Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Benedito Dias Rodrigues Could be a good time to Maciste if the producers adjust some ridiculous scenes along the picture,the screenplay is terrible to start and the plot is lack of creativity apart all this,the greatest sets ever done weren't enough this time,also my copy from VHS was dubbed to english version became worst the whole thing,l'm a great fan of those semi-gods of greek mitology,have a lot of good movies of Hercules,Sansom,Goliah and Maciste,they are amazing characters who deserves a appropiate good productions to make those magnificents movies,further Chelo alonso overcame all this mess and share us your glorious beauty!!!Resume:First watch: 1986 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD-R / Rating: 4.5

Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) Good gracious, what a movie. Been watching my Peplums again after a need to better understand the character of Hercules came up. Sure, he's called Maciste (or however its pronounced) in this one but it's essentially the same guy: Muscle-bound demigod begotten from the Sire of Zeus/Jupiter wandering the Earth righting wrongs. Here he comes upon another Peplum Egyptian Pharaonic era royal court beset by all sorts of fascinating evils furthered by the attention-riveting Chelo Alonso, perfectly as the intelligent yet bloodthirsty slave girl come to be Queen of an Empire.Or whatever — This is one of the most violent and potentially disturbing Sword & Sandal mini- epic I can recall, with an implied body count in the thousands as she has entire human settlements wiped out to further her ambition for ultimate power. Humans torched alive on top of elaborate towers is a favored method of dispatching the unworthy, but our favorite will always be the Crocodile Pool into which assorted cast members are tossed to suffer hideously as they are devoured alive.And you know, something tells me we're missing a proper introduction to the plot device, as a key character is dispatched fairly early into proceedings, later appearing in a manner in which their identity cannot be confirmed and is supposed to be of bother to the story. Because, I suspect, he was devoured whole by crocodiles in a scene removed from the surviving print, which only mentions the Crocodile Pool towards the end of the proceedings. This totally defies how Pepla are usually structured and in a manner which can only be the result of external meddling.Much like a James Bond film the best Peplum thrillers establish an elaborately horrifying execution or torture device for its crazed villain's inept underlings fairly early on. The threat of ending up thrown into its workings then hangs over the rest of the plot, indeed driving its plot once the Hero has come into the story. And sure enough Mark Forrest's very capable Maciste is indeed thrown bodily into the Crocodile Pool at what would have been exactly the right moment — If we had known about the Crocodile Pool previously.Since we do not my suspicions were raised upon a 2nd viewing when going back to make sure the movie really was as cool as I'd thought it was. And "Son of Samson" is, just off-balanced by not having the Crocodile Pool established in the mind's eye of the viewer prior to Maciste being tossed into it. And a 3rd viewing established the likely place where our introduction to its horrors should have been cemented. There is no reason for the plot to insist that the identity of a certain key character is anyone but that person … Unless, that is, he had been devoured by the crocodiles & a dummy used in his place.The good news is that even after three viewings the film remains of fascination and deserves a restoration. Ms. Alonso is nothing shy of a revelation and her final doom is perhaps the most disturbing moment in Peplum history since Kirk Douglas had his run-in with the Lepers. I'll even forgive the movie for not having a rampaging monster for a big showdown match. Trust me: Maciste has his hands full in this one just contending with all the evil scheming afoot. Fitting in screen time for a giant cyclops or mechanical moon-men would have proved a distraction, and the film concludes on exactly the right note to leave the viewer wondering, "Wait … what was that again, with the thing?"

bkoganbing Although as a fictional character Maciste did not have biblical origins in this film he is identified in the title as the Son Of Samson. Although why Samson the Hebrew's son would be bothering to help out Egyptians who kept his people in bondage for generations is beyond me. There really isn't any good history there.Maciste has been played by many actors from way back in the earliest days of the silent screen and in this peplum epic is played by Mark Forest. Egypt's pharaoh has died under mysterious circumstances and his second wife trophy queen is suspected of foul play. The slinky and sexy Chelo Alonso has a way with potions and such and she's got the new pharaoh, her stepson wrapped around her finger. Alonso is Persian and as her countrymen start taking over the government and enslaving the people, Maciste comes in like in westerns, spaghetti or American, and does in the bad guys and saves Egypt from a Persian takeover.As a sculpted body Forest is quite the eyeful, maybe even more of an eyeful than Steve Reeves. The sets look like they might have been used in The Ten Commandments. And whether taking a ladder full of soldiers, fighting lions and crocodiles, or dealing with the charms of Alonso, Forest fills the bill. He even registers an expression or two during the course of the film. Fans of the peplum genre of films should approve.

TheVid Mark Forest (bodybuilder Lou Degni) provides the beef in this relatively lavish Egyptian-style muscleman movie, whose production design is quite good for a low-budget, Italian potboiler. But for those who enjoy the genre, the highlight is the voluptuous Chelo Alonso, whose elegantly stiff performance as the evil empress is supplanted by the delightful belly dance she performs to seduce our lifeless hero midway through the picture. Adolescent kitsch working extraordinarily well as a fetishistic flesh fantasy. Terrific.