The Dungeonmaster

The Dungeonmaster (aka Ragewar outside the US) is an anthology film with the main narrative of Paul trying to rescue his girlfriend ? from an evil Bull from Night Court is the glue that pieces these disparate tales together. It was also a showcase film for many of the special effects artists who would work on future Full Moon productions such as The Puppet Master series .

Cast

Richard Moll

Mestema

Gina Calabrese

Girl in Dream

Blackie Lawless

W.A.S.P. Lead Singer

Synopsis

The UK version of Ragewar (The Dungeonmaster in the US) from 1984 starts with a dream. It is a strange sort of dream because it has little to do with the rest of the film except possibly foreshadowing the abduction of Gwen. That, and the curious ability of Paul Bradford (Jeffrey Byron), the hero of this adventure, to wake up in different short films. Still, even in an anthology film with the most tenuous of ties to the overarching narrative, a foreshadowing dream sequence is strange.

In the dream, our hero is following a woman (Gina Calabrese) in a flowing red gown. They move in slow motion on and around and then into an abandoned military facility.

She is always just out of reach, and a good chunk of the opening is them moving in slowly and awkwardly first along the outside of the facility and then into the narrower, more claustrophobic hallways of the interior.

Then, once inside the facility and within the confines of the Unrated version of the movie, dream girl removes her clothing and climbs through a hole in the wall. He follows to find her laying on a mattress. The PG-13 version foregoes her losing the red dress and stranding in her naked, diffusion filtered red-gel glory. While she is nude in the PG-13 version of the film, she is shrouded in shadow with close-ups rather than body shots.

Then some creatures open the security door nearby and drag her away from him. The monster closes the door.

Who is this woman? Why was he chasing her? Why was she running? Why did she get naked on a mattress next to a creepy watertight door? These questions will undoubtedly be answered since dreams usually foreshadow things to come. Right?

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