Melon Husk
Member
Honestly I'm getting like Dungeons & Dragons (2023) vibe from the trailer.
I'm going to give it a chance, as in and I won't forget it exists and I will check the reviews when it's out.
Red Sonja (2025)
- Thread starter Stitch
- Start date
I'm going to give it a chance, as in and I won't forget it exists and I will check the reviews when it's out.
Dr. Samuel Hayden
Member
Looks like it had a budget of $50
SupaComputa
Member
So it's a shitty version of Conan basically? edit: trailer from 1985 looks better.
Last edited:
To be fair Red Sonja was never in a Robert Howard Conan story, he wrote her in a historical renaissance story. It was the comics that created a version of her as a contemporary of Conan. So she is more of a sexy female analog than anything. But, like Conan, the key to her is the sense of freedom and self-agency, backed up by her sword arm. And so you need an actress that can be convincing as a sword wielding wrecking machine. In comics you can get away with this
but in live action you really need an attractive but really fit woman, which is very hard to find in Hollywood. Something like prime Jessica Biel.
SupaComputa
Member
I think I'm just tired of the tone of fantasy movies, it's been the same for decades now. The D&D one kinda veered from that, but it was a fluke apparently.
Last edited:
So I found this 1983 amazon/barbarian flick off amazon, VERY MUCH a proto Red Sonja. It's called Hundra, and it looks and feels so much like a lower budget Conan the Barbarian/Destroyer that it wouldn't surprise me if they filmed this thing on the left over sets. Same frosty forest, blighted desert hills, etc. Even the music was similar, so it was no surprise to see that Ennio Morricone did the score, though he didn't give it his A game, or even B game TBH.
The plot is pure Conan/Red Sonja. Barbarian tribe (in this case they lifted it straight from the greek amazons and dumped it in 'not quite cimmeria') gets wiped out by nomadic raiders, lone survivor has to have as many kids as possible to rebuild her tribe so she goes on a type of husband search. And yes, this is as sleazy as you think coming from early 80's italian filmmaking. Lots of very young actresses in skimpy clothes and often getting stripped down (in one case, as the woman fights off attackers and loses, having her clothes ripped off, the closed captioning subtitles pop up with the VERY poor word choice of "Child screams", YIKES! WTF!!). But these flicks have a charm that more modern attempts just can't match, maybe its the VHS quality (lack of) film resolution, or the campy but serious nature of it, or how they can really load up on the background extras because they were dirt cheap to use back then, so there is a sense of the world even though you never get any kind of panoramic sweeping view of any place.
There are some amusing commentaries about male/female relations, reminds me a lot of the John Norman Gor novels (the film adaptations never do these justice) with the campfire philosophizing about whether women are happier being slaves and what makes you free versus domesticated.
But the lead actress is a tall, willowy woman who must have had a pretty good athletic background because she can pick up guys and toss them around pretty good. So if you just gotta have your Red Sonja fix and can squint a little to turn blonde hair into red, this ain't a bad one to watch.
The plot is pure Conan/Red Sonja. Barbarian tribe (in this case they lifted it straight from the greek amazons and dumped it in 'not quite cimmeria') gets wiped out by nomadic raiders, lone survivor has to have as many kids as possible to rebuild her tribe so she goes on a type of husband search. And yes, this is as sleazy as you think coming from early 80's italian filmmaking. Lots of very young actresses in skimpy clothes and often getting stripped down (in one case, as the woman fights off attackers and loses, having her clothes ripped off, the closed captioning subtitles pop up with the VERY poor word choice of "Child screams", YIKES! WTF!!). But these flicks have a charm that more modern attempts just can't match, maybe its the VHS quality (lack of) film resolution, or the campy but serious nature of it, or how they can really load up on the background extras because they were dirt cheap to use back then, so there is a sense of the world even though you never get any kind of panoramic sweeping view of any place.
There are some amusing commentaries about male/female relations, reminds me a lot of the John Norman Gor novels (the film adaptations never do these justice) with the campfire philosophizing about whether women are happier being slaves and what makes you free versus domesticated.
But the lead actress is a tall, willowy woman who must have had a pretty good athletic background because she can pick up guys and toss them around pretty good. So if you just gotta have your Red Sonja fix and can squint a little to turn blonde hair into red, this ain't a bad one to watch.
Hawk The Slayer
Member
Love the 80s Red Sonja movie, Doubt this one would be as fun but still gonna give it a chance.
