Featuring not one, not two, but seven directors and eight writers, The Dungeonmaster is a hallucinatory fever dream drenched in the enthusiastic, unironic style of low-budget 1980s fantasy. It follows computer wunderkind Paul Bradford as he is yanked into another world by the evil sorcerer Mestema. He is tasked with seven scenarios (read: seven scenes written and directed by seven different people) which he must overcome in order to rescue his girlfriend Gwen. These scenarios include being forced to do battle with a giant rock monster, zombies, ice people, and most unusually, the metal band W.A.S.P. He is aided in his journey by his wristband computer X-CaliBR8, a strange little device that has the inexplicable ability to do anything that Bradford wants. It's all very schlocky and cheesy, but it carries a sincere charm. I enjoyed The Dungeonmaster for the same reason that I love Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1981) and Dennis Muren and Jack Woods' Equinox (1970): sheer, visceral pleasure. None of these films attempted to be anything other than themselves. They wear their low budgets and cheap (yet effective) special effects with pride and dignity. And you know what? That's okay in my book.
6/10
As a Mythbusters fan it was fun to see where the line "I reject your reality and substitute my own!" came from. Also I gotta give Dungeonmaster credit for being an early movie about video games. The many scenes by many directors did make it feel like playing different levels on a video game.
ReplyDeleteVery true. It was also like an extended fantasy variety show!
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