Despite some of the claims in its opening credits, Doctor Mordrid (1992) is very much indebted to the comic book Doctor Strange. In fact, Doctor Mordrid is probably the best Doctor Strange film ever made. Unlike the films Disney has produced, Doctor Mordrid is campy, overly sincere, and features the kinds of special effects that recall the fantasy films of the sixties and the Vincent Price films that Roger Corman made.
The visuals in Albert and Charles Band’s Doctor Mordrid, especially the practical effects and analog methods, encapsulate the look of the Doctor Strange comic from the late seventies through to the early nineties; evoking the otherworldly quality of the various dimensions that Doctor Strange often features. But more than that, Doctor Mordrid essentially shares the same origin narrative as Doctor Strange and Baron Mordo, though renamed Doctor Mordrid (Jeffrey Combs) and Kabal (Brian Thompson). In addition the character of Samantha Hunt (Yvette Nipar) in Doctor Mordrid is an inspired imitation of the Morgana Blessing character from Doctor Strange.
The plot of Doctor Mordrid basically covers one issue worth of story from a Doctor Strange comic book. In seventy-five minutes Albert and Charles Band bring thirty-two pages of comic to life, following every beat of that formula precisely. It’s the formulaic nature of a monthly comic book that makes a superhero property ideal for b-movies. Like superhero comics, b-movies tend to vary very little and cut production costs where ever possible. The monumental superhero films of Christopher Nolan and the MCU, while formulaic, are bland because they lack the hands-on, scrappy approach of comic books and Full Moon studios.
But being a faithful comic book adaptation does not ensure greatness. But Doctor Mordrid doesn’t pretend to be an art film like Nolan’s Batman pictures nor an epic human drama like the Marvel films at Disney. All the Bands want to do with their film is to offer their audience a pleasing bit of escapism that is rooted in the comics idiom. In this context Doctor Mordrid is a kind of masterpiece.
