Skullduggery (or its many alternative titles) seeks to cash in on the early 1980s backlash. A group of college students get together to play a D&D board game led by an older gentleman (who turns out to be the devil).One of these players - Adam - comes from a long line of cursed men (starting with a king who betrayed the devil). While Adam is helping out at a community college talent show, he remembers his ancestral curse and starts killing people.Adam seems to think that some of his victims are villains fron the D&D game, but other times its seems that Adam is under a demonic spell, or mentally ill or something else.Sometimes Adam seems to have command of several different magical powers, while other times he seems like a helpess puppet.He frequency changes into different costumes, can tranform theatre props into real weapons and women seem to instantly want to have sex (sometimes very kinky sex) with him.The devil - pretending to be two different men (a older D&D gamer and a rich man named, Dr. Evil) - seems confused about what he wants Adam to do.He wants Adam to kill people, he wants Adam to join some sort of Satantic cult, and he also wants Adam to kill most of cult members...for...some reason....The film lets us watch a large chunk of the talent show (a weird show... lacking in talent) and the party hosted by Dr. Evil (an even weirder event that seems to suggest the devil likes to hang with geeks, nerds, stoners, and wanna-be young intellectuals.I suspect that the director and writer thought that they were making a clever, avent garde film with a topical, supernatural twist.Mostly, the film is hard to follow, with lots of weird characters and scenes that don't really seem to make sense.When the film pauses to make a point, its either too University pretentious to be taken seriously, or the film tries to make a joke that ain't really funny.One of the D&D players makes so many lame sexual innuendo jokes, he comes off as more shallow then a certain character from the Family Guy series.The local hospital has a doctor who has sex with nurses, while dressed in a Gorilla costume. Why? A nurse leaves work to press Adams pants. She then tries to seduce him by pretending to be his mother. Why?The film pauses backstage during the talent show to show us two effemiate gay characters who exist as a "arent them gay people funny" joke.Later on, at the party, two gay characters act as door bouncers who (for some reason) try to rape a woman in a threeway. Adam kills all three with a harpon gun. Granted, Adam becomes an effective killer (it helps when the police are mostly inept, and people leave dangerous weapons lying around or hanging up on walls).What else is good in the film?The music is actually pretty good (albeit often out of place). Skullduggery will probably be enjoyed by people who want to "riff" it. The Spoony Experiment has done so, and more efforts will follow.

So I watched this film for probably the third time last night, and there was, of course, no shortage of laughing, MST-style mocking, and general merriment. This is certainly one of the absolute strangest movies I have in my bad movie collection (which is large). At the same time, the more I see this film, the more I'm convinced that there is something more going on here than is detectable prima facie. Now what that might be, I have absolutely no idea whatsoever. But I think there are some clues if we look closely.To me I think we need to look at the film as engaging with multiple cultural time periods (as hinted at by the pseudo-philosophical conversation had by the enigmatic might-be-brothers early on at the part). It's engagement with the past and present are clear (medieval times & the goofy slasher obsessed 80's respectively) but I think what is more interesting is how it deals with the future. The notion of reality blending into fantasy (and more importantly, a game) is very interesting and something that I think is still very relevant in our society (e.g. people committing suicide over "relationship" problems in Everquest, the loss of a sense of the outside world (e.g. neglecting children, etc) with similar games). The fact that the Tic-Tac-Toe man (one of the most interesting and baffling characters in any film I have ever seen) is constantly wandering through the scenes, reminding us that the line between reality and non-reality has been crossed. Really the whole film deals with this line.I also think that the image on the puzzle that is being put together over the course of the film is interesting. The image of Adam and Eve is one that is repeated a couple times throughout the film (during the play, on the puzzle, etc.) and so we might ask about what the significance of this is. I don't know, but maybe it has something to do with regression? The blending of reality and mythology? Who knows.There is probably more to say here (especially about the Tic-Tac-Toe man, the weirdo magician and the party), but I'll leave it to others to say it. I'm not gonna vote on this because it just feels wrong. I don't know that a rating would help anybody with this movie. It's a freaky, freaky movie, and you ought to check it out. Watch it to laugh and mock sure, but also try to open yourself to this other layer that may or may not be there.

Oh, Skullduggery, you horrible little cow patty of a film. Your actors are stiff and couldn't read the dialogue for an Ovaltine commercial with a sense of conviction, your plot is incomprehensible and filled to the brim with pompous symbolism no one buts its filmmakers could explain, and in the end, you just plain stink. But gosh darn it if I don't feel proud to have you in my collection of films. You are, without a doubt, the crown jewel in my cornucopia of crap. I threaten my friends with you and they cringe in fear. What power! And honestly, even though you still provide tons of laughs and potential riffing, one aspect of you keeps me coming back for more: your theme song! Oh, how brilliant is your theme song? I burned it onto a CD, for crying out loud! Does that not express my loyalty to you? I have no idea who was crazy enough to write the lyrics and put it to one of the worst tunes to come out of the '80s, but if I ever meet them, I will be sure to shake their hand (or tentacle) and say, "Thank you. Thank you."Can you read what's in my mind? SKULLDUGGERY! SKULLDUGGERY! Tearing up my mind! Heavy breath, passion in your eyes SKULLDUGGERY! SKULLDUGGERY! I just found a clue, it's all gone! YEAH! I can see what's in your head SKULLDUGGERY! SKULLDUGGERY! Feeling just ahead (??) Killer's smile, now I understand SKULLDUGGERY! SKULLDUGGERY! Shattered hopes and dreams all fall down! YEAH!Oh, good times, good times. 4/4 stars for sheer crapdom

I don't even know where to begin. The Scooby-like music. The frumpy male lead who, apparently, was Johnny Depp before there was Johnny Depp. The stiff, wooden females. The guy making the puzzle (I mean, what the heck does that prove?) This movie makes me want to puke whenever I see it and for some reason I see it often. You have to wonder why it is that every woman in town is unaccountably attracted to Adam. The edges of this guy's mouth are turned down so far, that even when he smiles it looks like he's frowning. But what can I say? The theme song is very catchy. It sticks to you like painful, prickly brambles. Basically, the whole movie is like a bad high school play, and obviously had the budget of one. All in all, I recommend this movie to fans of truly horrible cinema. Like me.