Absolutely bizarre. That’s the best way to describe Conquest, a strange take on the sword and sorcery genre at the height of its popularity. It seems to be set in caveman times (at least the native people are like that) but the leads are more like Conan characters with swords (although one of them wields a bone nunchuck). The antagonist is even more shocking, a female wearing nothing more than a golden mask and loin cloth, she spends the entire movie in her fog-filled chamber, having snakes slither over her bare chest and trying to wake up from nightmares.
Most strange, is the director’s obsession with smoke & fog. Nearly ever scene is filled with smoke or fog, so much so that many times it’s hard to make out what’s going on. There’s even a scene in a dark cave late in the film where there’s probably 4 minutes of completely black screen time because the viewer can’t make out anything. It’s just darkness with sound effects.
Still, there are actually some great lines and I can’t help but feel bad for the screenwriter who probably had a much better movie in mind when he penned the script. At least some of his dialogue got through. Enjoyable because it is so very weird.