Deathstalker (Rick Hill) is a warrior who kills barbarians and rescues maidens. He meets a deposed king, King Tulak (Jorge Sorvik), who wants him to save his daughter Codille (Barbi Benton) from the evil sorcerer Munkar (Bernard Erhard). Deathstalker is not interested until he meets an old witch, Torolva (Veronica Llinas) that tells him about the three powers of creation.
They are a sword, a chalice and an amulet. The amulet is the key to life. The one who wears it cannot die. The sword the key to justice and the chalice of magic. The chalice and the amulet are in the hands of Munkar. He is looking for the sword. The old witch tells Deathstalker that she has the sword and where it is hidden. He finds the sword in a cave guarded by an ogre and an imp named Salmaron (Augusto Larreta). The imp has been cursed by the witch. Deathstalker defeats the ogre and frees Salmaron from his curse. Salmaron decides to follow Deathstalker on his quest for the other two sacred powers.
On the way to Munkar’s castle Deathstalker teams up with another warrior named Oghris (Richard Brooker) and a female warrior named Kaira (Lana Clarkson). Oghris and Kaira tell Deathstalker that they are on their way to Munkar’s castle to compete in a tournament. In the end there will be only one winner. The winner is to become Munkar’s heir and inherit his kingdom. In reality Munkar plans to kill the winner so there will be no warriors left to oppose him.
“Deathstalker” was released in 1983 and was directed by James Sbardellati. This is a Roger Corman production. It heralds back to a time when men were men and women were raped. It is an adventure fantasy of the sword and sorcery sub-genre. The men are hunky and the women all wear rags over their g-strings.
There’s lots of blood, mud, naked breasts and rapes. And lots of camp. For the most part the film is a teenager’s wet dream. The plot is the same as for most barbarian style quest movies. Barbarian is charged with finding magic thing. Barbarian must save damsel in distress. Barbarian finds magic thing. Barbarian saves damsel in distress. Along the way are much in the way of gore and decapitation. Sex, usually rape, and shiny magic stuff. Perfect. This has all the elements. I wouldn’t exactly call it a family movie, but it does have Roger Corman written all over it. Did I mention the naked breasts and rape?
It’s not the best of the sword and sorcery movies but not exactly the worst either. I would put it in the so bad it’s good category.
(There are twenty-five breast shots, twenty-seven butt shots, six sword fights, fifteen impalings, two amputations, one arrow in the neck, three beheadings, one horse dragging, one eye-candy, one finger food, one mud wrestle, one pig face, one magical trans sexual operation, two bitch slappings, one crotch stabbing, one head smashing, and one draw and quartering.) This is not mine. Someone actually counted all this.
The 80’s were really big for sword and sorcery movies. Everything from “Black Angel” in 1980 to “Willow” in 1988. “Deathstalker” added much to the mix. “Deathstalker” itself spawned three sequels, “Deathstalker II” 1987, “Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell” 1988 and “Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans 1991”. The character Kaira played by Lana Clarkson spawned “Barbarian Queen” 1985 and “Barbarian Queen II: The Empress Strikes Back 1992”.