The Dungeonmaster - (1984) ... or Ragewar: The Challenges of Excalibrate - (1984)... or Digital Knights - (1984)

The Dungeonmaster is a science fiction/fantasy movie that has yet to see a release on DVD, Blu-Ray, or even Laserdisc. It can be seen on Netflix, but as it stands, you can only own it on VHS. And for many reasons, this is a movie that demands to be seen on VHS quality picture. It actually has seven different directors, which include special effects artist David Allen, B-movie God Charles Band, and Steven Ford, the son of Gerald Ford (yes, that’s true). If you’re not intrigued yet, then there’s no hope for you.

It’s about a dweeb named Paul with a pair of computer powered glasses (this is never really explained) and his girlfriend Gwen, who are enjoying their boring simple life (past the glasses) until one night they’re whisked away to an alternate dimension by a sorcerer named Mestema, who decides Paul is Earth’s greatest warrior or something, and puts him through seven challenges. And that’s pretty much it, until the end where Paul fights Mestema and kills him, they go home, and the movie ends right there.

Each challenge has a different writer and director, all of whom are credited at the end credits, despite no credit to the director or writers of the beginning or ending. The challenge segments include a murder mystery, a Mad Max-esque world, zombies, giant monkey statues, and the glam metal legends W.A.S.P., who try to kill Paul with the power of metal and face meltingly awesome rock! This movie is pretty disjointed and very repetitive, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like it. I love the low budget effects (still better than CGI), Richard Moll is hilariously over the top as the villain, and some of the segments can be entertaining for the 5 to 10 minutes they last. But a movie like this feels incomplete without some Mystery Science Theater 3000 silhouettes at the bottom. If anything of this 80’s cheese sounds entertaining to you, you’ll probably wind up enjoying it.

But note, it’s called “The Dungeonmaster” to trick Dungeons and Dragons fans into seeing it, and it has pretty much nothing to do that. Seriously, that was the goal with the new title, because this was originally called Ragewar (sounds like a W.A.S.P. cover band) and Digital Knights. I guess it’s like Dungeons and Dragons mixed with Tron (not as awesome as it sounds thought) and it is better than the actual D&D movie. But I had to just call out its deceptive marketing. Again, if this sounds cool (and it DOES sound cool) then please, check it out, and let the power of metal take you away.