The Alchemist (1983)

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

A wicked magician, a curse, reincarnation, a doorway to hell, demons with glowing eyes: The Alchemist is a hokey hodge-podge of supernatural horror clichés that might have been fun if it hadn't been for the terrible performances and torpid direction from Charles Band (hiding behind the pseudonym James Amante). The action trundles along at a sluggish pace: scenes go on far too long and repetitive shots pad out the runtime (the same shot of four bulrushes is shown three times).The film opens in 1871 with Aaron McCallum (Robert Ginty) trying to rescue his wife from the clutches of evil magician DelGatto (Robert Glaudini). During a struggle, Aaron accidentally stabs his wife, and is cursed by an angry DelGatto to forever live forever as an animal.The action then cuts to 1955, with waitress Lenora (Lucinda Dooling) driving cross country, picking up hitch-hiker Cameron (John Sanderford) along the way. While at the wheel, Lenora suffers from visions that force her to crash her car. Travelling on foot, followed by a concerned Cam, Lenora arrives at a graveyard where she meets Aaron, still young, who recognises her as the reincarnation of his dead wife. What follows is a hoary mess, told with zero verve, with weak special effects and total lack of scares.

This 80's horror is great, if you really wanna see some beautiful glass making, great f.x. and some heavy gore. Otherwise, there's not much else, in this B grade offering. Ginty, is great, as a guy, who's lover was taking by the devil. When trying to knife him, he mistakenly knives her. He's cursed for a hundred years, to live in pain and suffering, never aging. He lives with his daughter, I'm pretty sure, who's aged normally, now in her eighties. A girl, (Lucinda Dooling) obviously the same actress as Ginty's taken lover, who for Ginty, is freakishly familiar, keeps seeing horrifying visions, of this devil like creature, while cruising through the country. She has a pick up, Cam Rollins, (John Sanderford) who soon wished he wasn't, as he senses some strange behavior in this girl, as well as her, flashing out, creating danger behind the wheel. This soon has him suggesting she should go see a shrink while obviously being attracted to her, also. When they go off the road, into the woods, at her opting, something drawing her there, the two are soon acquainted with Ginty and company. Ginty, soon scraping the underneath as to Dooling's part in this, tells her those flashes of those events were real, where it's time for her to confront her demons so to speak, and put revenge Ginty at peace, as the gates of hell are about to open once more, the devil after Dooling. The Alchemist, it's movie cover, engaging, is really a facade, where this intriguing B grade flick, doesn't gather much interest, in 'movie happening land' especially in it's slow start, although I must admit the scenery was nice. It's worth really lies in Ginty's compelling performance.

The Alchemist is a nice gem from back in the day. Directed by Charles Band in 1981 under the pseudonym "James Amante" This was just before he founded the company Empire Pictures. If memory serves me right, Empire was established then he was planning to make the movie Trancers, which he also directed and meant to be the self video distribution company for Charlie's direct to video movies. Sort of, Let's cut out the middleman. Due to the huge success of Trancers, the Empire name became the main label for future releases. The Alchemist was not released until 1986 in USA, under the Lightning Video label, this was two years after its European release. There might have been an earlier release under the Empire banner, but I have never come a cross one. Richard Band did the score to the movie and this was made back to back with the score to The House on sorority row. A CD is available with the music for both movies.

I have an interest in Charles Band's pre-Full Moon work. He produced great films like 'Troll', 'Dolls', 'Ghoulies II', 'Crawlspace', and more. 'The Alchemist' has it's moments, but will leave must viewers scratching their heads. It's got loose ends and a serious consistency problem at the end. Dull scenes don't help keep the viewers' minds on the movie, adding to the confusion. The hitch-hiking scenes towards the beginning of the film are painfully long and sappy plus the stars are not offering particularly stellar performances. In fact, I don't really care for the characters.The moments of horror are kind of fun for the fans though. There is some creepy (satanic?) sorcery in the woods and demons are released through a portal in a grave yard. Oddly the demons spend more time getting the crud kicked out of them than doing damage, but hey, blood and guts are fun wether of human or demon origin. Gore effects and spooky sets will please fans.All in all, sad to say, I'll probably forget almost everything about this film within a month.