Hundra

Plot

Hundra belongs to a tribe of Amazons. She is the only tribe member of her age who has never been with a man. She declares she would keep it like that. One day when she goes hunting, her tribe is outnumbered and slaughtered by barbarians. As the only survivor she travels to an old wise woman and asks her for advice, but to her surprise she is told she ought to become a mother in order to prevent the final extinction of the Amazons.

Hundra seeks a father for her child. The first candidate has bad manners and it turns out that he is suffering with a sadistic personality disorder. While she continues her search she is confronted by a murderous robber baron who only wants to kill her. Later she encounters an effeminate pimp. Eventually she gets to know a gentleman who works as healer. She asks him to become the father of her child but she is told that a man won't get in the right mood if he is approached in too bluntly. Hundra asks other women to help her to live up to his expectations. She succeeds in seducing him, gets pregnant and delivers a child.

An evil pagan priest kidnaps Hundra's daughter. Thus Hundra is coerced into joining a sinister ritual where the priest's followers humiliate her. During this session she is informed that her new friends have freed the child. She fights back and returns to her home lands. The female narrator explains there was proof that Hundra's spirit kept on living in all women ever since.

Cast

Reception

Paul Mavis of Dvdtalk.com described Hundra as a "genial, rollicking, comic book sword and sandals fantasy" and argued for the film's cult status. "Monster Pictures" stated "Hundra" was "one of the great underrated films of the era". Mondo-Digital categorised Hundra as one of the better contemporary copies of Conan the Barbarian and pointed out that Hundra preceded the film adaptation of Red Sonja. Richard Scheib of Moria.co.nz called Hundra a "better incarnation of the spirit of the Red Sonja stories than the Red Sonja (1985) film ever was". John Shatzer of BloodTypeOnline.com wrote a negative review but gave Hundra credit by saying a few action scenes were exciting. Judge David Johnson of DvdVerdict.com instead regarded the action scenes and Landon's general performance as "stilted," only allowing the film's "camp" value. Keith Breese of Filmcritic.com praised Laurene Landon as "a striking action lead" and compared Hundra to "Xena".

DVD release

In 2007 the DVD label Subversive published "Hundra" with a commentary by Matt Cimber and Laurene Landon and a making-of. The edition also includes a comic book and moreover Ennio Morricone's soundtrack on a CD. Andrew Borntreger of www.badmovies.org complained about missing subtitles and closing credits being hard to read. Jonathan Doyle of www.media-party.com criticised the anamorphic transfer and the sound quality of what he called a "cult oddity".