Line #40 Film/Sorceress


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4	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sorceress.jpg]]
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6	''Sorceress'' has the dubious honor of being the first of many HeroicFantasy films produced by Creator/RogerCorman in TheEighties to [[FollowTheLeader capitalize on the popularity of fantasy films]] in the wake of ''Film/{{Conan the Barbarian\|1982}}''.
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8	Filmed in Mexico by ''Film/{{Coffy}}'' and ''Film/SwitchbladeSisters'' writer/director Jack Hill, he claimed to have taken inspiration for the basic story from ''The Corsican Brothers'' and wrote the script with future ''Film/ChoppingMall'' and ''Film/DeathstalkerIIDuelOfTheTitans'' writer/director Jim Wynorski.
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10	''Sorceress'' is historically notable as Wynorski's first professional screen writing credit and Hill's last film. [[WordOfGod Reportedly]] Hill and Corman argued over the budget for the film, with Hill claiming Corman failed to deliver the money promised for filming. Coupled with the shooting made more difficult by flooding and a fire, Hill refused to work with Corman again, demanded his name be taken off the picture and retired from film-making afterward.
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12	The plot centers on EvilSorcerer Traigon, who in order to maintain his powers has to [[HumanSacrifice offer up his first-born child]] to his demonic master. His wife has other ideas, however, and escapes after giving birth to twin girls, [[PlotTwist a complication that momentarily stalls]] Traigon since he can't tell which child is the oldest and [[FridgeLogic he can't just sacrifice them both, for some reason]]. The twins, Mara and Mira, are entrusted to the loyal warrior Krona, who promises to keep the girls safe, raise them as his own children and teach them the art of war.
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14	20 years later, we discover that Krona elected to [[RaisedAsTheOppositeGender raise the girls as boys]] and that they have grown up into ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' Playmates Leigh and Lynette Harris. Despite growing up on a farm, they've never learned the difference between boys and girls and, more disturbingly, nobody doubts their word that they are two burly farm boys until they take their shirts off! Left all alone in the world after Traigon killed their adopted family, The Twins fall in with a BarbarianHero named Elrick ([[Literature/TheElricSaga not THAT one]]!), a Viking named Valadar and a satyr named Pando who help them to avenge their families, not knowing that they are plotting to kill their birth father!
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16	----
17	!!This film provides examples of:
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19	* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: Robert Ballesteros plays antagonist Traigon both when his daughters are newborn infants and then two decades later, after they're aged up. Both the actresses (twins Lynette and Leigh Harris) are only two years younger, which is glaringly obvious in the film. This ''might'' be [[SupernaturallyYoungParent due to his magic keeping him young]]: that's not shown though.
20	* ActionGirl: The twins both have been trained as warriors. Both of them are good with a sword. Also, their mother stabbed their father to save them from him, so perhaps it runs in the family.
21	* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: Mara and Mira are completely identical to each other. They were played by real identical twin actresses, ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' Playmates Leigh and Lynette Harris.
22	* AmbiguousGenderIdentity: Mara and Mira were [[RaisedAsTheOppositeGender raised as boys]] for protection against [[ArchnemesisDad their own birth father]], who wanted to [[HumanSacrifice sacrifice his firstborn]]. Due to this, both of them wholly identify as being male initially, completely oblivious that it might be otherwise (somehow, they don't even know their anatomy is female). Even by the end of the film it's still not clear if they see themselves as men, women or something else.
23	* AnArmAndALeg: Multiple characters lose arms or hands. One as punishment for theft, most in sword fights.
24	* ArchnemesisDad: Traigon is the mortal enemy of his daughters Mara and Mira, since he plans to sacrifice the eldest for power.
25	* ArrowCatch: The twins do this while fighting Traigon's {{mooks}}.
26	* CoordinatedClothes: Up until near the end of the movie, the twins dress exactly alike.
27	* CoversAlwaysLie: Both the original film poster and the video box art. One depicts a SexyScandinavian blonde in a ChainmailBikini, while the other shows a sultry brunette in a thong. Neither of these women appear in the movie, [[NeverTrustATitle nor does any woman resembling a sorceress]].
28	* DealWithTheDevil: Traigon made one with the evil god Caligura for more power-he has to sacrifice his own firstborn. It doesn't deter him in the least.
29	* EvilSorcerer: Traigon, so much that he planned to sacrifice his own child for power.
30	* FanserviceExtra: The scantily clad dancers, some of whose breasts come out from their very sheer clothing.
31	* HappilyAdopted: The twins were raised by a loving peasant foster father whom their birth mother entrusted them with.
32	* HeelFaceTurn: Of all things, by Traigon's ape-thing minion, who switches sides near the climax.
33	* HornyVikings: Baldar's helmet sports 2 longhorns plus one sticking up in the middle!
34	* HumanSacrifice: Traigon promises his oldest child's soul for mystic power.
35	* InnocentFanserviceGirl: Both Mira and Mara are completely ignorant as to why Pando is so interested in watching them bathe... and what that strange horn between his legs is!
36	* InternalReveal: The audience knows Traigon is the twins' father right from the beginning. Mira doesn't though until much later. It's left unclear if Mara ever learns.
37	* LoveableSexManiac: Pando, a satyr and [[ThePeepingTom peeping tom]] who's nonetheless on the good guys' side.
38	* LukeIAmYourFather: Traigon tells Mira his name when she's brought before him. She reacts violently, knowing that he's the one who killed her mother, but then is shocked when he reveals that he's her father.
39	* MamaBear: The twins' mother not only refuses to tell their father which was born first so he can't [[HumanSacrifice sacrifice his firstborn]], but stabs him with a magical spear after he's wounded her, resulting in him being banished for twenty years, before dying of her injury, after putting the twins in a peasant's safekeeping. By doing so she saves them both from him.
40	* MsFanservice: The first time we see Mara and Mira grown up, they're SkinnyDipping. Later they take off their shirts innocently, and Mira is shown partly topless once more.
41	* NaiveButSkilled: The twins are great warriors but they've never left the farm they grew up on. They're ignorant as to how the world works... and as to the physical differences between boys and girls.
42	* NeverTrustATitle: There isn't a single sorceress in the whole movie. Instead, there's the main villain, a ''[[EvilSorcerer sorcerer]]'' (though the title could be interpreted as an alternate spelling of "Sorcerous").
43	* OffingTheOffspring: Traigon planned to sacrifice his own firstborn to gain magical power, though his wife had other ideas. She gave birth to twins, and prevented his plan by concealing which was born first. He later captures them years after they were put in hiding, and tries to again.
44	* {{Patricide}}: Mara kills Traigon, her birth father, in the finale.
45	* RaisedAsTheOppositeGender: Mara and Mira are brought up as boys, a deception which continues until the girls are 20 years old, since having been raised male they truly identify that way at first. Apparently the opposite idea never even ''occurred'' to them, or was brought up by any other person until they met Baldar and Erlick. They're even oblivious to the physical differences of the sexes. Even by the end of the film it's not really clear that either of them grasped it, and they may still identify themselves as male.
46	* RecycledSoundtrack: Music/JamesHorner's music from ''Film/BattleBeyondTheStars'' turns up again in an unrelated Roger Corman production.
47	* ShoutOut: On the poster above, the phrase "An age undreamed of" comes from Mako's prologue to ''Film/{{Conan the Barbarian\|1982}}''.
48	--->"Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of..."
49	** Baldar's sword is basically identical to Conan's Atlantean sword.
50	* SkinnyDipping: The twins are engaged in this when we first see them as adults.
51	* SorcerousOverlord: {{Evil sorcerer}} Traigon rules over a domain where from what little we see executions and torture of his citizens are ubiquitous. He plans to gain further power by sacrificing his firstborn child.
52	* SuccubiAndIncubi: Pando is a satyr, but he certainly looks and acts like a traditional goat-legged demon.
53	* SwordAndSorcery: The film is another ''[[Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982 Conan]]'' imitator, with the twist that it takes much inspiration from ''The Corsican Brothers'', featuring twin sisters [[RaisedAsTheOppositeGender raised as boys]] who have to prevent [[ArchnemesisDad their own birth father]], who's an EvilSorcerer, from [[HumanSacrifice sacrificing the eldest]] to gain more power from his master, a dark god.
54	* {{Synchronization}}: As in ''The Corsican Brothers'', when one twin feels physical pain, so does the other. The same principle applies to sexual pleasure, as well...
55	* TheTalk: Baldar tries to explain where babies come from to the twins, as they somehow don't know. It's revealed they believe they're given by a god. Although aware where baby animals come from, they don't know this applies to humans.
56	* TwinThreesomeFantasy: Erlick's apparent reward for helping the twins.
57	* TheUnintelligible: Pando the satyr communicates via bleating and squealing sounds, and sometimes seems to use his pan pipes too. On the villainous side there's an ape... creature, who grunts and hoots.
58	* UnpleasantParentReveal: Mira is deeply dismayed when Traigon, who killed her mother and foster father, reveals that he's in fact her birth father.
59	* YouKilledMyFather: The twins Mara and Mira swore revenge on the evil sorcerer who killed their mother and foster father (but don't realize that ''he's'' actually their birth father). At the end, Mara succeeds in killing him.

Context Film / Sorceress