 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 1992 film Hellmaster and when I'm doing this review It is available on the shutter streaming service. That's where I saw it now Oh, also, it's a Blu-ray that you can buy if you like this film In a way You can buy it through vinegar syndrome. That's who has it They actually shutter ends up getting a lot of vinegar syndrome stuff just so you know, but anyway, let's get into this crazy wacky Aimless kind of film that the strongest thing about it is probably that it has John Saxon in it Who unfortunately passed away this year a guy who had a Lot of credits on IMDB did great job with a lot of his roles And yeah, I'll tell you a few of his main films that I picked out amongst so many So sad that he was lost this year This was written and directed by Douglas Scholls who did the films dark heaven dark fields Mimesis the dark below and Mimesis knows feratu. I Don't know those films But after seeing this I might try to look into those just because like I said, this is kind of a so bad It's good type film. It's not so bad. It's great But there's enjoyment here like I laughed a good amount of times at how bad some of the stuff was and Yeah, you would think that this was from like the 80s because the 80s just spawned so many of these types of films Although this film kind of hit the end portion of the straight-to-video that was actually Profitable at that point. So it was kind of like at the end timeframe for that in the early 90s So obviously starring John Saxon who's been in such films as the evil eye entered the dragon black Christmas Which I love them in black Christmas Cannibals in the streets. I put that one down because I never even heard of that. Sounds like when I need to check out blood beach That's another one the scorpion with two tails, which I have heard of and her is good It's a giallo film and also to knee break which by a Argento, which I have seen and is very good Nightmare on Elm Street. Obviously everyone knows that I'm around on street dream warriors Which is the third one West Cravens new nightmare and from dusk till dawn. So So much good Originally this was titled them and you can obviously see that if you watch it on shutter because it's called Hell Master on Shutter, but when you watch the film the title comes up as them So I don't know if it was just that vinegar syndrome change of the title to Hell Master Hell Master makes a lot more sense as the title honestly because of the Story in this the quasi I mean there is a story to it But it's such an aimless thing that they there's so much randomness thrown into the story that it's not very focused But there is a base story and I feel like that base story is better summed up as Hell Master especially In comparison to them like that's a terrible title So the film begins and there's a there's a quote that just stood out to me that I was just like oh my gosh this is like a Over-the-top Overused type phrase a place where nightmares are born that the I believe the journalist is talking about and the funny thing is this journalist is Ends up being like taking on the role of kind of like a typical like vampire hunter type dude Obviously there are no vampires in this but you know vampire hunter type dude Oh by the way spoilers on this since it's an older film And if you haven't seen it just stop here and just know you should see it if you like Bad fun movies, so then you can come back to this But anyway, so yeah, so it just feels weird to me that the journalist is kind of like this vampire hunter dude because he presents the Like the drug that he's using to like shoot up the the villains are creatures I don't even know what to call him like hell spawn I'll call him like hell spawn kind of because that's kind of what they are I guess because the Hellmaster created them, so I'll just call him hell spawn So he uses this drug to kill them and it seems like he knows what he's doing like he's putting this drug together He knows what he's doing, but he's a journalist So it's just like there's so much of those types of things in the film that just like doesn't make sense It doesn't match up just like why is there Tracy's sister there who just keeps popping up randomly all over the place No one's looking after that kid even after they were told after they were told to look after that kid The kid just like wanders into scenes like where is she in between these scenes? Who's looking after really nobody because it keeps going to all these people and no one has her with them But she just walks into scenes that they're in so it's like where is this kid? Why is this kid there in the first place? That's never explained and it's just like Randomness like the whole thing is randomness, but that's part of the fun So the opening scene actually gives kind of like a zombie type vibe with John Saxon's character the Hellmaster Being kind of like the overlord of these zombies and mind controlling them because I mean that is what's basically happening is He's basically killing these people. I Guess he they are kind of zombies in the sense that he's killing them by injecting them with that drug That then kills them and reanimates them in essence. It makes them kind of Mind-controlled because you can't you can't Get them unmind-controlled by any means other than just killing them. So they basically are like zombies in a sense With more motion and motor skills and all that Man, they love moving the camera especially in that scene with the library Which by the way that library looks so fake like it It definitely looked like they set it up to look like a library not that it looks like a library at all and like the the crazy The weird color of blue walls in there is also very odd But when we're in that scene, there's like so much just like moving around the characters in it that I was just like This is excessive. What are we doing? But really other than that? I actually thought the directing was fine and the cinematography was actually fine very, you know competent So that stuff's not bad. It's just like the script and the acting and the practical effects, too It's just like some of the gore was actually pretty solid, but the practical effects like The the makeup for these creatures these hellspawn as I'm calling them Looks terrible like it looks awful and you're almost better off not using any of that stuff And instead just putting on a mask or just putting on some color on their face to make them kind of look like Zombies because for the most part all you did was just like pad their faces With stuff and you didn't really give them much of any look like they look weird, but it's not a good look It's just it's odd. It doesn't work So the comment about selling Linoleum water beds there was a comment made about that and I was just like that really caught me Such a strange line There are a lot of strange and awkward lines in this of dialogue and that one I saw was hilarious and I was like man That sounds like a good career in the early 90s selling the linoleum water beds. She's so random So why is Jesse carrying a whip in this? Why is there a whip in this film at all? another thing to point at of randomness like There's no reason for anyone to actually have a whip like they're at a school like this is kind of like a college type Situation I guess because that's never even like fully explained either and also why there's barely any students there That's another thing. It's very oddly empty. Is that because all the other ones were kind of killed and reanimated? I don't know a lot of stuff is not explained It's just like this is what's happening because yeah because that's what's happening But the whip I thought was very funny because it's so early on that it's introduced and so random and But the fact that it doesn't just go away I like that they kind of stick with that the school seems very empty And yeah, you're just like what is with this school? What is it like? I mean, I know they say that like they recruit people for like the FBI and the CIA and stuff like that And there's that aspect of like working on the one character's like psychic abilities or something. So I guess it's kind of like a state seems like state-sponsored ish Black ops type. I don't know. I don't know the triple syringe in this is cool I do like the design of that triple syringe thing that people get injected with that's cool. I like that idea I also like that John Saxons character the home home master guy has like this like tube hooked up to him that he injects himself with that's never really explained, but I think it's kind of funny interesting You spend so much at the beginning Wondering what's going on here it meanders an incredible amount It's very vague and vague is just the name of the game with this Vegan dialogue vating vegan characters vegan story vegan What's going on in any given scene and actually there are a bunch of scenes where they just happen and you're kind of like You feel like you're missing a portion of the film like how did we get here? Why are these people doing this? They haven't said anything about doing this. We didn't see them go here We didn't see any motivation for them to go here or be doing this and it's just like these random scenes They just happen and you just Just walk into them basically as an audience member Jesse's fight with Bobby Razorface, which Bobby Razorface and Joey the monkey man Like these names for these hell's part are very funny to be But Jesse's fight with Bobby Razorface is crazy terrible, but crazy terrible funny because literally Bobby Razorface is standing still and Jesse is like swinging the night stick at him Repeatedly and missing and he's not moving and this is just one of those things of like they didn't even care about Choreographing this fight scene. It's just like just swing at them. Oh, oh, oh should he move now? Whatever we already got the take just just go with it So funny. I Like how there's little logic with what people do in this and how characters just end up in places Yeah, I already talked about that. I feel like the makeup doesn't do much already talked about that The creepy man baby slashing the guy with the mini scythe and the legs that was actually pretty effective It was a relatively good kill scene. It was relatively creepy and that kind of points to another thing of While the design of these health spawn type people is not good The voice changes that they do for them works because it's kind of funny But also creepy at the same time and the fact that Joey the monkey man is Kind of sounds like a man, baby is Creepy it's very creepy and it's weird and it's funny at the same time. I like that The building interior and exterior shots are actually really cool. That's like the best looking stuff in the film Honestly, especially like the inside hallway shots like the long shots in the hallway. Those usually look really good They set those up pretty well other than that They're indiscriminately killing students but leave one girl cuz she can't harm them Doesn't it seem like they're just killing to kill basically at that point? So why would they leave this one person just alive? I think those Barbara or Betty the blonde They just like the Hellmaster guys literally just like just leave her like whatever and it's like this doesn't make any sense They're like indiscriminately killing people. It doesn't make sense Also, what's with the ten little Indian song that just keeps being sung over and over and over again It seems very once again very random. It's like the whip. It's super super random It gets used maybe like three times and then they drop it I guess it's maybe used as like a creepiness factor, but it doesn't do that It just seems odd and dumb just saying One of my favorite scenes the slow motion of Bobby Razorface Walking into the building like his body language like the way he's moving in slow motion and also the fact that he's carrying a hammer and he's like Slamming the hammer against his fist and it's making like this clanging noise Excuse me, which makes no sense that it's making that noise It's just funny and the fact that all that's in slow motion like it would actually have looked decent-ish in regular motion But the fact that they chose slow motion makes it way more funny way more ridiculous just terrible But I love it for that reason. I Like the guys in Marionette I do like that aspect of it the guy where they had like the bolts going through his arms and you know They were having to move around and then they were dragging him by it later on And then they were dragging him later on which Yeah, I just like that concept. It was one of the nicer moments of the film The shot of the smoke in the hallway when John Saxon's character standing at the end of the hallway with the big swirls Painted in the hallway and then the smoke on the ground that actually looked really cool That was a really set up a really well set up shot and it looked cool, and I really liked that But then they start introducing Pete the concepts of people's worst fears and Illusions and the psychic aspect which they talked about the psychic thing early on and then quickly dropped it And then they bring it back at the very end to like actually kind of matter So it's one of those things of like once again with the randomness like you introduce something that don't say anything about it It has no significance then surprise it has some sort of significance But the total introduction of the illusions and the feet playing on people's fears at the very end It's like too little too late like you needed to lay the groundwork But once again, we're not talking about a good film. We're talking about a ridiculous film So I just wrote down pick a concept like pick a concept and stick with it Finally this psychic ability means something to the film Yeah I had been waiting for the psychic ability thing to come back because they did make a point of it in the beginning But you just wait too long The diatribe at the end is horrid the God being life and evil being mortal whole thing that the diatribe that the lady goes on at the end So terrible it made me roll my eyes in so many different ways And one of the biggest issues is the delivering of those lines is so cringe worthy it is so cringe worthy The worst line delivery in the film if you can believe it in my opinion at least there's a lot of bad line delivery in the film The music I actually really enjoyed in this film though the music was a lot of fun Although it's not as fun towards the end in the beginning to the middle. It's pretty fun And then after that it kind of drops off now this film actually seemed kind of like a mix of like reanimator and hellraiser because The whole idea of like being a lord of hell basically this Hellmaster guy Like that seems very hellraiser-ish and with having like his minions that are kind of like the Cenobites That seems like it was cribbed totally from Hellraiser and then the whole like using drugs injecting Injecting into people and kind of reanimating and stuff like that is much like reanimator So I see this Hellmaster guy John Saxon's character as like an evil a more evil version of Herbert West from reanimator which you know Herbert West from reanimator actually is kind of a villain. He's not a good dude. He's doing bad things But this is just kind of like taking that and just being like evil So he's yeah, and he's doing it to like create his own religion basically So I believe there is some kind of like commentary on religion in there And it goes, you know in the way of kind of like questioning religion to a degree and saying like religion is bad But then also at the end Religion is invoked to kind of be the savior of the day Although it's not because it's really the psychic abilities that do it. I don't know the film is confused Like I said like pick concepts stick to it. It's not very clear on things that are going on It's just kind of It's very random. You don't watch this film for story You don't watch this film for good acting you don't watch this film for really anything except laughing at it Having a fun time and enjoying John Saxon because I do think that for what he was given John Saxon made the best of the role. He is the best the best acting in it the best everything about it pretty much so There you go. So I'm gonna have to rate this two ways So if I'm rating it in the pantheon of all film is like seriously, I got to give this a one star rating But if I'm rating it as like a so bad, it's good type film. I'm gonna give it a three stars It's not the best. It's not even close to like the best so bad It's great, but you know it gets over the halfway points at three stars Anyway, thanks for checking this out put some comments down here, especially if you've seen Hellmaster Let's talk about that Do me a quick favor and hit that subscribe button I really do appreciate it whenever people subscribe It kind of keeps me going and I like seeing the growth in the channel So please do that and also hit the notification bell if you're gonna do that So, you know whenever I'm putting up a new video or when I'm doing a live stream, but regardless Thanks for checking this out and until next time keep it brutal