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 (052426)
Deathstalker is a marvelously inventive, action-packed sorcery flick. It is
clearly a love letter to the cheap exploitation movies of the past, and it is a
veritable schlock film lover’s delight. This absurd, ridiculously over-the-top,
and schlocky film is much more fun than it ought to be.
The original Roger Corman-produced version was no masterpiece, but it was, in
its own way, amusing. This version is in every way an upgrade over the original.
It has the same relation to the old exploitation films as grunge has to heavy
metal. It keeps most of the best stuff from its predecessors while cutting much
of what was excessive or outdated. The film succeeds in emulating the old Roger
Corman movies like Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), incorporating previously shot
footage. It creatively repurposes footage from Barbarian Queen (1985).
Deathstalker captures and often elevates almost everything that was glorious in
the often inept but enjoyable films that thrived on cable in the 80s, like
Beastmaster. Deathstalker also draws inspiration from and borrows ideas from
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Conan the Barbarian (1982), and The Lord of the
Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). There’s even a cool Ray Harryhausen-like
skeleton stop motion sword fight similar to the one in Seventh Sword of Sinbad
(1958). Although it does not resemble Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) in terms of
plot, it also shares the same sense of whimsy, and both feature mercenary
characters who often care more than they let on.
But it is most influenced by Army of Darkness (1992) and is packed with similar
horror-slapstick sequences and Lovecraft references. It’s no coincidence that
the evil monsters are called Dreadites, which sound almost like deadites in
homage to the Evil Dead films, and one of the characters is called, get this,
Necronomicon, similar to the Lovecraft text.
The only major change the film makes to the basic formula may be seen by
some as a nod to wokism. Since this is a post "Me Too" release, it has almost no
heaving breasts or occasionally gratuitous sex of the original. I did not miss
the frequent scenes that flirted with rape of the original, and I remember in
one of the old Deathstalker films, the main character turns down saving a woman
because he wants to have a ménage-a-trois.. But does this mean the next time we
see Conan, he will be a eunuch, or a one-woman man in the next Robert E Howard
adaptation?
The film was made by Steven Kostanski, a name familiar to fans of low-budget
horror and sci-fi flicks. Some of his previous projects include high-brow
Oscar-winning films (just joking) like Psycho Goreman, Father’s Day, Frankie
Freako, and Leprechaun Returns. I never heard of them either.
The mostly capable cast (just don’t expect Shakespeare-level performances)
includes Daniel Bernhardt, star of all the Bloodsport films, in the lead role.
He occasionally exhibits excellent comic timing and is good at doing action
scenes (this film could not afford stunt doubles). He almost exclusively does
action films, and you may have seen him in the Matrix and John Wick films.
But the supporting cast is all above average. Comedian and TV star, Patton
(Parks and Recreation and The Goldbergs) Oswald often steals the film, and he is
marvelous as a nerdy, bookish goblin. He is no stranger to voicing weird
characters, and he also voiced a character in the
Sandman
TV show, which
unfortunately lost its luster after Neil Gaiman left. Christina Orjalo is a
striking mixed-race Filipina-Canadian actress based in Toronto. She was in The
Time Traveler’s Wife and The Big Comfy Couch. She is charming and feisty here in
the role of an untrustworthy thief.
The film starts with a smaller-scale Infinity War-style epic massacre. There is
a siege in the kingdom of Abraxion, and humans are being massacred by masked
monsters. The Deathstalker slays a man who is about to kill the last survivor,
but he dies anyway. Our hero takes his rings and eventually obtains a magic
four-bladed sword, which is magical like King Arthur’s Excalibur. It is the only
thing that can prevent the end of the world. We are told by a solemn voice that
“only the four blades can extinguish the sour hearts of evil.”
He then visits a witch/oracle who says the earlier dying man had transmitted a
curse to him that can only be gotten rid of by passing it on to another. Deathstalker seeks help with the curse from a comedic sorcerer goblin who
resembles a gargoyle or a miniature version of Etrigan the demon named Doodad.
The character is played by a dwarf, but voiced by comedian Patton Oswald, who is
known to be a big comics fan. Doodad proves useful later when he saves the
Deathstalker by hypnotizing a group of tree zombies by playing a magical
instrument. They soon gain a third teammate in the form of Wristband, a clever
and androgynous young woman who calls herself the “thief supreme” (in
Deathstalker II, the title character called himself the prince of thieves. She’s
also a pretty decent fighter. In the rest of the film, the three heroes attempt
to evade the curse while stopping the encroachment of darkness, which threatens
to consume the world if they fail.
The group is pursued by a two-headed creature whose heads argue like the similar
Knighs of Nih in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Also, wherever they go, they are
followed by something that looks like a grotesque flying eyeball. The more
ridiculous it got, the more I liked it.
Unlike the gore in
Normal, all the gore here works visually and adds to the
film, aided by sometimes shocking, surprising special effects. At one point, the Deathstalker sees a woman’s head in the ground, and he thinks it is a living
woman, but when he tries to talk to her, the head splits open, and a bunch of
grotesque worms slither out, which look like smaller versions of the sandworms
from Dune.
There are three monsters that look like DC’s Swamp Thing, formed when dying
human spirits in the swamp merged with the swamp vegetation. In one of the
film’s visual high points, three men who look like DC’s Swamp Thing put their
roots into the deceased Deathstalker and somehow resurrect him. The wailing
woods characters are trees with faces that constantly cry. They are also
memorable.
In a Conan-like touch, many of the other characters tell tall tales and/or make
hilarious, exaggerated pronouncements about the Deathstalker. The local monarch
says, “Of all the traitorous parasites sucking the kingdom dry, Deathstalker is
the most handsome.”
The DVD features some fine extras (God, I miss physical media). It includes an
informative interview with the director, as well as a delightful, energetic
video by Slash of Guns N' Roses, who served as the film’s co-producer.
Like the recent
Toxic Avenger
and the best Troma or Roger Corman films, this is the best kind of cinematic
trash. It’s fresh, unpretentious, ingeniously unconvincing, and its cheesy but
creative special effects actually make the film better. This could almost be a
lost trash classic, and it looks and feels like the best and most
delicious-looking made-for-video release ever. This is a first-rate genre film
of its type, and fantasy and superhero fans in particular should seek it out.
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