If you’re looking to relive the golden days of 1980s video rental cheese, The Dungeonmaster is a time capsule of everything that made most low budget direct-to-video movies of that time memorably bad.
For thousands of years, the demonic wizard, Mestema (Richard Moll,) has searched for a worthy combat opponent to relieve his monumental boredom. He believes he’s finally found one in Paul Bradford (Jeffrey Byron), a wizard in his own right in the field of computer programming. Transporting Paul and his girlfriend, Gwen (Leslie Wing,) to his hellish arena, Mestema challenges Paul to a duel.
Paul’s computer, X-CaliBR8, is miniaturized into a wearable bracelet that he can use like a weapon. If Paul can defeat Mestema’s seven magical challenges, he and Gwen will be able to go back to the regular world. If he loses only one, Gwen will be Mestema’s prize in Hell forever.
1984’s The Dungeonmaster (a.k.a. Ragewar) is the brainchild of producer/director Charles Band, who’s list of credits include such gems as Puppet Master, Evil Bong, and The Gingerdead Man. Band came up with the original overarching story but the film is broken into several segments featuring each of the challenges. These segments were written and directed by a variety of people including Band, John Carl Buechler, Rosemarie Turko, Ted Nicolaou, and David Allen.
Clearly made as a B-movie, The Dungeonmaster has a promising scenario. What nerdy 1980s teenager wouldn’t have killed to be Paul Bradford? He’s got a hot girlfriend, a good job, awesome computer technology at his disposal, and, thanks to his impressive physical appearance, no one dares calls him a nerd.
Unfortunately, thanks to multiple writers and directors and its anthology style format, The Dungeonmaster never fully reaches its cheesy potential. The tone is all over the place. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it tries to be scary, and most of the time, it simply falls flat because there’s never any sense of danger. It’s not much fun if all of the supposed “challenges” can be beaten by Paul’s laser-shooting computer bracelet.
Between each of the challenges, Mestema spouts dialogue that sounds like it was cobbled together from the occult section at a Barnes and Noble. Richard Moll looks like he’s having a grand time gesticulating and throwing animated laser bolts but the low-rent production values make him look more corny than frightening.
If you’re looking to relive the golden days of 1980s video rental cheese, The Dungeonmaster is a time capsule of everything that made low budget direct-to-video movies of that time memorably bad. (And, if that’s the case, change my rating to 4 stars.) Otherwise, you’ll find this to be a colossal (and downright ridiculous) waste of time.
2.5 out of 5.0 stars
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