It's always a treat when something this earnest and ambitious comes to the big screen, especially when it's also rough and beyond low-budget. Deathstalker might not compete with any of the big summer movies in terms of production values, but it is far more heartfelt and filled with more wit and fun than anything Masters of the Universe could put together.
Partially crowdfunded and put together on a shoestring budget of a few hundred thousand dollars, Deathstalker somehow looks grander than its meager origins would suggest. Thanks to inventive puppetry, imaginative costuming, and a cast of terrific character actors who all have understood the assignment, director Steven Kostanski's fantasy evokes the fun of 80s classics like Willow and The Dark Crystal. It's the rare kind of movie where every defect is actually a positive, as you can see the love and care that's gone into even the silliest effect.
The plot is as nonsensical and straightforward as any film of this type. It has the freewheeling energy of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and it's just infectious enough that I stopped caring if bits connected or not. Thanks to a hugely charismatic leading performance by Daniel Bernhardt, Deathstalker works as an oddball amalgamation of Conan the Barbarian and He-Man, in which the hero is both highly capable and a total doofus.
It's a terrific piece of self-aware acting, where Bernhardt always seems to be in on the joke, but adamantly refuses to make fun of the material. That, in turn, gives the audience permission to laugh with the movie, not at it. After a summer of glib meta-humor in every major tentpole release, I'm so happy to watch something that wears its heart on its sleeve.
In essence, Deathstalker is a former knight who makes his living scavenging from both crypts and the dead. One day, he picks up a golden amulet that turns out to be cursed. In his attempt to get rid of the cursed item, Deathstalker meets with the wizard Doodad (Patton Oswalt), who sends him on a quest to prevent the coming apocalypse.
Along the way, they pick up company from the rogue Brisbayne (Christina Orjalo) and encounter Deathstalker's former brother-in-arms, Jotak (Paul Lazenby), who now serves the evil forces. How will they do that? By finding a sword that's actually four swords put together. Does that make sense? Oh, probably not. But this is the kind of movie where the hero has a hand-drawn map with a location marked prominently as "BEER".
There are sword fights of varying quality – you can tell Bernhardt is perhaps the only experienced stunt actor in the crew – some great monster effects, and a banger of a soundtrack from Canadian trio Blitz//Berlin that really gets the heart of this genre. Everything is made with such sincerity that it's hard not to be impressed by the results.
Marketing materials compare Deathstalker to The Lord of the Rings, and it's not an entirely wild comparison. Sure, Deathstalker's budget is less than they spent on catering on those films, and you can see where the sets are basically a parking lot somewhere outside of Vancouver. But it has the same passion behind it as Peter Jackson's magnum opus. Given similar financing, I bet Kostanski and crew could create something just as grandiose.
If only we could get an entire trilogy of these films.
