Mazes and Monsters

Mazes and Monsters (1982) is a fantasy-tinged drama you can watch online on iFILM. Four college students share a love for a tabletop role-playing game of labyrinths and beasts. Craving a bigger thrill, they move their next session into the real caverns beneath town — and for one of them, the wall between character and self starts to crack.

Robbie, played by a young Tom Hanks well before stardom, sinks the deepest. Bit by bit he loses track of where the hero ends and he begins: the cave tunnels blur into hallucinations, and his friends look like loyal questmates one moment and strangers the next. A harmless hobby curdles into a genuine break with reality, and the group realizes the game they pulled Robbie into nearly costs him his life.

Directed by Steven Hilliard Stern, this made-for-TV movie became a snapshot of its era, channeling the early-1980s moral panic over role-playing games. People mostly seek it out now for early Hanks and that period flavor. It's a quiet, slightly earnest watch for fans of retro television and stories about a mind on the edge. Stream Mazes and Monsters (1982) online on iFILM.