Conan the Barbarian. So many so that I find it doubtful any one person could or would watch them all. Some try to be quality despite clear limitations. Others like Barbarian Queen relied on copious amounts of topless hot women to get people to watch. Very copious.

It’s your basic story of revenge. A villainous ruler captures a village of some of the most beautiful people you will find to be his slaves. Those that escaped set out upon a path of revenge. Solid though generic basis for any story. But the acting is atrocious. I really think if they had better actors/actresses in this they could’ve completely skipped the heavy bare boobs in order to get people to watch. This would’ve easily moved into guilty pleasure/Cult Classic territory. Never a big hit but very worshiped by a passionate group.

While it tries for a feminist/female empowerment veneer with the women saving the day and doing most of the action, that thin facade falls away quite easily when you encounter the barely existing clothing on the female characters as well as the rape and the aforementioned excessive nudity. It is often an excuse to feel better over the nudity.

Weirdly Barbarian Queen has a good story. I cannot stress that enough. And the execution is competent. Poor decisions common in the era aside, it’s a little cheesy as well as a little silly at points. Maybe it’s because it has help from James Horner in the music department the movie is lifted up a touch. How he got tied up with this I don’t know, but the man was a film music legend. You can certainly tell his work in here from the other person. It’s similar, but not quite as good.

The sets are better than I expected. And the costuming (when it actually tries) is fantastic and can look as if it was yanked straight from a Frank Frazetta painting. While the women are scantily clad, it’s not that they are just in cave girl or eagle’s nest bikinis. The costume designer dressed up things a little bit when possible in a way that said they had some ability but were held back. Barbarian Queen is a weird combination of high quality and appealing to the lowest common denominator. Boobs galore on quality sets with quality costumes in a story that really didn’t need all the boobage.

The battle scenes are far better done than one would expect from a movie like this. They are well choreographed and frenetic and just great to watch. And they all come off as believable. At least they look like the characters are fighting. All the actresses can handle the physicality of the film if not necessarily the dialogue.

I am left with a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand, based on solid music, a good story idea, and well-done action scenes I would like to recommend that you watch Barbarian Queen. On the other hand, based on bad acting and unnecessary boobs I kind of want to say skip it. It’s not a guilty pleasure but it’s also not total trash. If your curiosity is piqued proceed with caution.