There was a previous trilogy of Deathstalker films that came out in the early 1980s. That was a time of sword and sorcery films such as The Beastmaster, Sorceress, The Conan films, Barbarian/Destroyer, and Kull. As a fan of fantasy movies, they were right up my alley as a kid. Now, the filmmaker behind Psycho Goreman has brought Deathstalker back for a new generation of filmgoers who are looking for a campy take of this lost genre of films. If anyone has seen one of Steven Kostanski’s movies in the past, then they know they shouldn’t be taken very seriously.

Deathstalker (Daniel Bernhardt,John Wick,The Ballerina) is fighting on a battlefield when he comes across a dying man who has an amulet on him. He’s hoping to get some gold in exchange for the amulet he so takes it. Little does he know that the amulet I’d cursed. He is told by a witch that he is stuck with the amulet until he can reverse the curse. Along his journey, he meets Doodad (Patton Oswalt, Laurie Field), who is a bit of a warlock and Brisbane (Christina Orjalo), a member of the thieves guild. They come across multiple assassins in the form of a two-headed troll, a chain blade wielding one-eyed assassin and many acolytes of Nekromemnon (Nicholas Rice), a wizard trying to gain power and rule over the land of Abraxion.

With the creativity that he has as a writer/director, Steven Kostanski is able to do all the things he’s famous for in the filmmaking community. The campy nature of his previous movies is very prevalent, and I loved what I saw. There was plenty of blood and guts, beheading, and gore. With a sword and sorcery film such as this, you know there is hoping to be a lot of strange terms and phrases as well. The light of talon and the vessel of scytor are just a couple that are said by the Oswalt character. He seems to know about the lore behind the land and the Asmordian Amulet. Which is a key item that helps the narrative move forward.

The amulet is a macguffin that is found at the beginning of the movie and plays a huge part throughout the film. The wizard that shows up in the third act wants it to bring back some kind of being, which shows up in the form of some big ugly creature. Even other characters want the Asmordian amulet for their own nefarious means. This has become more and more of a story beat for multiple filmmakers in the past few months. This is about the fourth macguffin I’ve seen in a movie in recent months. I wish there were other things filmmakers could do to create an interesting narrative for their films. These tropes have started to grow old.

There were a few technical aspects of this fantasy film that I was impressed by. Those were the makeup and hairstyling.  The costumes and prosthetics of all the characters were very impressive. As mentioned, the creatures and Wizards all had incredible looks to them. There was a mix of CGI and stop motion animation thrown in for good measure. One character even had his arm cut off, and it was brought back as a demon arm. That’s the creativity that this makeup and hairstyling team brought to this movie. Even though there were masks and so forth that looked a little campy, they all played into the vibe of the film.

Another technical aspect that was very impressive was the cinematography by Andrew Apelle. He combined a lot of different looks to give this movie a very distinctive style. There were cloudy scenes that shadowed swamps or other bodies of water.The color palette was very vibrant throughout the whole movie, but early on, the scenes looked gorgeous. With a small budget, I’m sure capturing the landscape without giving too much away of the locations that were used in the filming of the movie.This film could have looked bad with the campy nature the filmmaker was going for but it didn’t. It looked good.

The cast besides the members I mentioned was for names you may have heard of in other movies in the past. Some of these men and women have been in more films than you’d previously remember. Laurie Field is the human that plays Doodad. Even Oswalt is the voice of the character. She,  as a little person, is exceptional in this role. Others, Grendel (Nina Bergman, Jotak (Paul Lazenby) and Pig Face (Jon Ambrose), are quite creative characters. Some new and others from the previous iteration of the film. The supporting cast does a great job supplementing the main actors. 

Daniel Bernhardt is an actor and stunt coordinator who has popped up a lot in recent years. Specifically in the John Wick franchise. He has had a great working relationship with Chad Stehelski and David Leitch over the past decade or so. He was a pleasant surprise to see in the lead role of Deathstalker, because usually he is a nasty henchman who is eventually killed off in a very violent nature or just another guy trying to get the hero. I’ve seen him die more times than I can remember in the John Wick franchise. One of the funny things about him is that he always tries to hide by having different hairstyles or wigs. I get a kick out of him popping up so much in these films. It’s become a thing now where I look for him. He was cool to see in this role, though. I liked him getting to be in front of the camera so much. Especially all the sword fighting he was doing. Is this a precursor for what film fans will see in The Highlander remake filming soon? Only time will tell. I hope to see him more though in films.

Deathstalker is the kind of movie that you have to have a bit of suspension of disbelief. The swords and sorcery genre is a thing of the past, but in the right hands, it can be fun. The campy nature of this film is right up the alley of writer/director Steven Kostanski. He understood the task at hand when making this campy remake of this previous film. His style, including the blood, guts, and gore, were all very prevalent in this new iteration of this film. The makeup and hairstyling were also a big part of his movies, and that is a main part of this one as well. The cast also understands the task of what this movie was all about. Many, I’m sure love this genre and wanted to revisit a classic like this again. I loved seeing a new version of this film. It was in the good hands of many people who understood they weren’t trying to make an Oscar winning movie.They were trying to make a campy fun movie. And they accomplished that very well indeed.

3 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen