Deathstalker (1983)


I often see these games advertised for cell phones.  I have been around long enough that I didn't have to learn my lesson by downloading one of them.  I just read the comments and find out that, without exception, the interesting game in the advertisement has nothing to do with the actual product.  That bait and switch is one of the oldest in the book and Roger Corman definitely knew how to take advantage of it.  Many producers of low budget films did.  In fact, it was often a regular practice to come up with a title and poster long before there was even a script merely for the purpose of getting someone to invest money in the movie. 

Unfortunately, that is most likely what happened with this one.  Boris Vallejo did some amazing artwork on the poster and Corman or someone on his team came up with a great name.  There are plenty of bosoms, there is a musclebound blonde guy in a loincloth, but beyond that this poster is not the movie one will see.  Still, it did its job, as Deathstalker managed to turn a profit and spawn three sequels.

Deathstalker (Rick Hill) is an outlaw living the free life in a kingdom ruled by an evil wizard named Munkar (Bernard Erhard).  He is tasked by the witch Toralva (Verónica Llinás) to use a magic sword, one of three elements of creation, to retrieve the other two - a chalice and an amulet - from Munkar.  Along the way he gains help from the sword's guardian, Salmaron (Augusto Larreta), a female warrior named Kaira (Lana Clarkson) and another traveling swordsman named Oghris (Richard Brooker). 

Munkar has arranged a tournament for the realm's heroes promising them the prize of becoming his heir.  His true goal is to have them kill each other off so that he is safe.  He also is quite aware that Deathstalker has the sword and has also been tasked with saving Codille (Barbi Benton), the daughter of the true king that Munkar overthrew.  

The plot is a mess.  Kaira also seems to be on a quest to save Codille, most likely given to her by King Tulak (Jorge Sorvik) after Deathstalker refused.  There is the expected betrayal and all the other things that go with a sword-and-sorcery film.  Then, there is the whole idea of literally bringing the item to the bad guy that is key to making him invincible. 

The music isn't bad, and hopefully the poster art was also on the soundtrack album so one could sit back, listen to that and look at the cover rather than having to sit through the movie, whose budget is too obvious in many scenes and is edited in such a way that it feels like it is made for television.

What makes it obvious that it isn't is the amount of rape.  Pretty much every woman is running around in the skimpiest outfit possible, with Lana Clarkson put in something that has her fighting topless.  They are all pretty much getting assaulted all the time, not just by bad guys but by the heroes.  When we meet Deathstalker he has just finished saving a woman from being raped only to try to rape her himself.  As I have said many times before, I don't mind a movie filled wall-to-wall with female nudity, and I can ignore any male nudity as it's just there.  Rape, especially when played for humor, is a different animal altogether. 

That is pretty much the only reason anyone watches Deathstalker.  It's not to enjoy what is in it, but to marvel at how terrible a film it is and how writer Howard R. Cohen and director James Sbardellati managed to make it more distasteful that fun.  I had issues with Barbarian Queen for many of the same reasons, but at least that felt more like a movie that was trying to entertain rather than a soulless piece of cinema.  

Deathstalker (1983)
Time: 80 minutes
Starring: Rick Hill, Lana Clarkson, Richard Brooker, Augusto Larreta, Barbi Benton, Bernard Erhard
Director: James Sbardellati

 

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