Dungeonmaster (aka Ragewar) (1984)
Dungeonmaster (1984)
(aka Ragewar: The Challenges of Excalibrate or Digital Knights)
I love when you watch a film for the first time, and it ends up being much better than you expected, that was the case last night when I settled in to watch 1984's Dungeonmaster. This film has been on my shelf for a while, I bought it as part of a 4 film set put out by Scream Factory, with Contamination 7, Catacombs, and Cellar Dweller; it has been patiently waiting it's turn to be watched on my shelf. I had heard of Dungeonmaster, the title intrigued me, as I am a fan Dungeons & Dragons, and love fantasy films. That being said, I didn't have very high hopes that this would be a good film, and when I put it in last night, since it was really late, I didn't intend to watch it all the way through... This film surpassed any and all expectations that I had, and absolutely blew me away with how good it was! This interesting film mixes fantasy with science fiction, and some great horror elements as well, it is a larger story broke into seven individual segments, that tell the story of a nerdy computer programmer, who is in love with his computer, put to the test to save his girlfriend who has been captured by an evil wizard. He goes through seven trials, using his computer to create magic, simultaneously proving his love for his girlfriend and his ingenuity to defeat the evil Mestema. Like I said this was a film I was familiar with, and had even seen the poster on a wall in another film at one point, I have been wanting to see this for sometime now. 
Dungeon Master stars Jeffrey Byron as Paul Bradford (aka Excalibrate or X-CaliBR8) as a computer programmer in love with his computer, Leslie Wing plays Gwen Rogers his girlfriend who feels like she will never be the most important thing in his life, and Richard Moll plays Mestema an evil wizard who has imprisoned Gwen (he is basically Satan). The film also features an appearance by the heavy metal band W.A.S.P.. I was skeptical of Paul at first, but honestly Jeffrey Byron does a great job at playing the nerdy, yet athletic character, he is nerdy and many of his lines are corney, which is exactly what one would expect from his character. None of the actors are really great, but they are all great at what they are. The three main characters have an amateurish quality to them that works for the film.
The film is broken into seven segments, each written and directed by different teams. They all tie into the main story of the film, to create a fluid story that tells of the trials of Paul (Excalibrate). The film is inspired by both Disney's Tron and the tabletop role playing game Dungeons & Dragons, to create this delightful mix of science fiction and fantasy, that then ties in elements of low budget horror, to create this magical film.
The original story is directed by Charles Band and written by Allan Actor. This is the framing story for the film.
"Ice Gallery": Written and Directed By Rosemarie Turko.
"Demons Of The Dead": written and directed by John Buechler. This segment features the film's most famous line "I reject your reality and substitute my own".
"Heavy Metal": written and directed by Charles Band. The segment features the heavy metal band W.A.S.P..
"Stone Canyon Giant": written and directed by David Allen. The segment features some wonderful Ray Harryhausen esque stop motion animation, and is beautifully done.
"Slasher" was written by Jeffrey Byron and directed by Steven Ford.
"Cave Beast" written and directed by Peter Manoogian.
"Desert Chase" is the last segment written and directed by Ted Nicolaou, which is a quick little Mad Max esque post apocalyptic bit.
Dungeonmaster was distributed by Charles Band's Empire Pictures, and released in 1984 (UK) and 1985 (US).
Dungeonmaster is an interesting film, and one that I feel is totally underrated. The effects feature some wonderful practical effects, with some nice rudimentary CG effects, that work really well for the film. The film has an almost fantasy dream feel to it, which I really enjoy. I like the puppet work and the stop motion animation, there is also some great makeup effects as well. Overall I found this to be a highly enjoyable film, that was a lot of fun, and one that I wished that I had discovered much earlier, this might actually rank among my favourite films. If you have not yet seen this unsung classic, I highly recommend checking it out. This is a good fun 80's film, and definitely worth watching. I would honestly say that this should be a must-see film, just for the great style and effects, even though it is dated, it still looks amazing, and a film that I will definitely re-watch regularly.
Also on a side note, how the hell is this film rated PG-13? Unless it was originally cut heavily, there is enough nudity and violence to definitely warrant an R rating.
Dungeon Master stars Jeffrey Byron as Paul Bradford (aka Excalibrate or X-CaliBR8) as a computer programmer in love with his computer, Leslie Wing plays Gwen Rogers his girlfriend who feels like she will never be the most important thing in his life, and Richard Moll plays Mestema an evil wizard who has imprisoned Gwen (he is basically Satan). The film also features an appearance by the heavy metal band W.A.S.P.. I was skeptical of Paul at first, but honestly Jeffrey Byron does a great job at playing the nerdy, yet athletic character, he is nerdy and many of his lines are corney, which is exactly what one would expect from his character. None of the actors are really great, but they are all great at what they are. The three main characters have an amateurish quality to them that works for the film.
The film is broken into seven segments, each written and directed by different teams. They all tie into the main story of the film, to create a fluid story that tells of the trials of Paul (Excalibrate). The film is inspired by both Disney's Tron and the tabletop role playing game Dungeons & Dragons, to create this delightful mix of science fiction and fantasy, that then ties in elements of low budget horror, to create this magical film.
The original story is directed by Charles Band and written by Allan Actor. This is the framing story for the film.
"Ice Gallery": Written and Directed By Rosemarie Turko.
"Demons Of The Dead": written and directed by John Buechler. This segment features the film's most famous line "I reject your reality and substitute my own".
"Heavy Metal": written and directed by Charles Band. The segment features the heavy metal band W.A.S.P..
"Stone Canyon Giant": written and directed by David Allen. The segment features some wonderful Ray Harryhausen esque stop motion animation, and is beautifully done.
"Slasher" was written by Jeffrey Byron and directed by Steven Ford.
"Cave Beast" written and directed by Peter Manoogian.
"Desert Chase" is the last segment written and directed by Ted Nicolaou, which is a quick little Mad Max esque post apocalyptic bit.
Dungeonmaster was distributed by Charles Band's Empire Pictures, and released in 1984 (UK) and 1985 (US).
Dungeonmaster is an interesting film, and one that I feel is totally underrated. The effects feature some wonderful practical effects, with some nice rudimentary CG effects, that work really well for the film. The film has an almost fantasy dream feel to it, which I really enjoy. I like the puppet work and the stop motion animation, there is also some great makeup effects as well. Overall I found this to be a highly enjoyable film, that was a lot of fun, and one that I wished that I had discovered much earlier, this might actually rank among my favourite films. If you have not yet seen this unsung classic, I highly recommend checking it out. This is a good fun 80's film, and definitely worth watching. I would honestly say that this should be a must-see film, just for the great style and effects, even though it is dated, it still looks amazing, and a film that I will definitely re-watch regularly.
Also on a side note, how the hell is this film rated PG-13? Unless it was originally cut heavily, there is enough nudity and violence to definitely warrant an R rating.
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