Warning:

Some of these films will almost certainly be some of the worst movies you will ever see in your entire life.  They are poorly dubbed into comical, non-idiomatic English; the stories range from the silly, to the absurd, to the absolutely nonsensical; the “acting” is uniformly atrocious; and the “special effects” will typically consist of a man wearing a gorilla suit. In the very best peplum films, the gorilla suit is spray-painted gold. The best peplum films will make you laugh (although they weren’t supposed to be funny); the worst are just long stretches of the most pure and intense boredom seasoned by bafflement. Why were these films so popular? Why, if they were marketed at teenage and pre-teen boys when they were released, are they now shown at gay film festivals?

One reason to take them very seriously indeed, however, is that the peplum has returned, and in some force: Gladiator, Troy, 300, Immortals, Clash of the Titans, Wrath of the Titans, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Pompeii, Hercules, The Legend of Hercules and more have all appeared since the turn of the millennium. Another reason is that these most recent peplum films are profoundly indebted to the super-cheesy Italian bodybuilder peplums of the 1950s and 60s; those films, in turn, are profoundly indebted to a series of Italian films (called the “Maciste” cycle) from the teens and the 1920s: we are at the edge of a full century of peplum films.

1. Peplum: a flared ruffle attached to the waistline of a dress, jacket or blouse; a pleat used as a trim or decoration

2. Peplum: a garment worn in ancient Greece by women; later worn by both sexes. Also called peplos, peplus.

3. Peplum: a film set in classical antiquity, often fantastic in character, generally starring a bodybuilder or strongman.