Dr. Anton Mordrid (Jeffrey Combs) is a sorcerer living in New York City. He was sent to Earth 150 years ago by an entity known as the Monitor to protect the Earth from an evil sorcerer called Kabal (Brian Thompson). After 100 years of battle Kabal was imprisoned. He vowed revenge. Dr. Mordrid monitors activity on Earth waiting for the signs that Kabal has escaped imprisonment from the Magic Dimension and has returned to Earth to seek his vengeance.
Mordrid secretly owns the apartment building where Samantha Hunt (Yvette Nipar) lives. Samantha is a police research assistant. Samantha develops an interest in the mysterious Dr. Mordrid.
Mordrid maintains surveillance of activities all over the world. He learns that there have been thefts of alchemical elements that Kabal would need. Kabal plans on using the elements along with an ancient relic known as the philosopher’s stone to open the gates to the Magic Dimension and release the demons from the fourth dimension on the Earth.
While Mordrid is preparing for battle he is arrested by Tony Gaudio (Jay Acovone), one of the detectives that Samantha works with. Tony believes that Mordrid killed a young woman who was actually murdered by Kabal. Samantha wants to help Mordrid. Mordrid tells her to get the talisman that was taken off him when he was arrested. He instructs her on how to use it to freeze people temporarily.
Once Mordrid is away from police custody he projects his spirit to the museum where the philosopher’s stone is displayed. Kabal is already there.
“Doctor Mordrid” was released in 1992 and was directed by Albert Band and Charles Band. It is direct to video American superhero movie. It’s a rather short movie at only 74 minutes long. The people that created Doctor Mordrid also did “Re-Animater” 1985 and “From “Beyond” 1986, both of which starred Jeffrey Combs. Technically it was a kid’s movie but the Bands added a naked woman scene so, on came the “R” rating.
The movie was produced by Charles Band and his father Albert. It was originally supposed to be an adaptation using the Marvel Comics character Dr. Strange. Charles, at one time, held an option for the adaption but the option expired before the movie could be made. A retooling of the screenplay, written by C. Courtney Joyner was done creating characters that did not come from the Marvel world including the Doctor Mordrid character.
There are some similarities between Doctor Mordrid and Doctor Strange such as astral travel, magical beams, transformation spells, and the usual sorcerer abilities. Some comparisons can’t be made since little is known of Mordrid’s past.
The film was actually a kind of fun fantasy. What needs to be taken into account is that the budget was a fraction of what the Dr. Strange budget ended up being in 2016. Also the choice of Jeffrey Combs as Dr. Mordrid was an unusual selection but Charles and Albert Band had worked with Combs before so it’s not a total surprise that they went with someone they were familiar with. I didn’t believe there was a romantic inclination between Mordrid and Samantha but I was inclined to believe there was a mutual respect between the two.
I also would have liked the film to have been longer than it was. Some more magical stuff would have been nice although the reanimated T-Rex and Mammoth skeletons were actually kinda cool. The pace was also a little slow in spots but nowadays superhero movies are so stuffed full of action that you expect something going on all the time. The special effects they did have were actually good.