Starring - Daniel Bernhardt (The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Logan), Patton Oswalt (Star Trek: Strange New World, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire), and Christina Orjalo (That's So Weird, The Big Comfy Couch)
Release Date - 2025
Genre - Action/Adventure/Horror
Tagline - "Evil has many names. Adventure has only one..."
Format - Streaming (Online Screener)
Rating (out of 5):
When I was in elementary school an estranged uncle of mine gave me a couple tapes. My dad was convinced that he stole them from a video store where he lived but we had no idea where they truly came from. The tapes were Jason Goes to Hell, Halfbaked, and Conan the Destroyer. Those three films would leave a huge impact on my childhood with the Conan tape opening up the door to so many sword and sorcery flicks. I would rent a lot of these films over the years including the 1983 Roger Corman produced Deathstalker. I enjoyed the film a hell of a lot and even enjoy the sequel to some extent. In fact, I watched the first Deathstalker not too long ago, long before I knew a remake was in the works. Anyway, a few weeks ago I received a press release for the release of the new Deathstalker film from director Steven Kostanski. Kostanski is one of my favorite modern filmmakers and I couldn't wait to see what he would do with this classic tale. I also wondered how he would incorporate his Astron-6 brothers into the film. I reached out to Shout and they were kind enough to send over a review link to check out. Thanks guys!
The film follows Deathstalker (Bernhardt) who has gave up his birth name and wonders the world pillaging and killing those that stand in his way. He finds a man dying on a battlefield and retrieves an amulet from him not knowing that it was cursed. This sends him on a quest to reverse the curse but in doing so he will need someone who knows magic. His first stop is the free a small magician named Doodad (Oswalt) and the pair set out to reverse the curse and put a stop to an evil Dreadite army before they awaken an evil force to take over the land.
Director Steven Kostanski has released some of the most unforgettable horror films of the last 15 or 20 years with movies like The Void, Man-Borg, Father's Day, Psycho Goreman, Frankie Freako, and Leprechaun Returns. This made me wonder what direction he was going to take his reimaging of Deathstalker. Was it going to stay true to the action adventure style of the classic, was it going to be heavy on the horror, or would it be a beautiful medley of action, adventure, and horror. The movie is exactly what the world needed and defies genres. The acting in this is exactly what you would expect from a reboot of a film originally produced by legendary Roger Corman. The cast is stiff, clunky, and delivers their dialogue like Mitch Hedberg delivers his one liners. However, it fits the film and almost pays homage to the films that inspired it. The characters are hulking barbarians, cut throats, and any other form of bad ass men you would find in the Golden Axe games. The cast really gets into character and it makes the scenes a lot of fun. The story for this one a typical sword and sorcery style adventure mixed with Power Rangers the Movie and Warriors of Virtue with a lot of blood and gore. We get a simple plot where a sword swinging adventurer goes on a quest to stop a curse while a group of undead warriors try to stop him. This is textbook fantasy if you ask me. We then get some comedy and some monsters that remind me a lot of the creatures from Power Rangers. They all have elaborate backstories and it adds a little more to the film than the predictable villains you would find in other films like it. Finally, the film is overflowing with amazing practical effects. We get a lot of gore, fantastic creatures, and amazing deaths. The deaths look great and the effects make this one stand out above the rest. Overall, Deathstalker is a must see for fans of monster movies, sword and sorcery, and Steven Kostanski. This movie is better than I expected and I know this will be very controversial but this is one of the few remakes that surpass the original. While I dig the original film, this is going to be a day one purchase for me and one I can see myself revisiting multiple times without tiring of it. I highly recommend it.
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