The Deathmaster 2002 Horror Movie Review

I first saw “The Deathmaster” on the late Saturday night t.v. program “Shock Theater” on WRDW-TV Channel 12 Augusta, Georgia many years ago. Although I had forgotten most of the film, I did remember mainly two things, the performance of the great Robert Quarry and the lovely presence of Brenda Dickson as “Rona”, who later found success as “Jill” on “The Young and the Restless”. I also remembered the fun character actor John Fiedler as “Pop” and how his character wound up in the movie. Absolutely nothing else. I had seen Robert Quarry in “The Return of Count Yorga” in it’s first release in 1971. I had pretty much given up hope of ever seeing “The Deathmaster” again. Despite it being basically ok, I do find a few things a bit odd about this DVD release. It is advertised as a “Deluxe Wide Screen Edition”. My t.v. is widescreen, but the video is fullscreen and the credits are partially cut off. While the bonus material is nice, it seems to be more a tribute to Robert Quarry than to this film. And I don’t know about anyone else, but it only reads just over 84 minutes running time on my DVD player at the end of the credits, not the 88 “Scary” minutes as advertised on the back of the box. Everywhere I have looked lists the running time at 88 minutes. Other than that I enjoyed seeing the film again. It really captures the early 70’s very well and is a welcome nostalgia trip if nothing else. And don’t forget, there is Brenda Dickson to look at!!