HELLMASTER (1992)

(a.k.a. THEM; a.k.a. SOUL STEALER; Director/screenwriter: Douglas Schulze)

Review

Shot in a functioning mental institution, HELLMASTER is a fun flick if you don’t mind an often-nonsensical film about a malevolent scientist (Professor Jones, played by John Saxon), whose three-decade Nietzsche Experiment turns hallucinating human subjects into multi-symptomatic mutants who stalk more victims. 

It has entertaining, striking visuals (e.g., a white hallway that leads to red-lit rooms, conjuring up memories of Dario Argento’s 1977 film SUSPIRIA) and lots of melting ickiness.

HELLMASTER quickly becomes a tiring succession of stalk-and-attack scenes around the college (actually a sanitarium)─they have A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET-esque feel (appropriate, given Saxon’s presence). Another noteworthy actor is David Emge (DAWN OF THE DEAD, 1978; BASKET CASE 2) as Robert, one of Professor Jones’s key nemeses—he, like Saxon, imbues his character with enough depth to make this C-flick worth watching at least once. Unfortunately, the rest of the actors, whether through inexperience and/or bland character writing, are not memorable.

The climax─Professor Jones’s comeuppance─is underwhelming. long overdue and lasts less than a minute, although Saxon channels Vincent Price's Dr. Phibes-like sense of grievance. And the ending furthers the Argento/giallo-meets-1990s-video-fare feel.