Hellmaster has a few things going for it. The best is that it scored two good horror names in the cast: John Saxon (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and David Emge (Dawn of the Dead). The second best is the storyline involving Saxon as an insane professor experimenting on the homeless and his college students with a drug he calls the reward. David Emge plays opposite Saxon as the hero who's been tracking him for years. After his "death", Saxon returns to campus twenty or so years later to further his experiments. He and his army of the homeless drive around in the Happy Face Bible School bus with a huge cross strapped to the grill. It's the creepiest bus I've ever seen. There's a great scene where one of Saxon's minions is driving around a campus security car dragging the guard's bloody body. There is also imagery of bleeding walls, mutant junkies, and scarification. Hellmaster has the making to be a good horror movie but most people find it hard to get past the terrible acting (other than Saxon). And there are a few other stupid elements in the movie. Like why would a college student carry around a whip, people in trouble saying Mayday, and other atrocities. I don't know if it was the film it was shot on, but sometimes it feels like a home movie too. Eighties horror fans should still enjoy, I know I do.
