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[tab title="Movie Review"]
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Doctor Mordrid: Master of the Unknown is not a very good movie. Even on our pint scale of beer it earns the lowest ranking possible. It’s just lazy, lazy filmmaking on a project that, had there been a bit more effort put into its script and, well, everyone involved, could have been a dark gem in a dusty bag. Instead, it is derivative and lacking in just about everything that could possibly hold your interest.
While there are occasionally some good moments between Mordrid, the Earth’s supernatural guardian against the black arts, and his apartment building neighbors, Charles Band’s riff on Marvel’s Doctor Strange is barely alive. Even the above average B-movie talents of its lead Jeffrey Combs (The Re-animator) can’t save this one from being a big waste of space and time. Co-starring Yvette Nipar and Brian Thompson as his vengeful enemy hell-bent on releasing all sorts of hellish demons upon the earth.
Released by Full Moon Features, a small production company given a rather generous distribution deal from Paramount, the best part of the movie happens at the end. In this sequence, a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton and a mammoth skeleton go at it. Seeing as how they are already dead, this David Allen-created sequence has little consequence to it but, alas, it is cool nonetheless and, remarkably, the only watchable part of this B-movie.
It’s a puzzling movie because, from a legal standpoint, the film’s writer and director takes full credit for the “original” idea of a wizard using alchemical elements to protect the Earth from devilish minions from the Fourth Dimension isn’t original at all…especially if you have ANY knowledge of Doctor Strange. Written by C. Courtney Joyner, Doctor Mordrid – from design to execution – is obviously inspired by the one and only Sorcerer Supreme, originally created by Steve Ditko.
How Full Moon Pictures, who once had an option on a Doctor Strange adaptation, got away with this one I’ll never know. It is now remastered and available on blu-ray courtesy of Full Moon Features but, honestly, unless you are a stop-motion buff, there’s little reason to pick this one up.
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[tab title="Film Details"]
MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 74 mins
Director: Albert Band, Charles Band
Writer: Charles Band
Cast: Jeffrey Combs, Yvette Nipar, Jay Acovone
Genre: Action | Sci-fi
Tagline: Master of the Unknown
Memorable Movie Quote: "He uses mortals to do his bidding"
Distributor: Full Moon Features
Official Site:
Release Date: September 24, 1992
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: September 23, 2014
Synopsis: An unspeakable evil has come into our dimension and wants to rule over Earth, and only a mysterious sorceror known as Doctor Mordrid can stop him.
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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]
Blu-ray Details:
Available on Blu-ray - September 23, 2016
Screen Formats: 1.78:1
Subtitles: None
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps); English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (192kbps)
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; Single disc
Region Encoding: A
Full Moon Features has remastered the print for its high-definition debut but that makes little difference as there was little production value involved from the very start. Effects are iffy and black levels waiver from time to time. The 1080p transfer is passable at its best. Colors aren’t strong and neither is the thin-sounding Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.
Supplements:
Commentary:
- Jeffrey Combs and Director Charles Band discuss the origin of the film, its production, and its budget in a newly-recorded commentary track.
Special Features:
William Shatner. Fucking William Shatner. He shows up everywhere and the supplemental material for Doctor Mordrid features him interviewing Stuart Gordon, Jeffrey Combs, and Barbara Crampton. It has nothing to do with the movie but it’s entertaining nonetheless. What’s not entertaining is the 90-minutes of behind-the-scenes footage. Longer than the movie itself, there’s no reason in Hell to sit through this. There’s also a vintage supplement highlighting the father and son directing team responsible for the movie and trailers for other Full Moon titles.
- Videozone (9 min)
- Uncut Footage (92 min)
- Rare Interview (12 min)
- Trailers
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[tab title="Trailer"]
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