Directors: David Allen, Charles Band, John Carl Buechler, Steven Ford, Peter Manoogian, Ted Nicolaou, Rosemarie Turko
Writers: Charles Band, Allen Actor, Rosemarie Turko, John Carl Buechler, David Allen, Jeffrey Byron, Peter Manoogian, Ted Nicolaou
Composers: Richard Band, Shirley Walker
Starring: Jeffrey Byron, Richard Moll, Leslie Wing, Gina Calabrese
More info: IMDb
Tagline: He is the overlord of strange beasts and stolen souls ...
Plot: A demonic wizard challenges a modern-day computer programmer to a battle of technology vs. sorcery, with the programmer's girlfriend as the prize.
My rating: 5.5/10
Will I watch it again? No.
It seemed like a good idea until I got a ways into it. Seven challenges are directed by seven directors and they're presented as challenges to a man trapped in a computer fantasy world. The low budget is stretched as far is it could be so I can't hold that against them. It's a reasonable effort but it hovers in mediocrity. Unless I blinked at the wrong moment, it's never explained how Paul and Gwen (Byron and Wing) are sucked from modern day into this bizarre fantasy world or how they got out. Is it a dream? Does Paul's computer take them ala TRON (1982)? That's kind of important, even for a low budget picture. I liked the stop motion rock creature in the first challenge but it doesn't last long like the rest of the stories. It's only 74 minutes long to begin with. The opening was nice and mysterious and it provides the only nudity in the film. It's a shame this isn't better because with more care in the story, this could've been good enough to have cult status of a good kind and be one of those hidden gems that few people know about. It's still an interesting film. Oh, and listen for Shirley Walker's nice bits of score.
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