Editing Mazes and Monsters (section)

==Production==
[[File:World_Trade_Center_Tower_Two-19831013-RM-154520.jpg|thumb|Inside the lobby of the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]] South Tower (pictured in October 1983), where many of the film's climax scenes were filmed]]
The film was adapted from [[Rona Jaffe]]'s 1981 novel ''[[Mazes and Monsters (novel)|Mazes and Monsters]]''.<ref name="NYT" />

Jaffe based the novel on inaccurate newspaper stories about the disappearance of [[James Dallas Egbert III]] from [[Michigan State University]] in 1979. Early media accounts overemphasized Egbert's participation in [[fantasy role playing]], speculating that his hobby of ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' might have been a factor in his disappearance. William Dear, the private investigator hired to investigate the case, explained actual events and the reasons behind the media myth in his 1984 book ''[[The Dungeon Master]]''.<ref name="believer">{{cite journal | last = La Farge | first = Paul | title = Destroy All Monsters | journal = [[The Believer Magazine]] |date=September 2006 | url = http://www.believermag.com/issues/200609/?read=article_lafarge |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080920141500/http://www.believermag.com/issues/200609/?read=article_lafarge| url-status = dead |archivedate=2008-09-20}}</ref><ref name="Dear, 1984">
{{cite book
 | last       = Dear
 | first      = William C.
 | authorlink = William Dear (detective)
 | title      = [[The Dungeon Master|Dungeon Master: The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III]]
 | publisher  = [[Houghton Mifflin]]
 | year       = 1984  }}</ref> The public had received the novel amidst a climate of uncertainty regarding the new pastime of role-playing games.  Jaffe's account was read by many as a legitimate depiction of role-playing games, as many of her readers had no prior knowledge of the subject. In fact, in 1985 [[psychiatrist]] and anti-[[Media violence research|television violence]] activist [[Thomas Radecki]] of the National Coalition on Television Violence cited a fictitious letter written by a character in the novel as "proof" that ''D&D'' had caused the death of gamers.<ref>Hicks, Robert D. ''In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the Occult'' Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1991; p. 288</ref>

Like the novel on which it is based, the film touches on the claim that playing role-playing games could be related to psychological problems. At least one protagonist is (or appears to be) suffering from [[schizophrenia]] (or some analogous condition).<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Lowrey |first1=Mike |title=Tales stranger than fantasy |magazine=[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]] |issue=75 |page=74}}</ref>