Smartorhypo
Highly Overrated But Still Good
PiraBit
if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.
filippaberry84
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Scarlet
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
cllangkjaer
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.
callanvass
semi decent horror flick has lots of blood to satisfy gore hounds cheesy acting but it does have a lot of creepy parts too the script is pretty muddy at times and doesn't make much sense and can get kinda dull but this is a mostly watchable time that is kinda enjoyable it has a really awesome ending and good photography the effects are decent but this does get a little too confusing at times and the dialog is sometimes laughable although the characters are fairly amiable i just couldn't warm up to one of the performances so if you didn't have anything else to rent at your local video store ya might as well pick this up its a semi enjoyable rainy night/afternoon watch ** out of 5
horrorbargainbin
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.
Shan-12
Apparently, this film sat on a shelf for 4 years before being released. Not long enough I say ...
