Spellcaster university metacritic3/7/2023 ![]() That in itself looks really great, with the constant leather stretching and movement in slow motion combining with the realism for the creature and the fearsome look of it to really make the scenes work. The different monsters created look really great, especially the lion-chair. There really isn't a lot of those effects that don't come off, and they mostly work. The film has a large collection of really impressive special effects. The Good News: This one wasn't as bad as it could've been and is actually pretty good. Figuring that evil forces are at work, the remaining members race to stop the assailant from finishing their work. When the contest starts, they start to die one-by-one from a mysterious source within the castle. Wanting to get a leg up on each other, they all try to sneak out and find the prize before it starts, to no avail. **SPOILERS** Winning a trip to Italy through a contest, Jackie, (Gail O'Grady) and her brother Tom, (Harold Pruett) join other winners Myrna, (Martha Demson) Yvette, (Traci Lind) Terri, (Lim Johnston Ulrich) Harlan, (Michael Zorek) and Tony, (Marcello Modugno) settle into their rooms with Cassandra Castle, (Bunty Bailey) a rock star playing along in the contest. "Spellcaster" isn't all that bad of a film, it's just not a slasher. *Castle Freak, The Pit and the Pendulum, Night of the Sinner, Meridian and many more movies were shot in the castle. It's also filled with imaginative FX, such as a room of zombies and a wooden chair that comes to life to kill off one of the contestants. One of the reasons this movie looks so good is because it was shot by Lucio Fulci's regular DP, Sergio Salvati (Zombie, Contraband, The Psychic, City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, The House by the Cemetery and many more films without the Godfather of Gore, including 1990: The Bronx Warriors, Thunder, The Wax Mask and Ghoulies II). Director Rafal Zielinski also made Screwballs, Screwballs II, Screwballs Hotel, Recruits and State Park, all video rental and cable favorites that I've watched more times than I'd care to admit. But nobody counted on Diablo really being a spellcasting demon - hence the title - and killing off the contestants one by one. The scheme is that Cassandra is holding the check so that she and Rex can split the money. Along with the heroic orphans from Cleveland Jackie and Tom (Gail O'Grady and Harold Pruett), there's also a moron from Jersey and several stuck up female contestants like Myrna, Teri and Yvette (Tricia Lind, Fright Night Part 2) who seem to be in this only to drive Tom insane. This whole scheme has been created to help the career of music video vixen Cassandra Castle (Bunty Bailey, herself a music video girl with appearances in OMD's "Talking Loud and Clear" and most famously in a-ha's "Take On Me" and "The Sun Always Shines on TV," as well as showing up in another Band film, Dolls) and VJ Rex (Richard Blade, who was a KROQ DJ and is now on Sirius XM's First Wave channel). Let me tell you all right from the start, I absolutely love this movie. It's so 1988 that it hurts, featuring an MTV-style channel that creates a contest where viewers will compete to find a $1 million dollar check hidden in the walls of the estate of the enigmatic Diablo (Adam Ant!), like some demented Willie Wonka or Amazing Kreskin trying to find his payday. Director Rafal Zielinski deserves more recognition than he gets.Ĭharles Band bought a castle, Castello di Giove, to make movies in*, which gives this movie a great look. And it is decently bloody with fair effects. I saw another review call it a snoozer, but I thought it had a good pace ("Puppet Master" is slower). We have a sort of "House on Haunted Hill" theme going - locked in a mysterious location, hoping to get rich (if they survive). And, like many Empire and Full Moon films, we have the entire thing shot on location at Band's Italian castle. We have Adam Ant as "Diablo" and horror veteran Bill Butler also appears. But the Empire years were still the best work Charlie Band ever had his hand in. Is it deservedly lesser-known? Well, I suppose it would be hard to compete with Stuart Gordon's work. ![]() 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. A group of people are killed one by one while participating at a million dollar treasure hunt in a mysterious Italian castle. ![]()
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