Hokey Charles Band production(Empire pictures before starting Full Moon)about various characters participating in a million dollar treasure hunt in a mysterious castle whose owner doesn't show his face. Dr. Diablo remains in his little lair often caressing his crystal ball casting spells on those characters who represent the loathsome types that normally die in horror films. The french snob/slut eaten by a lion chair(!),a aristocrat(who likes wild game hunting)who winds up a feast for some sort of leaping monstrous leopard, a crook who finds himself chasing after the check and falling to his doom, an American bitch who teases the males of the group who treats everyone rudely and winds up in the clutches of a demon on a painting(!),and so on. Our protagonists are Jackie & Tom(Gail O'Grady & Harold Pruett),a sister and brother from Cleveland. If anyone will survive, they seem to be singled out. You have a VJ, Rex(Richard Blade)for a replica of MTV, who excitingly points out that this treasure hunt is sponsored by the rock star Cassandra Castle(Bunt Bailey),an alcoholic wench who wishes she was elsewhere rather than in this castle with these people she deems inferior and annoying(clearly, she's the annoyance, surprisingly Cassandra is normally the first to go in a horror flick like this, but is kept alive..hmm..).

Good monster effects by John Carl Buechler's company redeem this otherwise silly waste of time. I think monster movie fans will like this best because the creatures present are quite well made. But, the premise isn't really taken advantage of to full effect. The castle is a perfect tool for a horror flick, but isn't ominous at all..and when you can not utilize the castle as a horror set-piece, you're in trouble. Adam Ant appears briefly(and effectively)as Dr. Diablo, the mysterious proprietor of the castle who practices black magic..or could very well be ole Beelzebub himself. Best sequence:An overeater literally turns into a pig!

Charles Band bought a castle, Castello di Giove, to make movies in*, which gives this movie a great look. It's so 1988 that it hurts, featuring an MTV-style channel that creates a contest where viewers will compete to find a $1 million dollar check hidden in the walls of the estate of the enigmatic Diablo (Adam Ant!),like some demented Willie Wonka or Amazing Kreskin trying to find his payday.

Let me tell you all right from the start, I absolutely love this movie.

This whole scheme has been created to help the career of music video vixen Cassandra Castle (Bunty Bailey, herself a music video girl with appearances in OMD's "Talking Loud and Clear" and most famously in a-ha's "Take On Me" and "The Sun Always Shines on TV," as well as showing up in another Band film, Dolls) and VJ Rex (Richard Blade, who was a KROQ DJ and is now on Sirius XM's First Wave channel).

Along with the heroic orphans from Cleveland Jackie and Tom (Gail O'Grady and Harold Pruett),there's also a moron from Jersey and several stuck up female contestants like Myrna, Teri and Yvette (Tricia Lind, Fright Night Part 2) who seem to be in this only to drive Tom insane.

The scheme is that Cassandra is holding the check so that she and Rex can split the money. But nobody counted on Diablo really being a spellcasting demon - hence the title - and killing off the contestants one by one.

Director Rafal Zielinski also made Screwballs, Screwballs II, Screwballs Hotel, Recruits and State Park, all video rental and cable favorites that I've watched more times than I'd care to admit.

One of the reasons this movie looks so good is because it was shot by Lucio Fulci's regular DP, Sergio Salvati (Zombie, Contraband, The Psychic, City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, The House by the Cemetery and many more films without the Godfather of Gore, including 1990: The Bronx Warriors, Thunder, The Wax Mask and Ghoulies II). It's also filled with imaginative FX, such as a room of zombies and a wooden chair that comes to life to kill off one of the contestants.

*Castle Freak, The Pit and the Pendulum, Night of the Sinner, Meridian and many more movies were shot in the castle.

"Spellcaster" isn't all that bad of a film, it's just not a slasher.

**SPOILERS**

Winning a trip to Italy through a contest, Jackie, (Gail O'Grady) and her brother Tom, (Harold Pruett) join other winners Myrna, (Martha Demson) Yvette, (Traci Lind) Terri, (Lim Johnston Ulrich) Harlan, (Michael Zorek) and Tony, (Marcello Modugno) settle into their rooms with Cassandra Castle, (Bunty Bailey) a rock star playing along in the contest. Wanting to get a leg up on each other, they all try to sneak out and find the prize before it starts, to no avail. When the contest starts, they start to die one-by-one from a mysterious source within the castle. Figuring that evil forces are at work, the remaining members race to stop the assailant from finishing their work.

The Good News: This one wasn't as bad as it could've been and is actually pretty good. The film has a large collection of really impressive special effects. There really isn't a lot of those effects that don't come off, and they mostly work. The different monsters created look really great, especially the lion-chair. That in itself looks really great, with the constant leather stretching and movement in slow motion combining with the realism for the creature and the fearsome look of it to really make the scenes work. The zombie sequence is one of the film's best, for it's an incredibly creepy scene and features some really good looking zombies. There's some definitive Italian in them, being very deformed and rotting, with grayed skulls, rotting limbs, exposed bone, and tattered clothing. They look really great and the sequence gives them a really nice introduction with their appearance. Having them emerge from the stone walls nearby and slowly creep up on the unsuspecting victim is really nice and the originality of the type of affair is another big reason. There's also a really nifty transformation in here from a human to a pig, and is done in complete werewolf type of order, from the snout emerging from the mouth, ears coming off the head, the hands transform into vicious looking claws and the rest of the body transforms into the creature. It looks really great and completely realistic, making it a real highlight. The film also has a really creepy location, as the castle is quite suspenseful. The large interior rooms, the long hallways, mysterious sculptures and paintings and the secret rooms allow for plenty of nice, creepy images whenever focus is in the castle. It's a really impressively designed place that gets a lot out of it when it's on it. This one really could've been a lot worse.

The Bad News: This film still has some problems with it. Aside from the impressive special effects, there wasn't much else to it. The film takes forever to get going, and the actual pretense of the plot, having the characters knocked off during the scavenger hunt, is started in the last half hour of the film. The introduction to the characters in the beginning takes far too long and really could've been trimmed down. The film's other big problem is in pacing. The main point of the film doesn't occur until it's almost over, and that is a really huge mislead. That almost has the film really losing it's momentum, as it takes forever to get through the set-ups. They rob the film and it's attempts at suspense and that's a real shame. Beyond these, though, the film doesn't really have many things wrong with it.

The Final Verdict: This was pretty good when it wanted to be, and there is a lot to like about this one. This one is not without it's problems, though, so give it a chance if you enjoy cheesy films just like this, but seek caution if you want a little more seriousness in films.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Violence, Brief Nudity and an attempted rape