Hellmaster (1992)

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  (6 ratings)

This regional horror weirdness from Michigan begins on a college campus in the late 60s, where mad professor John Saxon once performed murderous atrocities under the aegis of a secret government eugenics project before being shot dead by one of his associates. Twenty years later, a string of murders… More This regional horror weirdness from Michigan begins on a college campus in the late 60s, where mad professor John Saxon once performed murderous atrocities under the aegis of a secret government eugenics project before being shot dead by one of his associates. Twenty years later, a string of murders seems to indicate the professor's return from the dead. As it turns out, Saxon's experiments produced a drug which transmogrified him into a superhuman being capable of manipulating the will of others. Intending to procure a hidden supply of the "Nietzsche Drug" from the catacombs beneath the campus, the professor gathers a team of zombie slaves to do his bidding. His evil plans are challenged by a young psychic (Amy Raasch), an activist reporter (Dawn of the Dead alum David Emge) and the sole survivor of a previous supernatural attack (Sarah Barkoff). As the zombie hordes amass against our heroes, the psychic takes a dose of Saxon's drug herself in order to level the playing field, and the two square off for a metaphysical battle of attrition. Filmmaker Douglas Schulze's script tries gamely to interweave elements of Timothy Leary-style drug counterculture, social commentary and religious symbolism, but nothing really meshes properly. There are nevertheless some styish touches, and Saxon carries off his difficult role with panache. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi