Deathstalker

The second of 2025’s wildly entertaining sword and sorcery romps, and less concerned with being taken seriously than MJ Basset’s Red Sonja, Steven Kostanski’s Deathstalker is not so much spoof as irreverent homage, loosely based on the 1980s film franchise of the same name. It’s comedic, certainly, and it cheerfully undercuts many of the sillier aspects of the genre, but it wouldn’t work the way it does without a deep familiarity, understanding and love of that genre.

Getting into the spirit of sword and sorcery requires a particular sense of humour and willingness to suspend disbelief not dissimilar to those required to enjoy heavy metal, and this is really cinema in its most metal form. Deathstalker is executive produced by Slash and features his original guitar work throughout, giving it lots of spirit and energy. It would be a crime to spoil its opening shot, but suffice to say that we are plunged straight into the action with a heavy helping of blood and gore, making it very clear what we can expect going forwards. This is a gleefully gratuitous film. Kostanski’s gift is in successfully gelling that with his characteristic warmth and deadpan humour.

It feels almost gratuitous to introduce the central character. It’s in the nature of this material that you should feel as if you know him already, regardless of whether or not you’ve seen the previous version. We first see him riding out of the wastes of Abraxia, come to the site of a battle between humans and ‘dreadites’ (which, though the name might suggest something from Ancient Sumeria, look more like Psycho Goreman) in search of spoils. It’s here that he acquires a cursed amulet, the McGuffin necessary to the quest that follows, but he still finds time to stop off in the local pub before doing anything about it. Though handy with a sword, he is a hero of the beleaguered type – he’d rather just make his living quietly looting, but destiny keeps calling and getting him into trouble.

There’s a character briefly glimpsed in the pub who will be joining him later – the thief sidekick that every warrior needs. Before that, he will be joined by a mage (voiced by Patton Oswalt), and along the way he will meet old enemies, sometime allies and at least one former lover. Then there are the creatures. An early shot features an animatronic latex frog. It’s an incidental detail which we will see only once more in the film, along with a couple of other, slightly modified versions. The amount of work that must have gone into it just for that is striking.

Kostanski does much of the creature work himself. The whole film is full of details like that, and full of man-size and giant-size character creatures too. Many of them are intentionally disgusting. Some, like the vaguely cube-shaped one-eyed bat thing that spies on our hero, are adorable regardless. They are all original designs, often wonderfully inventive, and yet they feel familiar, with influences to be found in earlier genre films, in D&D monster manuals, in graphic novels and on album covers. Like the references that crop up in dialogue, they never feel out of place or interrupt the flow. The result is a whole extra layer of humour for fans of these things and, for the uninitiated, a world that feels rich and lived-in.

Filmmakers with this degree of skill and dedication often feel compelled to turn their talents to something socially useful or artistically refined. It is a blessing for audiences that Kostanski appreciates the value of fun. A frequently ridiculous film which benefits from real sophistication behind the scenes, Deathstalker is a joy to watch, and genre fans will want to see it again and again.

Deathstalker screened as part of Fantastic Fest 2025.

Reviewed on: 24 Sep 2025