Spellcaster

Spellcaster - 1988 (released in 1992) (This Film Rates a B- ) Adam Ant as Diablo! Total late 1980's early 1990's feel from the music to the artsy fartsy production. Brother and sister Tom and Jackie (Lost orphans) win a radio contest where they are to participate in a treasure hunt in Italy. There are several other annoying rich eccentric narcissistic characters who have also won the contest. The ultimate prize is one million dollars and the first to find the check in the castle wins. After a shady deal the contest is rigged. One by one each contestant is killed off as the house comes alive through black magic and selling of souls. You won't care who gets killed off because they all deserve it and everyone gets a second chance in the end. Everything about this film is overdone. Its total cheese and filled with cheap MTV effects. Laughable throughout whether intentional or not. No T&A. Plus watching a true desperate alcoholic licking alcohol off the floor is fun. Its not great but it sure is fun.

Remember all the old Roger Corman flicks, where he had some money, props, locations and actors left over from a recently wrapped movie, and he or someone working with him dashed off a quick script to take advantage of the opportunity? Well, SPELLCASTER plays just like one of those...except that producer Charles Band forgot one important ingredient...a storyline that would actually make it entertaining and watchable! You would think that by having a script co-written by Ed Naha (DOLLS) and Dennis Paoli (RE-ANIMATOR, FROM BEYOND), it would've turned out better than it actually did, and maybe the script WAS good. But what's on the page doesn't necessarily make it to the screen, and boy, does it really show here. This was one of those few Empire Pictures movies I didn't catch up to back in the Eighties, and now I can see why. Subconsciously, I must've known it was better to stay away.

Former NYPD BLUE cast member Gail O'Grady was getting her start here, as one of a group of "lucky winners" of a contest sponsored by a rock music channel (think a really low-budget MTV). The prize is getting flown to an ancient castle in Italy, (actually Empire's chief location back then, where many of the films were made), to meet top pop star Cassandra Castle (DOLLS' Bunty Bailey), and participate in a scavenger hunt for a check worth $1 million. The castle, of course, belongs to the mysterious and elusive "Signor Diablo" (Adam Ant), which automatically should tell you that Really Bad Things are about to happen.

Yep. Bad acting, bad direction and ridiculously bad editing. O'Grady and Bailey are probably the two most watchable performers in this whole mess. I'd make it three including Adam Ant, but he doesn't even show up till near the end of the third reel.

The most interesting and fun things about SPELLCASTER are the title and the opening sequence, when Bailey does a music video as Castle that's every bit as engagingly cheesy as the vids you used to see on MTV back in its infancy. After that, folks, it's all downhill from there, as you watch the usual horror stereotypes, (tarty French girl, slutty American floozy, sleazy Italian gigolo punk, fat, greasy, junk-food-eating loser, etc.) fall victim to the best special effects work that John Carl Buechler's MMI could come up with on a non-existent budget.

Fans of Empire's Eighties catalog may actually have fond memories of this movie. Personally, I do have the same sentiments about some of their flicks...but this definitely wasn't one of them.

A group of people are killed one by one while participating at a million dollar treasure hunt in a mysterious Italian castle.

Despite being written by Dennis Paoli (who has achieved fame for writing or adapting "Re-Animator" and "From Beyond"), this is one of the lesser-known Empire films. Is it deservedly lesser-known? Well, I suppose it would be hard to compete with Stuart Gordon's work. But the Empire years were still the best work Charlie Band ever had his hand in.

We have Adam Ant as "Diablo" and horror veteran Bill Butler also appears. And, like many Empire and Full Moon films, we have the entire thing shot on location at Band's Italian castle. We have a sort of "House on Haunted Hill" theme going -- locked in a mysterious location, hoping to get rich (if they survive).

I enjoyed this one. I saw another review call it a snoozer, but I thought it had a good pace ("Puppet Master" is slower). And it is decently bloody with fair effects. Director Rafal Zielinski deserves more recognition than he gets.

Not a very good movie. Wasted about 1 1/2 hours with this piece of junk. Adam Ant doesn't fit in a horror movie.

Eat an apple instead.

Even Tyrannosaurus Bong couldn't help this steaming pile of dog turd.

I first saw this in the early 90s on a vhs which I owned. I found the film very lousy then. Never played the vhs again. Revisited it few days back. The special effects is by John Carl Buechler n the creatures n demons were all done well but the makers did not utilize em properly. Most of the kills r lousy n offscreen. The movie has a shower scene without nudity, an offscreen sex scene without nudity, a bathtub bathing scene without nudity.

So basically there r no good kills, no scare factor n nudity at all n all this makes it a lousy horror film. The film has a unique transformation scene of a fatter lookalike of Lou Ferrigno into a man pig. Some may argue that the film Willow (1988) has lots of men transforming into pigs.

The ending is again a big meh. We have Albert Band father of filmmaker Charles Band as the wierd cook.