Barbarian Queen is one of the many Heroic Fantasy films produced by Roger Corman in The '80s to capitalize on the popularity of fantasy films in the wake of Conan the Barbarian. Released in April of 1985, it was the third such movie that Corman produced in Argentina.
Word of God is that the movie was written to give a starring role to Lana Clarkson, who had proven quite popular and impressed Roger Corman himself in a minor role as the woman warrior Kaira in the original Deathstalker
. Given the timing of the film's release, it seems likely that it was also meant to capitalize on that summer's release of the 1985 Red Sonja movie.
The movie opens on a barbarian village where Amethea is about to wed Argan. Busy with preparations for the wedding, the villagers are caught off-guard when they are attacked by Lord Arrakur. The village is completely destroyed, with the male survivors recruited as gladiators for the arena and the women - including Amethea's younger sister, Taramis - being taken for Lord Arrakur's harem.
Joined by her handmaiden Estrild and fellow warrior Tiniara, Amethea sets off on a quest to rescue her people and avenge the destruction of their home. Along the way to Arrakur's city, they attack an outpost where they discover a seemingly traumatized Taramis. Once in the city, they meet up with a rag-tag group of rebels, agreeing to help them as best they can.
Unfortunately, things go wrong after Estrild attracts the attention of two guards and Taramis turns herself in to Lord Arrakur. The rest of the team are captured after that and Arrakur becomes obsessed with breaking Amethea even as Taramis becomes his new favorite plaything. Eventually, Amethea and Estrild both win free and are able to contact the rebels. The movie ends with most of the gladiators joining the rebels in fighting a coordinated battle against Lord Arrakur and his men, with Amethea leading the rebels in some simply Stripperiffic "armor".
This film provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Amethea and Tiniara.
- More literally, Dariac - the young girl who guides Amethea and her friends into the city.
- Amazonian Beauty: Amethea.
- Artful Dodger: Dariac.
- Bad Ass Boast: “I’ll be no man’s slave and no man’s whore. And if I can’t kill them all, by the gods they’ll know I’ve tried.”
- Barbarian Hero: Amethea.
- Big Bad: Lord Arrakur.
- Big Eater: Estrild. She is always eating and always hungry.
- Covers Always Lie: Par for the course with Corman's fantasy films. There's only four women in Amethea's band and two of them - Estrild and Taramis - aren't exactly warriors. And while their clothing is impractical, it's not that skimpy!
- Doomed Hometown: Amethea's village.
- Evil Army: Lord Arrakur's men.
- Evil Overlord: Lord Arrakur.
- Faux Action Girl: Estrild. Despite supposedly being a barbarian she is... not a capable fighter would be the most polite way of putting it.
- Go-Go Enslavement: Most of the harem girl costumes.
- Happiness in Slavery: For a time, it seems like Taramis is a willing slave to Lord Arrakur.
- The Hero: Amethea.
- Job Title: Barbarian Queen
- La Résistance: The rebels trying to bring down Lord Arrakur.
- Murderous Thighs: In the unrated cut of the movie, it is clear that Amethea squeezes the torturer that is trying to rape her into submission between her legs.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Amethea's entire quest.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Amethea.
- Sex Slave: The fate of all the village women Lord Arrakur captures, plus any attractive woman in his city who catches the eyes of his guards.
- Shell-Shock Silence: Taramis goes into this following her rape at the hands of Lord Arrakur's men and then Lord Arrakur himself.
- Stripperiffic: Most of the female costumes. Of course most of the female characters are harem girls.
- Amethea's "armor" at the end deserves special mention, however. The costume consists of a brown leather corset with matching fringe skirt. Lana Clarkson's actual black panties are visible at several points during the fight because the costume did not have a matching bottom-half for some reason.
- Super Sex Organs: In the R-rated cut of the movie, it seems like Amethea is capable of crushing the torturer's "little friend" when he attempts to rape her.
- Wedding Smashers: Lord Arrakur attacks Amethea's village on her wedding day.
