The devil wants to make you a star in Empire Pictures' SPELLCASTER, on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.

Rock TV VJ Rex (Richard Blade, GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN) hits upon the idea of a contest in which music fans get to spend the weekend in an Italian castle with pop superstar Cassandra Castle (Bunty Bailey, DOLLS) for a treasure hunt for a million dollar check. Unfortunately, Cassandra is a lush, videographer Jamie (Dale Wyatt, HIGH RISK) is understaffed when her crew (make-up effects artists Mike Deak and William Butler, 1990's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) never return from a trip to find a high definitional camera, butler Bruno (Donald Hodson, TRANSFORMATIONS) is a killjoy with his rules about not damaging any of the castle's priceless antiques, their mysterious host Signore Diaboli remains unseen. It goes without saying that their host is the devil himself and the contest winners are ripe for damning temptation. California airhead Teri (Kim Johnston Ulrich, BLOOD TIES), French nymph Yvette (Traci Lind, FRIGHT NIGHT PART II), stuck-up British sportswoman Myrna (Martha Demson), slob Harlan (Michael Zorek, PRIVATE SCHOOL), and Italian punk Tony (Marcello Modugno, DIAL: HELP) are all willing to lie and cheat (among other things) to get the upper hand on the treasure hunt, and only orphaned Midwestern sibling winners Jackie (NYPD BLUE's Gail O'Grady) and Tom (Harold Pruett, EMBRACE OF THE VAMPIRE) seem likely to survive all but the most irresistible temptations.

One of the more stylish Italian-lensed Empire Pictures creature features, SPELLCASTER plays like an MTV-era take not so much on "Ten Little Indians" as THE DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE with various contest winners forfeiting their souls when they break the rules; yet, their fates only sometimes seem like poetic justice (the overeater metamorphoses into a pig, the game hunter is taken down by a demonic form of wild game, and the tease gets ravished by a centaur that steps out of a fresco). The tone is rather light with much of the violence being more conceptually gruesome, and the effects of John Carl Buechler favor creature effects over gore. Characterization is shallow but the performers make up for it, with Bailey – the girl in a-ha's iconic "Take on Me" music video – getting to demonstrate more range than in DOLLS. New wave rocker Adam Ant (NOMADS) has a special appearance, and it is easy to guess as whom. The end result is entertaining and breezy but could have done with a better script to better exploit the Bracciano's Castle location previously seen in CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD and the gorgeous cinematography of Sergio Salvati (THE BEYOND) that finds a balance between gothic and music video aesthetics. Screenwriters Ed Naha (TROLL) and Dennis Paoli (FROM BEYOND) were veterans of Stuart Gordon's Empire output. The second unit was directed by Buechler with Salvati's camera operator Roberto Forges Davanzati (CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD) as cinematographer while indie horror regular Tom Callaway (DEMON WIND) shot the stateside scenes.

Completed in 1988, SPELLCASTER was part of the Epic catalogue when it finally made it to VHS in 1992. An HD master turned up from MGM on various streaming services as well as a manufactured-on-demand DVD-R from MGM's "Limited Edition Collection" in 2016, but Vinegar Syndrome's limited edition Blu-ray comes from a new 2K scan of the original interpositive looking superior to the VHS incarnation, particularly with regard to Salvati's lighting and color gel choices as well as the slimy textures of the make-up effects which actually look less rubbery here. The Ultra Stereo track is rendered in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, with plenty of directional effects in the sound design, some good spread to the film's pop music, and clear dialogue (even when Blade's voice is annoying treated with reverb and echo). Optional English SDH subtitles are included.