His 1997–1998 films show him adapting to the direct-to-video market, maintaining his reputation as a "director who could make a film anywhere" by leveraging minimal budgets and high-passion subjects.
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Queen of Elephants 2: Sahara is today a deep-cut obscurity. It never received a legitimate DVD release in English-speaking countries. Some German VHS tapes exist under the title Dschungel der Begierde 2 or Sahara – Die Rache der Elefantenkönigin . Italian VHS might be found as Colpo di sole nel Sahara or similar generic retitling. Online, it surfaces occasionally on private trackers or boutique streaming sites dedicated to vintage exploitation, often sourced from nth-generation VHS rips.
Tone and Style The imagined film blends D’Amato’s signature visual instincts — lingering wides of barren landscapes, intimate low-light interiors, and sudden, disorienting close-ups — with exploitation-era set pieces: brutal skirmishes, torrid affairs, and shock visuals that straddle the line between ambiguity and provocation. The aesthetic alternates between sun-bleached aerials of endless sand and damp, claustrophobic scenes in underground caverns laced with phosphorescent mineral veins. The score fuses tribal percussion with synth motifs, creating an eerie modern-primitive soundscape. Joe D-Amato - Queen Of Elephants 2- Sahara -19...
Joe D’Amato (real name Aristide Massaccesi) was an Italian filmmaker whose prolific career spanned genres from horror and erotic cinema to exploitation and adventure films. Known for working quickly and on low budgets, D’Amato became a cult figure in European genre cinema, admired both for his technical resourcefulness and for the sheer breadth of his output.
Critical rating (as per rare user reviews): ★★½ (two and a half stars) – "Enjoyable if you like sun-drenched softcore with silly costumes; drags in the middle; the belly dance scene is worth the price of admission."
For fans of Joe D’Amato, the film is a fascinating look at how he could transplant his obsession with the macabre and the sensual into any environment, proving that whether it was a haunted villa or the Sahara desert, the "Master of Exploitation" always knew how to capture the viewer's eye. His 1997–1998 films show him adapting to the
Reviewers often note the sharp contrast between the "natural" freedom of the jungle and the stuffy, depraved atmosphere of the Scottish mansion. While the low-budget nature is evident, D’Amato’s eye for lighting and location (often using Kenyan landscape inserts) gives it a higher-than-average production feel for the genre. Sahara (1998)
. Despite the "Part 2" branding, the film is essentially a standalone erotic drama with no narrative connection or actual elephants from its predecessor. Production Context
Queen of the Elephants (1997) stood out for its attempt to blend softcore pornography with the aesthetic of old-fashioned Tarzan/Sheena adventure serials. The film featured, in true D'Amato fashion, a mix of African location shots, poor dubbing, and a "jungle lust" plot that was notoriously described by viewers as a "depraved" take on traditional jungle tales. Queen of Elephants 2: Sahara is today a deep-cut obscurity
By the mid-to-late 1990s, Italian filmmaker Joe D'Amato had cemented his reputation as one of the most prolific and fearless directors in European exploitation cinema. From gruesome horror ( Anthropophagus ) to post-apocalyptic action ( Endgame ), from hardcore pornography ( Erotic Dreams ) to historical erotica ( The Convent of Sinners ), D'Amato – born Aristide Massaccesi – rarely paused for breath. By the end of the 1990s, he was focusing heavily on exotic erotic features shot in and around Rome, often using standing sets, Sahara-like dunes, and Eastern costumes bought from theatrical warehouses.
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The film stars Italian adult icon Selen , alongside Maria Bellucci , Zenza Raggi , and John Walton . Sahara (Video 1998) - IMDb