The Dungeonmaster (1984)
Directed by: Charles Band, Dave Allen, John Carl Buechler, Peter Manoogian, Rosemarie Turko, Steven Ford, Ted Nicolaou
Written by: Allen Actor, Charles Band, Dave Allen, Jeffrey Byron, John Carl Buechler, Peter Manoogian, Rosemarie Turko, Ted Nicolaou
Starring: Jeffrey Byron, Leslie Wing, Phil Fondacaro, Richard Moll
THE DUNGEONMASTER (1984)
Available on Blu-Ray in Arrow Video’s Enter The Video Store: Empire of Screams Boxset
Skilled computer programmer Paul Bradford has created “X-CaliBR8”, a quasi-sentient personal computer with a female voice which he interacts with via a neural interface, but his girlfriend Gwen has become jealous, and fears that their relationship will be destroyed by Paul’s reliance on X-CaliBR8 for his activities. One night, Paul and Gwen are transported to a hellish realm presided over by Mestema, an ancient, demonic sorcerer who’s spent millennia seeking a worthy opponent with whom to do battle. Having easily defeated previous enemies with magic, Mestema is intrigued with technology which he sees as another form of magic, and wishes to pit his skills against Paul’s, with the winner claiming Gwen. Arming Paul with a portable version of X-CaliBR8 which takes the form of a computerised wrist band, Mestema begins transporting Paul into a variety of scenarios in which he must defeat various opponents….
At first I couldn’t believe that I’d never come across The Dungeonmaster before, especially back in my early teens when I used to play Dungeons And Dragons and, while still eagerly devouring each sword and sorcery film which came along, wished for a film to replicate the game I was so engrossed in. If I’d seen something with the title of The Dungeonmaster on the shelves of one of our three local video stores, I’d have rented it out immediately – if probably to be disappointed yet again. But then I found out that this film had nothing really do to with Dungeons And Dragons, even if it does feature some similar elements, and is actually based on another game called Ragewar which is what the movie was called on video, The Dungeonmaster being the name only given to its American theatrical release, which makes it surprising that Arrow have given it that name here. Knowing nothing abut Ragewar the game, I have no idea if the film is faithful to it, but I can tell you that this first film in Arrow’s boxset which collects together five of the more popular offerings from Empire Pictures, the group Charles Band created and headed before he formed the perhaps better known today [and still running] Full Moon Pictures, is a most diverting slice of ’80s fun. The low budget might be only one of several things which prevent the viewer from taking the proceedings seriously, but the special effects are all rather good. Said proceedings soon resolve themselves into rehashing the same scenario over and over again in different environments, in little mini-movies which are far too short to really get into and which all had a different writer and director, though there’s some uniformity of filming style so that they do look like they’re part of the same picture. It’s also never dull for a moment and, especially when seen from the point of today, has an interesting angle on the subject of technology. It’s also the film in which the oft-employed line “I reject your reality and substitute my own” was first used.
Unless you watch the Dungeonmaster version which dispenses with it entirely, possibly a good idea except that it makes an already short film into an even shorter one, it starts off with an opening sequence that seems like it may have was created just to pad out the running time, though actually this wasn’t the case. In any case, it doesn’t link much with what follows except, I guess, playing as foreshadowing, as if Paul was having some kind of premonition of what was soon going to happen. He awakes in a hospital bed to just about glimpse a woman who isn’t his girlfriend Gwen approaching, shrouded in fog. Now it may help for you to enjoy this movie if you like fog, because this one is full of it, rising up out of various types of terrain, never really looking realistic but making us feel like our couple are trapped more in a very long music video more than anything else. He follows her around, revealing that this particular hospital is actually a little barn [does he dream low budget too?], until, in a room, she strips off [well, in the version I watched] and lies down. The two begin to get it on, but she’s clearly worried about something, and something bad then happens. A group of beast-like beings burst in, the open door revealing they’ve come from a place which is very red background, kidnap Gwen and knock Paul out – after which he wakes up from this daydream. The whole sequence has a good mysterious atmosphere about it, but I remain dubious at its inclusion. We now follow Paul around in the real world for a while, and it’s pretty interesting because Paul is a computer whizz who not just has a conversation with his boss which includes the line, “Has the world ever got along without computers”?, but who’s built this machine which is basically a prototype Alexa, which talks to him and answers questions, and is installed on his glasses. He was also apparently once involved in an experiment in which he was able to “link up”. Did he almost create the internet? This enquiring mind wants to know.
Gwen fears that her and Paul’s relationship will be destroyed by Paul’s constant use of X-CaliBR8, but he cooks her a nice meal and then proposes to her. It’s not long before he embarks on his journeys, but the short running time means that around a third of the film’s running time takes place before it, which is surely too long. Reducing this material and expanding some of the challenges, a few of which seem too brief, would have helped if the running time had to be kept really low due to the budget. Still, the use of green flames flickering in his pair of glasses is a nice device to announce that things are going to become very different, and Paul seems to at first be transported to some kind of test run, as he sees Gwen bathing in a waterfall but can’t get to her because of some invisible barrier preventing him, with both wearing different clothes. Paul wakes up from what seems to be just another dream, but Gwen is gone! Now he’s transported to a rocky hell where Gwen is chained to a rock and Mestema makes himself known. He challenges Paul to a contest for two reasons; he’s bored, and he’s fascinated by Paul’s tech, which he thinks will make Paul a better opponent then the ones that he’s had before. “You may call on your machine, your machine, any time, anywhere, in your world”, he tells him, before knighting him and dubbing him – oh dear – “Excalibrate” [not because it’s the name of King Arthur’s sword but because it sounds like “X-CaliBR8”, honest]. Cal tells him that Mestena “equals Beelzebub, Belial, Satan”, then the challenge is on, and it’s going to be hard, because if Paul loses even one, then Mestena will take the souls of both Paul and Gwen. The first place they’re transported to is some kind of ice kingdom where many of the world’s villains including Jack The Ripper, Genghis Khan, and – for some reason – Albert Einstein, have been frozen. Gwen is freezing cold so Mestena decides to warm the place up, which – well, you know what it’s going to do. It’s a neat scenario, but is partly wasted by its extreme brevity. Just a few more minutes will have helped.
As we switch from various locales and time zones, the array of creatures and menaces that are crammed in is quite incredible. A mummy. A werewolf. Zombies. A serial killer. Three pretty ladies designed to lead Paul from the straight and narrow. A giant statue which comes to life, realised by claymation and perhaps inspired by the Talos sequence in Jason And The Argonauts. Trolls. A puppet devil on a throne. Cartoon dragons which appear in the air [though which sadly don’t fight]. Post-apocalyptic mutants which feature in a chase with armoured vehicles. Etc, etc, etc. The serial killer segment, which is quite similar to a section of Time After Time, has some genuine urgency that’s perhaps missing elsewhere, and also breaks out of the slightly claustrophobic approach required by the budget as Paul rushes all over the place, but it’s a little disappointing that most of the challenges involve Paul using his X-CaliBR8 wristband to shoot people, monsters, and objects with laser beams, especially considering how important the theme of technology is throughout, and a final physical fight between hero and villain is rather pathetic, but there’s so much else to enjoy. At one point the action takes place at a heavy metal gig, with a lot of focusing on the band whose singer gives us a song with lovely lyrics like “‘l’ll beat the women, take those who enter”. The screenplay, credited to Allen Actor [who probably scripted the present-day scenes], Charles Band, Dave Allen, Jeffrey Byron, John Carl Buechler, Peter Manoogian, Rosemarie Turko and Ted Nicolaou who all wrote one of the challenges, feels like the work of eight twelve year-old boys, and that certainly has its positives, such as providing, despite a little bit of arm and head lopping, the opening nudity and Mestema groping Gwen, an appealing innocence. Humour is generally used well; there’s not as much of it as you may expect, but it mostly comes off, even during the serial killer segment, generally the most serious one – but one that finds room for two jokey cops reacting to strange things that they see.
The seven directors were Band, Allen, Buechler, Manoogian, Turko, Nicolaou and Steven Ford, with Band also doing the wrap-around material, but I’ll be surprised if you’ll be able to tell who did what, except for Allen’s contribution which will be instantly obvious. Jeffrey Byron is a likeable lead with a bit more personality than is usual for these things. He was in the running to play Flash Gordon, and would have done a far better job than Sam J. Jones, unless you’re one of those who considers Jones’s woodenness to be an essential part of the experience of that film. The performer having the most fun is of course the person playing the main villain. Richard Moll was good at creating memorable bad guys, and his Mestema is a good one. Moll chews the scenery, but isn’t that what you would expect and want? Mestema is someone who desperately craves a real battle, a real challenge, so he can actually prove his worth and power for once. Like a lot of good villains, he’s given a monologue which takes us a bit into his psyche, about when he and some others tortured a cat when they were young. There’s no score composer listed in the credits, just Douglas N. Lackey as “music editor”. Except for an archetypal 1980’s synth track playing early on as Paul runs and we cut to Gwen doing aerobics, The music must have come from previous Empire productions, yet the score is cohesive enough. One oft-used dramatic flouroih seems based on a portion of a Bernard Herrmann cue from Mysterious Island. The Dungeonmaster will probably seem like a load of ’80s cheese to newcomers, but it’s worth remembering that it wouldn’t have been thought of by many as cheese at the time. Full of charm and exuding low-budget energy and invention despite a few flaws in the script, it’s extremely hard to dislike.
Rating: 
The Dungeonmaster is available on Blu-Ray as part of the Enter The Video Store: Empire of Screams boxset from genre label Arrow Video.
THE DUNGEONMASTER – Arrow Video Blu-Ray Special Features
New 2K restoration by Arrow Films from the original negative
More than perhaps any other label, Arrow do incredibly well with films from the 1980’s in terms of restorations. Many movies from that decade have a very distinctive look, and Arrow are now dab hands at replicating that while still providing the depth of field, the vivid textures and the meticulous detail that we’ve come to expect from HD. Except for its red-drenched sequences The Dungeonmaster could have looked rather drab seeing that much of it is set in rocky locales, and may well have done on video, but is quite attractive visually here except for rather a lot of grain inconsistency, probably a problem that couldn’t have been overcome without removing some of the grain which never results in a natural looking picture.
Three different versions of the film via seamless branching: the US theatrical version (The Dungeonmaster), the pre-release version and the international version (Ragewar)
I watched the pre-release version in full, then flicked through bits of the other two. Obviously I’d recommend the former as it’s the most complete edit. The other two cuts shorten the opening nude scene but also omit some of the important cat torture monologue as well as presenting the sections in different orders. I don’t think it matters much which order the segments are in, but was satisfied with their placing in the pre-release version so wouldn’t really want to change it.
Original lossless mono audio
New audio commentary with star Jeffrey Byron, moderated by film critics Matty Budrewicz and Dave Wain
This is a very warm and enthusiastic track, with Budrewicz and Wain being both fans of and experts in Empire Pictures and Full Moon, and Byron, despite his contribution coming from a different continent, sounding like he’s very much enjoying reminiscing about making the film and his time at Empire which also included Metalstorm: The Destruction Of Jared-Syn. He apparently began filming The Dungeonmaster the day after finishing Metalstorm, while his real apartment was used as his one in the film. He seems a little surprised but pleased when Budrewicz mentions a message about stopping running and confronting things, a message apparently made clear by Paul’s running scene which he says is his favourite. I had no idea that credited writer and director Steve Ford is Paul’s brother Steve Stafford, his pseudonym inspired by John Ford who was his godfather. The chat also covers subjects such as a partly lost sequel, the many other directors, and Byron’s early career. Very good despite perhaps a bit too much of Byron saying “everyone was great to work with”.
I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own, a new interview with star Jeffrey Byron [14 mins]
This is nice to have, but consists entirely of Byron saying things that he also did in the commentary, except for getting the lead role in Metalstorm as soon as he got home from the audition. Therefore it’s probably best to watch this first, then move on to the commentary which is more detailed.
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