Scarecrow-88 Charles Band's 80s production company, Empire, produced this odd assortment of "challenges" a computer nerd (played by geeky Jeffrey Byron who also had a chance to portray the hero in another Empire production, "Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn") must complete in order to rescue his girl (Leslie Wing) from the clutches of a demonic Richard Moll in some sort of hellish realm. If Byron loses any of the challenges Wing will be forced to remain with Moll's Mestema in Hell. Of course, Byron will be cursed as well, but this isn't an option, he must survive the "contest" where his very soul hangs in the balance. Seven directors contributed to "Ragewar" (an alternate title for "The Dungeonmaster"), including David Allen (the highlight of the movie for me personally as Allen has his most Harryhausen sequence, creating a giant stone temple creature come to life, pursuing Byron in a canyon), Band (with definitely the most surreal sequence, Byron having to contend with the psychotic lead singer of WASP during a concert as he threatens to mutilate Wing with a sword?!?!), make-up effects artist John Carl Buechler (his sequence features nightmarish looking zombies and a rat cave monster of some sort which threaten Byron's life), Steven Ford (the most dull of the sequences which is basically an uninspired slasher scene where a scalpel psycho targets Wing and Byron must elude police and stop the killer), Peter Manoogian (I have no idea what the point of this was, as Byron enters the cavernous dwelling of a little demon monster, discovering an angel of some sort imprisoned there), Rosemarie Turko (this sequence has an "ice gallery" of wax sculptures modeling events of the past as they come to life with Byron and Wing having to evade them), and Ted Nicolaou (yet another rip from "The Road Warrior" with Byron and Wing confiscating a junk-heap on wheels from marauders in a post apocalyptic world, which includes a cool graveyard of the skeletal remains of airplanes). While I had fun watching Moll of "Night Court" fame ham it up as evil incarnate, Byron is a weak hero, his challenges unconvincing. The film is a harmless fantasy for kids which is why it didn't necessarily thrill me all that much. The plot is really poorly constructed, particularly in how Byron and Wing find themselves in Moll's Hell and how the hero is able to escape certain doom time and again with help from a computer device located on an arm band. Byron's costume looks like it was made out of a fencing uniform. I must admit, although I can't say this is a very good movie, it has a certain charm that left its mark on me. Moll's theatrics, for one, I found irresistible and there's a sense of child-like wonder to be found..maybe that's why so many who grew up with the movie in the 80s still have a place for it in their hearts.

itjstagame Wow, so I just read all the reviews... It seems a lot of people were expecting Dungeons & Dragons to be involved somehow, how could you get confused by this? I admit I didn't expect an awesome computer superhero, but still how can someone like Dungeons & Dragons but not wish they could 'link up' with a computer in there glasses that can seem to magically control anything electronic? And another reviewer mentions Mythbusters, umm, which do you think came first and where do you think he got it from?Anyway, I really enjoyed myself, I thought it'd be a campy 80s wizard movie and it opened with a computer whiz that can control anything using his computer and seems to be always connected to it. I admit the description on IMDb is a bit misleading, he's not spending too much time with his computer, he's basically one with his computer. I mean if Lois was jealous and told Superman to give up his powers because she was insecure about where he was flying to and what he was doing with his x- ray vision, would that be fare? The only part I didn't like was the dinner scene where we first meet his girlfriend and hear her complaints, but in the end she realizes she has an awesome man and Cal is just a tool.I wish we had learned more about the experiment that lets him 'link up' and what that really involves and why Cal is so powerful, and maybe where Mestima really comes from, but otherwise I loved all the different sequences, the main character and especially Mestima. How can that be over acting, he was very convincing and everything I wanted him to be.I'm so glad I found this movie.

Aaron1375 I just watched this film again after a very long time. The only other time I viewed this film is when it was released as my parents took me to see this one in the theater. Why we went to see this, is beyond me, but while this film is quite bad it is still rather cool we saw kind of a random film like this in the theater. Back in the day, movie theaters did not just do Hollywood blockbusters week after week, during off times they would show more obscure films like this. House By the Cemetery is another I had the fortune of seeing in the theater (or misfortune). I watched it again and was amazed at how short it was. That is the best thing to be said about the film, it was very short. It was done by Charles Band though of Full Moon fame, so I guess it should not have been that surprising seeing as how many of his films clock in at under 1 hour and 20 minutes. Heck, if you do not sit through the credits here, the thing will clock in under and hour and ten minutes! The film is very random as they had multiple directors for reasons unknown as it really is not an anthology and it is not as if the story is vastly different in the 'segments' if you will. Just seems like a film that seemed like a cool idea in someone's head, but as they filmed they quickly realized they really did not have all that much material to even make it.The story starts with a dream sequence, at least on the DVD I got. I, for the life of me, do not remember this sequence from years ago. However, the lead girl gets fully nude, so I am thinking perhaps this was not in the cut I saw back then because that is something I would have remembered. Kind of like how I remembered Trash dancing in the graveyard in "Return of the Living Dead". It then switches to a tech geek and establishes his relationship between he and a girl with a throwaway line about him being in an experiment that made him fully integrate with his computer and which seemed to have no real bearing on the story. Then they are both transported to a realm where Bull, oh I mean Mestema sends the hero to do different challenges. The hero must clear all seven or Mestema will have he and the girl's souls! The challenges are random and do not really seem like they have any reason to them! The first is in an icy museum where the figures come to life, the second a cave where the hero must battle the dead, the third a Wasp concert, the fourth battling a giant and little people, the fifth the hero must stop a serial killer. This one seems so out of place and is the longest, so I'm guessing it was needed to be so long to pad the film a little and save some money as it inexplicably took place in the real world. The sixth made no sense as it was the hero throwing rocks at a troll creature and for reasons unknown lasers were shooting and finally a road warrior type area where they use some vehicles that looked left over from the set of Megaforce. Inbetween the challenges the hero would debate Mestema, they had to do something to fill the time I guess.So this film is random and it just does not work very well. The challenges just are not set up well as there seems to be absolutely no purpose to any of them except the serial killer one. That is like the only one where any kind of rules are established. The most vague is that one where he is having a rock fight with a troll. Richard Moll is not as good here as he normally is in roles like this and the hero is a complete nobody. Still, all this negativity I am throwing at this film and I still have to say it was very quick. Not like it was a painful shot. It felt like a very short film, I have watched a few films where the running time is short like this, but they still take forever. Not this one, I am guessing the randomness of the challenges helps this as at least you are seeing new stuff every few seconds.

gtanghookup The summary of the movie is not all there... did the writer watch the movie? Actually, the movie is mostly about a computer programmer/enthusiast who gets sucked into another world where 'The Dungeonmaster' has him and his girlfriend interact in different scenarios/riddles. They must figure out how to escape from each scenario... in most cases the riddle's solution involves zapping things with his arm-computer.This movie has 7 different directors, each of which direct one of the 7 scenarios the main characters are placed in. This film is awesomely horrible; I loved it and would recommend it to any other fans of crappy movies.Another interesting tid-bit is that the main character says "I reject your reality and substitute my own" while confronting The Dungeonmaster. I had never heard this used anywhere but Mythbusters before I saw this movie.