By Geno McGahee
OK, Adam Ant in a horror film does not give much promise to the viewer that they are in for a good movie. Ant sang that song “Goody Two Shoes,” which wasn’t a horror – related tune. There was no connection here. Alice Cooper is a horror guy and it was an easy transition into horror movies. He was already there. Ant’s music was not horror music…his music should have landed him a role in films like KING RALPH or maybe FOLLOW THAT BIRD, but here we have SPELLCASTER…and here he is in a horror film.
The story is that we have a group of contest winners following an MTV-like VJ for a treasure hunt at an Italian mansion owned by the mysterious Diablo (Adam Ant). Now, I have complained a lot about CGI and the overuse of it and how it doesn’t look good a lot of the time, but compared to what SPELLCASTER was putting out for special effects, CGI would have been very welcome. The effects are just terrible and the hideous and terrifying monster that is set loose on one of the victims looks like one of the trolls in ERNEST SCARED STUPID.
All of the “scary” things were incredibly lame. There is a scene where a chair comes to life and feels up a contestant and kills her, and I cringed at how bad the effects were. I tip my hat to the actress. She played it up but it was atrocious. I will say that there was one good horny zombie scene, where one of the girls has her top ripped off by the sexually deprived dead. I hate zombies. I especially hate rapist zombies.
I should also mention that this film begins with a “rock star” singing her hit tune and the entire song plays from beginning to end. It reminded me of KILLER PARTY, where we begin with an unnecessary video, but at least in KILLER PARTY, the song was good. White Sister rules! In this, the song is terrible, and that set the tone for the movie.
The contestants all search this mansion for a check and all of them fall victim to a terrible fate. The mysterious Diablo laughs maniacally as they die and eventually we get down to the final survivors and the mystery revealed. It was Adam Ant all along, and he is a soul collector and has gathered these people to showcase their weaknesses. At one point, he reveals his true look and it is terrifying. OK, maybe terrifying wasn’t the word I was looking for. How about: laughable?
SPELLCASTER is about as bad as it gets. Amazingly, I was able to sit through the entire thing, but I don’t think that I could do it again. This was just a terrible movie…terrible!!!
Rating: 2/10 … Not so Goody Two Shoes…