Crew
Director/Screenplay – Steven Kostanski, Producers – James Fler, Andre Thomas Hunt, Michael Paszt & Pasha Patriki, Photography – Andrew Appelle, Music – Blitz//Berlin, Special Effects – Area 1 FX (Supervisor – Mike Hamilton), Creature Effects/Prosthetics – Action Pants FX Inc. (Creature Design – Steven Kostanski), Prosthetics Supervisor – Jason Detheridge, Production Design – Joshua Turpin. Production Company – Berserker Gang/Hangar 18 Media/NOHFC/Telefilm Canada/Ontario Creates.
Cast
Daniel Bernhardt (Deathstalker), Patton Oswalt (Voice of Doodad), Christina Orjalo (Brisbayne), Laurie Field (Doodad), Paul Lazenby (Jotak), Nicholas Rice (Nekromemnon), Nina Bergman (Grendul), Tanya Saari (Torvala), Adam Brooks (Prince Halgan), Conor Sweeney (Prince Baldur)
Plot
The world of Abraxium is under attack by the zombified Dreadite armies. A former knight known only as Deathstalker takes an amulet from a dying prince on a battlefield. Deathstalker then finds that having that the amulet means that assorted creatures and the black sorcerer Necromemnon are seeking to obtain it. He finds he is unable to throw the amulet away and the only means he can get rid of it is by his death. He rescues the sorcerer Daedelad Parsaneon, better known as Doodad, and they set out in search of a scroll that might hold the secret of getting rid of the amulet. Joined by the thief Brisbayne, they try to complete the task and stop Necromemnon from obtaining the amulet to raise the demon Citor.
The original Deathstalker (1983) was a low-budget entry in the early 1980s sword-and-sorcery fad produced by Roger Corman. The film was a reasonable success in video release and Corman oversaw three sequels with Deathstalker II (1987), Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell (1988) and Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans (1991). This is a remake.
The remake is directed by Canadian makeup effects artist Steven Kostanski. In between work on assorted Canadian-shot genre films, Kostanski made his directorial debut along with five other directors as part of the Astron-6 collective with the Troma film Father’s Day (2011). Kostanski then solo directed Manborg (2011), an hilariously low-budget gem that homaged the 1980s science-fiction film. He followed this with the W is for Wish segment of ABCs of Death 2 (2014); co-directed the H.P. Lovecraft homage The Void (2016); and solo directed Leprechaun Returns (2018), a continuation of the popular 1990s series; P.G. Psycho Goreman (2020), another 80s homage wherein kids befriend an intergalactic dark lord; Frankie Freako (2024) about a phone hotline that summons a troll; and The Veggie Masher episode of V/H/S/94 (2021). Deathstalker is produced by Berserker Gang, a company founded by Slash, the guitarist in Guns ‘n’ Roses, as well as Rodrigo Gudiño, the former editor of Rue Morgue magazine and director of The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh (2012) and The Breach (2022).
Surprisingly, I have never seen the original Deathstalker or one of its sequels, so am reliant on looking up online sources to conduct comparison. It would appear – correct me if I am wrong – that Steven Kostanski has abandoned all but the very basic idea of a barbarian warrior named Deathstalker. The original Deathstalker was accompanied by an imp, which somewhat corresponds to the small, unspecified goblin-like creature Doodad that joins Deathstalker here. Aside from that, Kostanski has essentially made up his own story.
Kostanski has a love of 1980s low-budget genre films so something like Deathstalker is right up his alley. Perhaps the most noticeable thing that Kostanski adds over the original is a sense of humour and plays the adventure aspect with tongue planted in cheek (although apparently this was a facet of some of the sequels to the original). The hero Deathstalker and his goblin sidekick and the thief Brisbayne have a constantly joking rapport right throughout.
The other thing that Kostanski loves is creature effects. Kostanski provides these through his makeup effects company Action Pants FX Inc and goes overboard. The film is filled with an amazing array of creatures including fights with two-headed trolls; a visit to a witch who wears a wooden box over her head; a red-hooded creature whose face looks like a brain contained beneath a leather mask who attacks with tentacles; a stone golem that rotates its faces; a flying eyeball with wings; the red Dreadites, which we even see being resurrected from the bodies of the dead at one point; and the giant demon figure with a band of lights above its head that emerges at the climax. All of these are relayed by physical rather than CGI effects. Kostanski even homages Ray Harryhausen’s Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and has the two sorcerers fighting with stop-motion animated resurrected skeletons briefly at one point.
The plot is a fairly generic sword-and-sorcery adventure – a cursed amulet, a quest, a party of sorts, assorted wilderness encounters, the Big Bad of a black caped sorcerer. Kostanski delivers it with lively regard where the jokey tone clearly indicates perhaps that a straight barbarian fantasy 1980s styled would no longer fly in the 2020s. It is however the extraordinary creativity of the creature effects that make Deathstalker the enjoyable ride that it is.
Trailer here