Lucio Fulci gives us a blood-drenched mushroom trip in Hyperborea...
This week on Weirdhouse Cinema, we dive into Lucio Fulci's 1983 fantasy film Conquest -- a thoroughly weird movie that certainly has its place within the larger, interconnected cannon of fantasy and peplum films, but also stands its own mysterious ground.
I think this movie needs a disclaimer at the beginning:
“The film you are about to experience is a dream.”
Because there is indeed a strong dreamlike quality to the film. The picture is hazy, as if viewed through a mist – an effect generated via smoke machines and a soft focus lens filter. The narrative is strange and, despite the trappings of genre and obvious cinematic inspirations, difficult to predict. The gore too, as with most Fulci movies, is surreal and presents a kind of fixation on the fragility of flesh. There are magic and monsters. Alien voices, dreams within dreams and while I’ll be the first to admit this movie isn’t for quite everyone, I feel like it draws me in with hypnotic power.
Watching this film is like exposing yourself to a religious text from an alternate dimension. To be sure, it’s an Italian B-movie – technically a Mexican/Spanish/Italian production – with many of the expected budgetary constraints, and so it has all of those charms. You can certainly have a laugh at a lot of what’s going on. But there feels like there's a hidden scripture beneath everything on screen. It's not for everyone! But I love it.
As we mention in the episode, the score to Conquest by synth legend and Goblin keyboardist Claudio Simonetti is excellent. There's a great vinyl release of the score from Rustblade Records, but you can also stream most of the tracks online:
NOTE: We previously covered Lucio Fulci's The House by the Cemetery on Weirdhouse Cinema.
What's next on Weirdhouse Cinema? We're working on that. Maybe more 80s fantasy, maybe 50s sci-fi or maybe 30s horror. In the meantime, be sure to check out the merch store and follow us on Letterboxd! All the movies we've covered are listed there in our list and you can click "read notes" to get links to the individual episodes posted here.
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