Spellcaster (1988)
4/10
Lots of 80's Clichés and Cheap Horrors!
12 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
OK kiddies, before we begin, let me explain what 80's movies were like: Bad hair with way too much product (can someone say "mousse abuse"?); Stereotyped characters; Synthesized music with the chorus repeated at least 6 times; Legwarmers and/or Spandex ... and on more than one occasion, Adam Ant.

Spellcaster is a horror movie that was made in 1988, but for some reason, was not released until '92. It has all of the above, including Adam Ant (who shows his hands several times, but his face for only about 5 minutes).

RockTV holds a contest where 7 "lucky" people will be flown to a Medieval Italian castle to spend the weekend with the extremely stereotypical alcoholic Brit rocker Cassandra Castle, and have a chance to win $1M. (Wow, that was a witty idea ... meet Cassandra Castle at the "Cassandra's Castle" contest).

The 7 contestants are also stereotypical: The fat American slob; The prissy California girl who thinks she's better than everyone; The rich, snobby Brit woman who hunts game; The slutty French girl who shows lots of skin in her outfits and obviously doesn't wear underwear; The criminal Italian guy who pushes himself on the ladies more than once; The boy- and girl-next-door American brother and sister team who just lost their jobs, and who could really use that million bucks.

Their host, Signor Diaboli (how the Italian guy didn't understand the man's name literally means "Mr. Devil" is beyond me) is the owner of Castle Diaboli. However, every time he is supposed to meet or greet his guests, for some reason the butler says he can't make it.

The contest begins, and each contestant (and a few RockTV employees) end up getting offed in various supernatural ways. The effects for each murder, I will admit, are good ideas ... but the execution of each effect is bad. For example, one person is eaten by a chair that has a lion's head and paws carved into it. When it bites the person, it's fang squishes like the latex foam it is. Like I said ... good idea, bad execution (but you can see the FX people really tried hard, so I can't complain TOO much).

Of course, the girl-next-door has to save the day, and she does. Diaboli ends up quitting his "normal" devilish day job for one even MORE evil ... Head VJ on RockTV ... with a great new contest for aspiring rock stars.

Hey, wait a minute ... maybe Simon Cowell is really Adam Ant! {pause} Naaaah ... couldn't be ... :P
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