Mazes and Monsters
| Mazes and Monsters | |
|---|---|
VHS cover
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| Genre | Drama Fantasy |
| Written by |
Rona Jaffe (novel) Tom Lazarus (teleplay) |
| Directed by | Steven Hilliard Stern |
| Starring |
Tom Hanks Wendy Crewson David Wallace Chris Makepeace Lloyd Bochner Peter Donat Anne Francis Murray Hamilton Vera Miles Susan Strasberg Chris Wiggins Kevin Peter Hall Louise Sorel |
| Music by |
Hagood Hardy Judith Lander (song "Friends in This World") |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Tom McDermott |
| Producer(s) |
Richard Briggs Rona Jaffe (associate producer) |
| Cinematography | Laszlo George |
| Editor(s) | Bill Parker |
| Running time | 100 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
McDermott Productions Procter & Gamble Productions |
| Distributor | CBS |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release | December 28, 1982 (USA) |
Mazes and Monsters is a 1982 American made-for-television fantasy drama film directed by Steven Hilliard Stern about a group of college students and their interest in a fictitious role-playing game (RPG) of the same name.
The movie starred a 26-year-old Tom Hanks in his first major leading film role.
The film was adapted from a novel of the same name by Rona Jaffe. Jaffe had based her 1981 novel on inaccurate newspaper stories about the disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III from Michigan State University in 1979. Media accounts differed substantially from Egbert's actual story. William Dear, the private investigator on the case, explained actual events and the reasons behind the media myth in his 1984 book The Dungeon Master. Jaffe wrote her novel in a matter of days because of a fear that another author might also be fictionalizing the Egbert investigation.
The film premiered on CBS in 1982. It stars Tom Hanks, Wendy Crewson, David Wallace and Chris Makepeace. The film is currently available on VHS tape and DVD.
Like the book on which it is based, the film treats the playing of roleplaying games as indicative of deep neurotic needs. At least one protagonist is (or at least appears to be) suffering from schizophrenia (or some analogous condition) and in the end, the attainment of adulthood by other players is accompanied by the abandonment of role-playing games.
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Wikipedia