Deathstalker

by Mike McGranaghan

The thing about 1980s fantasy movies is that even the ones that aren’t good hold a certain goofy appeal. CGI has radically transformed the genre, so while you get more technical perfection these days, a certain charm is lost. Nobody will ever claim Masters of the Universe, Krull, or Yor: Hunter from the Future are cinematic masterpieces. All of them have a cult fanbase, though, because something about them is appealingly retro.

Steven Kostanski, the director of PG: Psycho Goreman and Frankie Freako, clearly has an affinity for the decade’s fantasy features. His reimagining of 1983’s Deathstalker does what the recent Red Sonja remake couldn’t do – namely, recreate the vibe of its inspirations.

The plot, not that it matters too much, involves a fearsome scavenger known as Deathstalker (Daniel Bernhardt) who becomes cursed by a magical amulet. Trying to break the curse causes him to square off against the evil Dreadites, who are attempting to resurrect a long-deceased sorcerer named Nekromemnon. Assisting Deathstalker are spunky thief Brisbayne (Christina Orjalo) and a gremlin-like sorcerer called Doodad (physically played by Laurie Field but voiced by Patton Oswalt).

Plot is not the point of Deathstalker; the action is. The very first shot is of a creature getting his head sliced open vertically. Thus begins a nearly non-stop orgy of sword and sorcery-style violence. Along the way, our hero and crew fight lobster-like demons, stone golems, a mummy, and swamp creatures. Toward the end, Deathstalker acquires a four-bladed sword, and you can possibly imagine the type of damage he does with that thing.

Kostanski relies on tried-and-true fantasy filmmaking techniques to bring this mayhem to life. Matte paintings instead of digital backgrounds. Latex and rubber suits rather than CGI creatures. Old school computer graphics. There’s even a stop-motion animation scene in which two skeletons have a sword fight. These tactics have the effect of bringing back a classic feel. It’s as though the director emphasized all the things that were awesome about ‘80s fantasy movies and got rid of the stuff that sucked.

Many of those pictures were unintentionally funny. Deathstalker has a tongue-in-cheek quality that earns legitimate laughs. Viewers who yearn for the rush that came from catching a cheesy Conan the Barbarian rip-off on HBO in the middle of the night will undoubtedly enjoy what Kostanski pulls off here. This is a loving homage to the genre fare of days gone by with a dead on mixture of action, gore, and comedy.

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