Fantastic Fest 2025 ‘Deathstalker’ Review — A Barbarically Potent Masterpiece
Deathstalker is a sword and sorcery film by Steven Kostanski (Psycho Goreman, Frankie Freako) and is a remake of the 1983 film of the same name. The Dreadite horde is on the verge of taking over the kingdom of Abraxion.
Deathstalker (Daniel Bernhardt) has the look and the fighting skills of a worthy hero meant to save everyone, but he chooses to be a scavenger for his own selfish desires; taking an amulet from a dying soldier, but the amulet is cursed and can only be passed on to another owner when the previous one dies.
Used to working alone, the titular character is forced to rely on the help of an inadequate wizard named Doodad (voiced by Patton Oswalt) and a thief named Brisbayne (Christina Orjalo) if he has any hope of lifting the deadly curse.
If you are a fan of (mostly) practical effects in your horror films and low-budget movies that feel much bigger in scale, then you are hopefully familiar with Steven Kostanski’s work. The filmmaker began his career in prosthetics and makeup effects. The monsters and creatures in his films are always a highlight because it’s mainly practical.
There are various creatures in Deathstalker – a two-headed troll, a pig man, and a teleporting mummy with a rotary saw on a chain, to name a few. But every one of them is a person in a suit. There’s a certain amount of cheese that comes with it, as the rubber suit or mask doesn’t always move the way you expect it to. But that has also become part of the charm of a Steven Kostanski film. It’s like a goopier and bloodier version of a tokusatsu villain.
Steven Kostanski also introduces a certain level of humor in nearly all of his films; a lighthearted silliness that is easy to be a fan of. In Deathstalker, the humor mostly comes from Doodad being an awful wizard and nasty and grotesque Swamp Men just wanting to dance and wave at people they know.
The fantasy reboot is loaded with gore, as well. The film opens with a battle showcasing the Dreadites, and the opening scene is a gushy decapitation, followed by seeing someone else’s head get split in two. Deathstalker has so many beheadings that you lose count, while one of the villains — Deathstalker’s former comrade Jotak (Paul Lazenby) — has his head chopped off and put back on.
Kostanski’s films work so well because they don’t take themselves too seriously, and Deathstalker is no different. The film fully embraces its ridiculousness, which can further be represented by the weapon Deathstalker inherits at the end of the film, which is basically four swords glued together.
The computer-generated effects in the film appear to be stop-motion animated. There’s a sequence near the end of the film where Doodad is battling the evil wizard Nekromemnon, and they summon skeleton warriors to duke it out for them. The look and movements of the skeletons are straight out of a Ray Harryhausen film.
Deathstalker is a blood-squelching adventure loaded with absurd humor and hideous monsters you can’t help but love. Take the fantasy elements of Beastmaster and smash them together with the squeamish fatalities of Mortal Kombat and you’ve got the barbarically potent masterpiece known as Deathstalker.
Deathstalker (2025), Shout! Studios
PROS
- Practical gore.
- Incredible monster designs.
- Kostanki's ridiculous sense of humor.
CONS
- Fully embraces cheesy nature, which could rub some the wrong way.
