DOCTOR MORDRID (1992)

DIRECTED by Albert Band & Charles Band

SCREENPLAY by C. Courtney Joyner

STARRING  - Jeffrey Combs as Dr. Anton Mordrid,  Yvette Nippar as Samantha Hunt,  Brian Thompson as Kabal,  Jay Acovone as Tony Gaudio,  Keith Coulouris as Adrian,  Ritch Brinkley as Gunner.

PLOT - Dr. Mordrid is an interdimensional sorcerer sent to Earth by his master, the being known only as The Monitor, to protect mankind from the forces of evil.

Mordrid's opposite is the evil sorcerer known as Kabal who has been trapped in a transdimensional prison for centuries. 

Kabal has recently escaped and has headed to Earth seeking to find the Philosopher's stone so that he can unlock the gates of Hell and unleash the forces of evil to destroy mankind.

Only Dr. Mordrid and a young police research consultant who has discovered his true identity can stop the oncoming apocalypse...

DIALOUGE  - When talking about the devastation that Kabal plans to unleash upon Planet Earth, Dr Mordrid describes it as being "beyond the apocalypse". BEYOND THE APOCALYPSE ???? How can that POSSIBLY work ? The apocalypse is the end of everything - theres really no getting past that, unless he means this in some kind of post-apocalyptic "Mad Max world" kind of way, but this doesn't seem to be the implication he's making.

PERFORMANCES  - Q - When is a film adaptation of Marvel Comics Dr. Strange not a film adaptation of Marvel Comics Dr. Strange ?

A - When it's Full Moon Features' Doctor Mordrid of course. Legend has it that B-movie producers Albert and Charles Band had the rights to make a film based on Dr. Strange. However, the film apparently took so long stuck in pre-production that by the time it came to make it the licence had expired. Undaunted by this Full Moon Features just changed the name of the character and removed any other copyright infringing references (they also redesigned the main character's costume with a little help from veteran Marvel Comics artist Jack Kirby) and went away and made the film anyway.

This could, of course, also be a total lie and the Bands instead just outright ripped off (cough...paid "homage"...cough) Dr. Strange. It really depends upon who you ask. Either way the Dr. Strange similarities are strikingly unavoidable.

Jeffrey Combs is a much respected B-movie horror actor perhaps best known for his role as Herbert West in the Reanimator movies. He usually plays villains but here he gets to show his more heroic side as Doctor Mordrid - Master of the Unknown.

Combs has always been quite an intense actor and he brings that intensity to his role of the good doctor in spades. He's one of those actors that has the uncanny ability to speak the most ridiculous and corny dialogue imaginable with utter utter conviction. Here he spouts some really OTT doom laden metaphysical mumbo jumbo with such steely eyed certainty that you can't help but be totally engaged by it. Combs makes the utterly ridiculous seem perfectly reasonable and believable. The way Combs does this reminds me a bit of Peter Cushing in his various roles - like Combs, Cushing was a consumate professional and always bought his "A game" to even the hokiest of scripts. Combs does just the same - think of him as a younger, 1990's American version of Peter Cushing and you're pretty much there.

Yvette Nippar plays the obligatory love interest - Samantha Hunt. Its through Samantha's eyes that we get to first meet Dr. Mordrid (she's renting a room in the building Mordrid owns). The two strike up an unconventional friendship that goes from landlord and tenant, to flirtatious friends, to mentor and quasi-student, to allies and finally to lovers. Due to the film's brevity this happens relatively quickly but surprisingly doesn't seem forced. The two play off each other so well that again you completely buy it. Nippar is pretty good in the role and is extremely attractive in a way that seems uniquely specific to women from the early 1990's.

Brian Thompson plays the evil Kabal and he's a pretty cheesy villian in the best possible way. With his Michael Bolton style long mullet hairstyle, his black shades and deep growl of a voice you pretty much know the type of villian he's going to be just by looking at him.

Thompson gets to spit out typical comic book supervillain dialogue left right and centre. He's so evil that the first time we see him he's driving a car in SLOW MOTION. I don't know why he's introduced in this way, it makes no sense but it's funny all the same. Kabal is as camp and 90's as it gets but makes for a good fun villian all the same.

SFX - Due to the film's low budget the effects are wisely kept to a minimum but what is there actually works pretty well.

You get lots of mystical lightning and energy bolts as the two sorcerers clash.

In the final battle (which takes place in a museum) Kabal brings a T-Rex skeleton to life, Mordrid counters this by reanimating a Mastodon skeleton. T-Rex and Mastodon battle it out in some absolutely lovely stop motion animation. This is strictly old school stuff (even way back in the 90's) but looks and works really nicely. Bizzarely, both the skeletons roar at each other. How ? Thier vocal chords have rotted away, they're skeletons for crying out loud !!!!

At one point we get to see the interdimensional castle in which Kabal was imprisoned. It floats in a weird slightly psychedelic vortex and looks pretty cool.

We get yet more stop-motion goodness (or badness) in the form of a bunch of Demons breaking free from the bowels of Hell.

In fact, the only effect which doesn't really work is when we get to see The Monitor- he's just a pair of floating eyes superimposed over a starry backdrop - he looks like something from an early 80's pop video or from the opening credits of the X-Files.

SEX & VIOLENCE  - Kabal kills a topless female follower by frying her brain with lightning, which seems a bit of a waste really...

A hypnotised henchman of Kabal shoots a man dead before turning the gun on himself. He (bloodlessly) shoots himself in the head.

Upon escaping from his imprisonment, Kabal blinds his jailer by burning out his eyes (this happens off camera) but that's OK because Dr. Mordrid heals them.

The rampaging T-Rex skeleton chomps a couple of cops...

Kabal gets impaled on the horns of the Mastodon skeleton and dies. His corpse disappears in a burst of shimmering light.

Finally (and strangely most goreily) Kabal's henchman gets shot in the leg (but only after being kicked in the balls by Samantha). He bleeds everywhere (from his leg...not his balls, although I wouldn't want to hazard a guess as to what state they'd be in after a high speed encounter with Sam's kneecaps).

RATING  - Doctor Mordrid is an object lesson in how to do a superhero comic "adaptation" on a low budget right. It never overreaches itself, it sticks rigidly to its budget and doesn't attempt to do anything beyond that. Where films like the Roger Corman version of the Fantastic Four tried to do too much and ended up looking silly, this gets the balance absolutely right.

In many ways it feels like the pilot episode to a TV series, this is partly due to its short 70 minute runtime. It could have done with being slightly longer but at least it doesn't outstay it's welcome.

A nice little film then, its a shame we didn't get to see Dr. Mordrid in action again really. I'm giving this 4 bootleged arch mages out of 5. Worth a look.

ART  - Below - the original design for Doctor Mordrid (or Doctor Mortalis as he was originally named) by comics legend Jack Kirby.