For the past one hundred and fifty years, thousand-year-old sorcerer Anton Mordrid (Jeffrey Combs, CASTLE FREAK) has watched over the Earth posing as a reclusive criminologist (with a pet raven named Edgar). When mysterious heists of alchemical elements start taking place around the globe, Mordrid learns that his childhood friend turned evil sorcerer Kabal (Brian Thompson, THE TERMINATOR) has escaped his imprisonment in another dimension and means to take over the plant. Mordrid arouses the curiosity of police psychologist neighbor Samantha Hunt (Yvette Nipar, SKI PATROL) as well as the suspicion of Detective Gaudio (Jay Acovone, INDPENDENCE DAY) when the body of one of Kabal's sacrifices (stuntwoman Julie Michaels, WITCHBOARD 2); and Mordrid will have to convince Samantha of the reality of magic before Kabal can get the final alchemical element to create the Philosopher's Stone and bring demons from another dimension into ours.

One of Full Moon's lesser-known Paramount-era productions, DR. MORDRID felt like a bit like a failed franchise for Combs when it was first released. In retrospect, it's a welcome respite from the studio's miniature monster movies with the always welcome Combs toning down his manic "Herbert West" personality, fresh-faced Nipar, and scenery-chewing Thompson and actual American locations rather than Italian and Romanian sound stages and nondescript exteriors. The production design of Full Moon regular Milo (OBLIVION) is more striking than usual and Richard Band (THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM) and the cinematography of Adolfo Bartoli (PUPPET MASTER III) quite slick, but the finished film does feel a bit small-scale for the epic forces with which it (and it's further installments) meant to deal.