Audience Member
Coming at the center of the Venn diagram for the slasher boom and the Satanic Panic*, Skullduggery is straight out of Canada and straight up nuts and I wonder, why is no one going crazy about this movie?
Oh yeah — it's also about community college theater.
There's a group of D&D players who all work together at a costume store, which is kind of the life I wanted to live in 1983. The newcomer, Adam, comes from a long line of warlocks who have been cursed by Satan, a fact that a magician reminds him of this very fact while he's working at the theater, sending him on a bloody spree of mayhem.
His first kill is very Bloodsucking Freaks, as he watches a girl in a talent show and imagines a snake is killing her. She dies exactly like he imagined but no one sees it happen. There's also a baffling scene where Adam chases a girl with a sickle while a man in a red sequined Liberace-style suit tickles the ivories in a graveyard. And a kill where Adam is inside a bunny suit.
Satan has commanded Adam to kill everyone else in the group, but when he's cornered by the cops at a costume party hosted by a man named Dr. Evil, he disappears and leaves only a puppet behind. This should freak out the group and put a stop to their antics, but they decide to keep playing and have a suit of armor in Adam's chair. Smart move — the suit comes to life and kills the Dungeon Master, revealing that it's Dr. Evil — who is really Satan — inside the suit.
There's also a lot of Adam and Eve symbolism throughout as well as an opening that takes place in the Dark Ages and the same stupid energy as Night Train to Terror and that's the kind of drug we look for around these parts. Every single person in this movie is a maniac and I love them all. It has more magic tricks than Terror Train! There's even a disco theme song!
Director Ota Richter only made one other movie, Oklahoma Smugglers, a film about a bodyguard school and destroying a casino. Producer and writer Peter Wittman was also the director of two other equally ridiculous films, Ellie and Play Dead, the second Yvonne De Carlo movie where she can command dogs**.
*It was originally made in 1979, so it was in the slasher boom and ahead of the Satanic Panic, but got released in 1983. It also has Wendy Crewson, who is in the best-known D&D warning movie of all time, Mazes & Monsters.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
t z
A thought provoking concept about what makes humanity human that suffered a little in the execution and marketing. Burt Reynolds turned down a role in M*A*S*H for to do this film. Then again he turned down Zardoz as well. You could say this is his Zardoz. They brought in make artists from Planet Of The Apes, though you'd never know it, since there doesn't appear to be any makeup, certainly not the award winning kind from that film. And this forgotten film wouldn't win any other awards either. It seems as extinct as the Tropi. give it 5 Stars not because it's a Five Star Film, but to off set any one star reviews it might get. One reviewer said they cried so hard they puked. I guess that's about the highest praise it could get.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Okay, this was a largely terrible film, but I'm rating it based on my level of enjoyment and the interest I got from poking fun at it, because it really only works on that level.
Rental, or maybe a hard pass if you can't get into the 'so bad it's good' kinda mindset.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/07/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The worst film of all time. Seriously, what the natural F? Guy stalks people so he can what? Sniff their farts? Kill somebody, already....damn.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
02/10/23
Full Review
Audience Member
How do you rate something so bizarre, bad, but hilarious?
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/25/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A 14th century curse affects a medieval board game role player. Could have been very good. I wish they focused on the board game tasks for his character. Wasted too much time at the costume party and I didn't get the reappearing tic-tac-toe guy.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/13/23
Full Review
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