Skullduggery (1983)

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Director: Ota Richter

Screenplay: Ota Richter and Peter Wittman

Cast: David Calderisi as the Sorcerer / Dr. Evel; Wendy Crewson as Barbara / Dorigen; Thom Haverstock as Adam; Pamela Boyd as the Queen; Jack Anthony as Mr. Sluszarczuk

[Spoilers Throughout]

Synopsis: In medieval times, an evil sorcerer curses an entire family tree. The latest descendant of that tree, Adam (Thom Haverstock), becomes a violent killer when a fantasy dungeon game awakens the curse within him. After that is entirely subjective to each viewer's opinion...

Out of the obscurest corner of the slasher film subgenre, Skullduggery boggles. What begins as a Dungeons and Dragons fear mongering ends with police officers taking pot shots at a living suit of armour, but that seems logical to what happens in-between. One of the worst amateur dramatic plays shown in cinema takes place in a lengthy talent show that goes on and on. A magician, never explained and merely the magician, appears and makes a woman's top flutter only to begin the curse proper in our lead Adam afterwards/ A man claims he can such through a bus exhaust pipe to chat up a woman, without realising the homoerotic qualities of that line. Details, after the medieval prologue done in two sets and period costumes, which are jarring in tone. The beginning of  Skullduggery's ability to pile on further strange details afterwards.

Like the man with a noughts and crosses game on his back. He appears near the beginning and throughout the film at various points, the game slowly being played by unseen forces offscreen. His constant appearance seems too precise to be accidental but why he is there is unknown. The players of the game are unknown and it feels vaguely Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978) in tone, broad humour so upfront it drops on the floor flat. Its surrealism is in the tone of the Zucker Brothers but played at such a sluggish tone the presentation is off. If it's funny weird, it's definitely weird. Inexplicable things appear too. During a scene of the killer chasing a woman cutting to a length, it cuts to a minute long panning shot of mourners at a funeral who never appear again. Or Liberace's stand-in in the church flailing away at organ through stained glass.

Is it even a comedy? Well Wacko (1982) came around this time, so already the slasher was mocking itself as the glut came to be into the early eighties. But the tone is sabotaged by its non-sequiturs. Unless its ingenious and subtle in a way I cannot understand, but that's part of the inexplicable nature of Skullduggery. When a hospital murder sequence includes a smoking gorilla doctor who has just had sex with a human nurse, God only knows where we are stil going. Where has this film even been? The reason behind the entire Canuxploitation moment of Canadian genre films can only offer of a slither of this film's existence; that as the economic benefits to produce countless movies in the region, director/co-writer Ota Richter was one of many allowed to depict whatever he wanted onscreen as long as he completed a film that could be released. Even to the point its questionable if this is technically a slasher in the first place. There are elaborate deaths, but when they are all illusions for psychic heart attacks, all with an evil harlequin puppet controlling Alex, we are lost further in the general barking madness between the large couple who suddenly appear in rabbit costumes and a woman being wrapped around in a large python.

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Takings its Dungeons and Dragons paranoia into mind is as much part of the strange stew. Its misguided on both ends of the argument about the Satanic panic hysteria of the eighties. To merely mock the conservative Christians who got caught up within it as, considering secularists forget that if they believe Satan is real, it's a terrifying idea that he'd corrupt your children if given the chance. To merely dismiss it as silly and ironically watch their numerous scare videos on the subject as, trying to attack heavy metal and D&D fans amongst others, they took Mary Whitehouse stupefaction and old/new generation divide into problematic territory by suppressing individuals' rights. Mazes and Monsters (1982), where young Tom Hanks went insane without a basketball named Wilson and because of fantasy role-playing, is the nadir (height?) of D&D paranoia in film. Here it's worth mentioning as it barely plays a part, which just adds to the perplexing nature of this creation. Tapping into the zeitgeist but except that Alex targets people based on the missions in the game. It adds to the inexplicable nature of Skullduggery where an evil harlequin doll is truly more evil than the fantasy game but the game is still bookending the plot, whatever it is, feeling like the template to disguise the excuse for general madness.

In general the structure is like that of many slasher films. Fundamentally and technically adequate. Basic with varying, wonky scales for acting quality. The dialogue, because of the nature of this beast, is a stand out for sucking through bus exhaust qualities or squirrels down peoples' trousers. The deaths are closer to A Nightmare on Elm Street but no way near as creative, merely supernatural. It doesn't even have any real gore or any actual nudity, going against the lurid strains of this subgenre. The film has, by its ending, Alex going to a Satanic party with the camera intercutting between two male dorks, a very busty woman between them ogled by the camera for a long time, inexplicable melting down to a skull, and a mysterious doorway that never is explained, alongside two cops named Holmes and Watson who are useless in a cringe worthy attempt at humour, just adding to the strangeness. It can be compared to Jackie Kong's Blood Diner (1987) is that wasn't an insult to Blood Diner. That's not to say Skullduggery was compelling entertainment, but this is the queerest of weird horrors to experience.

Abstract Spectrum: Psychotronic/Weird

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): Low

Personal Opinion:

From the bowls of slasher cinema, rewarding just for how compellingly weird it is. You don't come here unless you expect this weirdness, and you'd be sorely disappointed if you came for another Canadian slasher to put near those like My Bloody Valentine (1981).

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