screenshots / The Barbarians / 1987 Cannon International

American bodybuilder twins Peter and David Paul star as barbarian brothers Kutchek and Gore in this sword and sorcery adventure filmed on locations in the Abruzzo mountains of southern Italy.

Cast as the villian, actor Richard Lynch had appeared in 1978's Deathsport and 1982's The Sword and the Sorcerer.

Directed by Ruggero Deodato, whose previous films included Hercules, Prisoner of Evil (1964), Jungle Holocaust (1977) and Cut and Run (1985).

Peter and David Paul were wrestlers in high school and later opened a gym in Narragansett, Rhode Island in 1977. Known as "The Barbarian Brothers" they were often referred to as "The World's Strongest Twins". They were also featured in the July 1986 issue of Playgirl magazine.

Later films starring Peter and David Paul were Think Big (1990), Double Trouble (1992) and Twin Sitters (1994). A "Barbarians" theme park was proposed for Hartford, Connecticut in 1993 but never built.

David Paul passed in 2020 at the age of 62.