Deathstalker 4K 1983 Ultra HD 2160p

A fairy tale film in the style of Star Wars, a journey into a world of evil sorcerers, magical warriors, adventures, and unearthly passion, a world where only the strongest survive. A muscular warrior (Hill) tries to save a beautiful princess (Benton) from an evil wizard.

User Review

Deathstalker (the second part was more popular in Russia at the dawn of the video boom) was filmed by a certain James Sbardellati, who used the pseudonym John Watson in the credits. Probably out of shame. The producers include the well-known Roger Corman, under whose auspices many good films were released, but who nevertheless became famous as a creator of trash. Add to this the less-than-stellar ratings on movie review sites, and you'll understand why I was skeptical when I started watching this thing, inspired by only one thing: the poster by the well-known Boris Vallejo, whose work I greatly admire.

Some might say, “So what's the problem? Just find the pictures on the internet and enjoy.” But still, it would be interesting to see this exhibit, because although historical fantasy is not my favorite genre, I do have some respect for it, thanks to Conan the Barbarian, He-Man, and the animated series Dungeons & Dragons. I gathered my strength and took a look.

And, as they say, I worried for nothing - Deathstalker turned out to be a lively fantasy, at times so reckless and silly that at times the film looked more like a parody of fantasy than a full-fledged representative of the genre. And even the blatant low budget, although noticeable, is not annoying.

The plot doesn't even try to be original: in a distant kingdom, an evil bald sorcerer with a tattoo on his cheek overthrows the king and kidnaps his daughter. The king turns to Deathstalker for help, a sort of cross between Conan and He-Man (the harsh, lustful Nordic character of the former and the shoulder-length blond hair of the latter). Our hero sets off to the rescue, participating along the way in a fighting tournament organized by the sorcerer.

Women. There are many of them. I'll start with them because I simply can't keep quiet - there are dozens of naked female bodies in this film. Clothing is completely unnecessary and of secondary importance here, so the beauties flaunt themselves in transparent capes, and the main character's companion wears only a cloak. Under which there is absolutely nothing, yes.
Phew. Finally. Now we can move on to other things—the actors, for example. In principle, everything is not as bad as one might initially think—for example, Rick Hill is quite charismatic for the lead role. He will be joined by Richard Brocker, a handsome guy who resembles Mark Hamill, and you would never guess that he played Jason in the third Friday the 13th. Bernhard Erhard is busy in the role of the main villain, the sorcerer Munkar, who, although he is a walking cliché of all evil sorcerers at once, evokes a certain amount of sympathy, and you even feel a little sorry for him at the end.

Special effects, sets, etc. — well, I can't say anything flattering here. The costumes are okay, plus there's a lot of blood, but otherwise, the lack of money is noticeable. It's a banal thing, but it still hurts the eyes. The sword fights are well staged, but there aren't as many limbs flying in all directions as you might think. There are a couple of monsters (a cave troll, later turned into another companion of the main character, and a pig-nosed fighter), but they are made primitively, though not hopelessly. The sets are poor papier-mâché, although the authors make little attempt to hide this. There is also a little bit of drawn magic, which looks okay, but still not great.
Overall, the film is provocatively stupid and clichéd, but after searching for relevant information, I learned that for Corman, it was an experiment in combining fantasy and eroticism, and that's exactly what the film managed to do, adding to the mix a few spectacular battles and a moderately epic soundtrack in the style of “I want to be like Basil Poledouris, but I don't have the money, so I'm doing my best.” It's one of those cases where it's so bad that it's actually good.

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (84.9 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Info Audio

#English: FLAC 2.0
#English: FLAC 2.0 (Commentary by Director James Sbardellati, Special Makeup Effects Artist John Carl Buechler, and Actor Richard Brooker)

Info Subtitles