Film

Conquest

Name: Conquest
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Action, Horror
Released: 1983
Cast: Jorge Rivero, Andrea Occhipinti, Sabrina Siani, Conrado San Martín, Gioia Scola

A 1983 Italian fantasy-adventure where a young warrior with a magical bow battles a witch in a fever-dream landscape of practical effects and dubbing. It's pure genre pulp—earnest, weird, unafraid to be strange. For anyone who loves 80s sword-and-sorcery that has no interest in irony or narrative sense, just raw visual invention and commitment.

TMDb rating

2.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you relish strange, lurid sword-and-sorcery where the quest feels like a fever dream, the monsters are handmade, and the gore arrives without apology.

Skip it if you want tight plotting or a steady pace, since the story wanders from one set piece to the next and its sense of logic is loose.

What it asks of you: Under an hour and a half, it moves in lurches, so it rewards patience with spectacle more than with character.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Conan the Barbarian1982

Schwarzenegger carving through a mythology built on weight and muscle. Milius directs with the gravity of a religious text, and the score is unforgettable. A template-setter that earned every minute of its runtime.

But Two and a half hours, and the plot is deliberately simple. If you need the story to move fast or make emotional sense, you'll feel the drag.

The Beastmaster1982

Marc Singer and a menagerie of animals against sorcerors and slave traders. Silly, colorful, committed to its own strangeness. It knows exactly what it is and never apologizes.

But The acting is wooden, the script serviceable, and the animal scenes are the real draw. If you need strong performances, this will test your patience.

Krull1983

Released the same year as Conquest, it's a grander vision of the same impulse—alien invasion via fantasy logic, Roy Dotrice, Tom Lister's magnificent hair. Lyrical and truly strange in its aesthetic.

But The plot stops making sense around the forty-minute mark. The editing can be choppy and the tonal shifts abrupt. Commit or don't; it won't wait for you.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Conquest

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Häxan1922

Both are unafraid of witches as genuine horror rather than plot device; both build worlds through practical effects and commitment to strangeness rather than sense.

Benjamin Christensen's silent essay on witchcraft blends documentary, recreation, and fever-dream imagery. It's the ancestor of everything—brutal, beautiful, genuinely disturbing. No contemporary fantasy film exists without its shadow.

But It's a silent film from 1922 without conventional narrative. It can feel remote or tedious if you're expecting plot momentum. Some imagery is genuinely disturbing, including real animals in distress.

The Sword and the Sorcerer1982

A three-bladed sword, practical gore, and unapologetic B-movie energy. It wants to be Conan's scrappy younger sibling and succeeds on sheer audacity and visible stunt work.

But The dialogue is clunky, the pacing lumpy. It's made on half the budget and shows it in almost every scene. Only watch if low-budget commitment appeals to you.

Sorceress1982

Jack Hill directs this shapeshifting fantasy romp—practical effects, a wandering narrative, genuine invention. It has the texture of a genuine oddity, not a slick reproduction of one.

But It's poorly dubbed, occasionally incoherent, and zero concern for plot coherence. If you need your stories to track logically, this will aggravate you.

The Dark Crystal1982

Jim Henson and Frank Oz build an entire world from puppetry and matte painting. The design is hypnotic, the ambition staggering. A one-of-a-kind object in cinema.

But It's deliberately slow and meditative. The characters are ciphers. If you're looking for pace or character development, you're watching the wrong film.

Dragonslayer1981

Matthew Robins makes a grittier, more grounded fantasy—a dragon that feels real, practical effects that convince. Caitlin Clarke and Peter MacNicol in a world with actual consequences.

But It's more understated than the others here, less visually outrageous. If you came for baroque excess, you'll find this restrained and slow.

Clash of the Titans1981

Harryhausen's stop-motion creatures against classical mythology. The score by Laurence Rosenthal is magnificent, and the Medusa sequence is unforgettable cinema, genuinely unsettling.

But Dated creature effects, stiff performances, and a plot that exists mainly to showcase the monsters. The dialogue is often wooden and the pacing uneven.

Eolomea1972

An obscure East German space-fantasy that predates Star Wars, built on miniatures and earnest world-building. A document of a strange moment in science fiction, genuinely inventive within its constraints.

But It's slow, poorly distributed, and often hard to find. The plot is abstract and the acting distant. Only for those interested in science fiction archaeology.

Venom1981

Both are movies that feel like they're operating under their own logic—where plot coherence matters less than the sheer texture of moment-to-moment image and action.

Klaus Kinski, Sterling Hayden, and Sterling Hayden's parrot in a hostage film that stops making plot sense halfway through. It's an anomaly—a mainstream release that feels like a fever dream. Claustrophobic and genuinely bizarre.

But It abandons its own premise repeatedly. The tonal shifts are jarring. It's neither thriller nor character study but something it doesn't have the budget to fully become. Deeply frustrating if you want coherence.

The Holy Mountain1973

Both privilege visual strangeness and genuine unease over narrative satisfaction; both feel like the fever dreams of their creators, indifferent to whether the audience follows.

Jodorowsky's surrealist fantasy where narrative dissolves into symbol and spectacle. No budget could contain what he was trying; it feels made by someone from another dimension. Genuinely visionary, formally wild, unforgettable.

But There is no plot. Scenes of graphic violence, animal death, and sexual imagery. It's deliberately provocative and uncommercial. If you need sense or comfort, do not approach this.