Dr Mordrid (1992)

Fans of Marvel comic characters such as Dr Strange may enjoy this one, although probably not as much as people who like short films made on a low budget for the direct to VHS market. 
       Yes everyone, another Charles Band production from the early 1990s is about to get a UK DVD release. A bit like Star Trek or James Bond films, Mr Band’s Full Moon Productions are a bit of a law unto themselves, and can only really be judged against each other. DR MORDRID isn’t top quality Full Moon, but it’s not that bad either.

Jeffrey Combs stars as the title character, Dr Anton Mordrid, who has been selected to look after the people of Earth by some kind of supreme being that manifests itself as a pair of eyes superimposed over a videoclip of stars moving very quickly. Dr Mordrid is not of this earth either. In fact, he seems to come from an asteroid that has a model castle stuck on top of it, where his beardy plate-armoured friend with no eyes lives, keeping guard over the numerous (and doubtless stop-motion animated) demonic creatures that are currently trapped beneath a saucepan lid stuck on one of the castle walls.

Problems arise in the form of Mordrid’s evil nemesis from childhood (and don’t we all have one of those?) Kabal, played by ‘Big’ Brian Thompson who went on to appear in numerous TV SF shows like BUFFY and THE X FILES. Kabal wants to release the demons so they can run amok on earth. This involves him recruiting one unreliable henchman and a young lady whose only  purpose seems to be to supply the film’s sole nude scene, and therefore the only reason for this film being anything other than a PG certificate. It does sometimes mystify me why jolly romps like this film seem so obviously suited to kids only for a scene for ‘more sophisticated audience members’ to pop up, or rather out, and spoil the fun. Because if my childhood was anything to go by, you can bet that’s the point at which your parents would be guaranteed to walk in and decide that the rubbish you’d got from the video shop was, well, just as unsuitable as they had suspected.

But back to DR MORDRID. Despite being hampered by non-acting sidekick Yvette Nipar and her very big hair, Jeffrey meets Brian for a showdown at the local museum. Brian uses his powers to stop motion animate a T. Rex skeleton. Jeffrey stop motion animates some kind of prehistoric mammal thing. They fight. The stop motion mammal wins. It’s actually a lot of fun and if you like seeing animated dinosaur skeletons fighting in a museum this is definitely the film for you. The end of the film promises more adventures but sadly (because like many Charles Band productions this is all really rather good natured fun) it was not to be.

88 Films presents DR MORDRID in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. There’s not much on the way of extras  but you get the original trailer, a Videozone making of, and a collection of trailers for mostly future 88 releases that’s a real blast. 

88 Films are releasing DR MORDRID on DVD on 17th February 2014