Shudder Saturday: Deathstalker (2025)

Despite the enduring love for the series, there are few people you could find who would tell you that the original Deathstalker is a great movie. It's even surpassed by the first sequel it had. So to say that this reworking of the property is better than the first film is quite easy. Yet it has something that still holds it back slightly, just a feeling that . . . well, I can't quite put my finger on one specific fault, but hope to mention a number of factors in this review.

Daniel Bernhardt plays the titular hero this time around, and he certainly looks the part. He's soon joined by a small creature named Doodad (voiced by Patton Oswalt) and a young female thief named Brisbayne (Christina Orjalo). Their fates are all tied together by a magical amulet that is desired by Nekromemnon (Nicholas Rice), and he expects his right hand man, Jotak (Paul Lazenby), to retrieve it from our hardy little band of heroes.

Written and directed by Steven Kostanski, who has been responsible for one of my all-time favourite genre movies of the 2020s (Psycho Goreman), there's a lot here that should be expected, if you're familiar with his work. Plenty of impressive practical effects, a decent amount of blood and guts thrown around, and clear affection for the source material.

The cast all work well in their roles too, which is a big help. Bernhardt has both the muscles and the attitude, Oswalt's voice is a perfect fit for his character, and Orjalo, Lazenby, Nina Bergman, Conor Sweeney, and John Clifford Talbot all feel well-suited to the onscreen environment. Rice is hidden under a lot more make up and prosthetics, as are both Jon Ambrose and Troy James, but the physicality is spot on.

Nobody could accuse the Deathstalker movies of striving for any kind of realism, and they were made with low budgets and limited resources, but this particular Deathstalker movie feels just as limited in one or two other ways. I'm surprised to say that part of that is due to how it lacks a specific charm, perhaps due to the knowledge that everyone involved is very much clued in on the kind of film they want to make. Original films of this ilk were made by people trying to present a fantastical world and a mad menagerie of monsters with whatever they had to hand. This is made by people trying to present a slightly more polished version of an older movie, and part of the charm of the older movies often stems from seeing the tape holding the cardboard together at the very edge of the frame, metaphorically speaking. I also can't help thinking that there's a bit of gentle mockery mixed in with the affection here, a feeling of Kostanski saying "you know this is silly, we know this is silly, but let's enjoy it nonetheless". It's not an overriding sensation, but I could feel it just underpinning almost every scene, and that was enough to stop me from loving this as much as I had hoped to. The Deathstalker movies were not without humour, but it was a very basic and genre-specific kind of humour (aka very '80s humour). This film doesn't have that, and it's the absence of THAT humour, the way that Kostanski tries to allow everything to be played quite straight, that paradoxically makes me sense some of the other humour layered throughout. 

Maybe I am being too sensitive, maybe I am responding to something that wasn't intended the way I am viewing it, but I cannot help thinking that many other Kostanski films have been made with the feeling that they're loving homages that couldn't possibly rival the impact of the original films that inspired them, despite how those original films are viewed with disdain by those who just don't understand the way to the heart of a horror fan who grew up through the halcyon days of VHS madness. Deathstalker somehow makes a major mis-step by being better than the 1983 original, which makes even the slightest wink or smirk feel like it's "punching down" at a beloved film series.

Still, when it comes to the film-making basics, there's no denying that what is onscreen here is done well. I'd love to hear from others, whether to help me better word my opinion or just tell me that I am talking nonsense, but, in the meantime, I still have to rate this as an enjoyable bit of sword 'n' sorcery entertainment. It's just not great, and left a slightly sour taste in my mouth as the end credits rolled.

7/10

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Frankie Freako (2024)

If you were a horror fan in the 1980s then you saw at least one VHS featuring some small creatures causing havoc. There were a couple of big hits, of course, but also many lesser-seen films that worked just as well for those working their way through the genre rental choices. I'm not going to start naming them. You know them. I know them. Steven Kostanski, the writer-director of Frankie Freako definitely knows them. And this is his attempt to make a fun little film that can easily sit alongside them.

Conor Sweeney stars as Conor, a workaholic yuppie who seems incapable of letting his hair down and having any fun. It's the 1980s, which would surely be the ideal time for workaholic yuppies to have some fun, but Conor seems to be the exception to the rule, much to the frustration of his wife, Kristina (Kristy Wordsworth). Left on his own for a couple of days, but planning to do some extra work for his boss, Mr. Buechler (Adam Brooks), Conor is tempted to call a party hotline that puts him in touch with the titular Frankie Freako. That's when Frankie and co. end up in his home, bringing a big dose of anarchy and destruction with them.

Incredibly silly and over the top from start to finish, Frankie Freako is also pretty perfect in achieving what it sets out to achieve. It feels like a film that could have easily been released in that mini-critter boom time between the late '80s and early '90s, and those who have the same nostalgic fondness for them that I do will find that this really hits a sweet spot.

The only real downside is the acting of the humans, but even that feels on par with what we used to put up with in these films. I wouldn't rush to call out anyone as bad, but they're all delivering very deliberately heightened performances. Sweeney plays his character so stiff that he could be 90% starch, which adds to the fun when Frankie and co. start to cause mayhem for him. Brooks is amusing as the standard boss with misdeeds to be covered up, and his name is a nod to one of the great practical effects maestros, John Carl Buechler. Wordsworth may have very little to do, but she's fine in her role, and gets to show a different side to her character before the end credits roll. 

The puppets are the stars though, and they're delightful. Full of character, yet also amusingly "lo-fi" and limited in what they can do, Brooks uses a lot of the standard tricks we've seen many times before to keep them moving around as the camera tries to obscure their obvious limitations. There are three main characters to enjoy, but one sequence eventually shows us a few more, and they're very much related to some other creatures I would label "children of John Carl Buechler".

You will already have an idea about whether or not this is for you. I admit that I'd hoped for a bit more mayhem, and maybe some more modern spins on old ideas, but I soon settled in to enjoy the ride when I understood that this didn't want to reinvent anything. It just wanted to emulate the kind of film that we've not really seen for a good few decades now. Viewed in that way, it's an absolute success. Those who don't see the appeal in the concept should stay away though. 

7/10

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Father's Day (2011)

No Netflix And Chill this week. Why? Because . . . "Sons, lock up your fathers... vengeance arrives on... Father's Day!"

The second film from Astron-6 (a Canadian film production company beloved by genre fans for the shorts and features that they've released since being founded back in 2007), Father's Day is a hilarious blend of ridiculous gore, gratuitous nudity, familiar genre movie tropes, and very dark comedy. There's also a running theme of male rape, shown often enough to make me decide that I should warn viewers who may not have the stomach for such content.

Chris Fuchman (played by Mackenzie Murdock) is a serial killer who specialises in picking fathers as victims. He rapes them and murders them, and he's done this at least ten times. One of those victims was the father of siblings Ahab (Adam Brooks) and Chelsea (Amy Groening), and the former ended up spending a decade in prison after killing the wrong man while looking to exact some revenge. With Fuchmans back doing what he does best, a priest (Father John Sullivan, played by Matthew Kennedy), is tasked with convincing Ahab that he should still work on hunting down the depraved killer. Working together, with some help from Chelsea, as well as Andrew AKA "Twink" (Conor Sweeney), these angry mothers are determined to keep fathers safe.

As well as taking on lead roles, Brooks, Sweeney, and Kennedy share the writing and directing duties with Jeremy Gillespie and Steve Kostanski, which is usually the way with Astron-6 productions. All of them seem to be well-versed in the type of cinema that they're referencing, and sometimes gently mocking, and all of them work well together to deliver a film that feels like one impressively unique and singular vision. The presentation allows for a fictional "TV schedule" framing element, which also allows for a fake trailer to be placed at around the halfway point, but nobody tries to haul the film off down too many side-roads towards self-indulgence. While the first act throws a lot of different elements into the mix, it all comes together and stays relevant to the main plot strand (the main group aiming to hunt down and kill Fuchman).

The acting is intended to be super-cheesy, and it is (Brooks being the best, having a blast in the grizzled, eyepatch-wearing, role that would be portrayed by a Kurt Russell/Clint Eastwood knock-off in the 1980s), the music - courtesy of Gillespie and Paul Joyce - is a perfect fit for the visual style, and the gore gags are jaw-droppingly impressive at times; maybe even a bit too impressive, especially when men end up with their eyes watering as they watch some graphic penis trauma in one main scene.

Father's Day is the kind of distasteful opus that Lloyd Kaufman would be proud of, which makes his involvement here in a producing AND acting capacity no big surprise, but the quality of the special effects and the film-making technique raises this far above what you'd expect from anything being presented by the head honcho at Team Troma. It has some of the crudity and craziness you could find in most Troma movies, but it's very much stamped with the identity and passion of Astron-6.  And while it's more accomplished than the first Astron-6 feature (the enjoyable Manborg), and a lot of people love it, I will always think of it as a stepping stone on the way to the greatness of both The Editor and Psycho Goreman.

8/10

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Manborg (2011)

Manborg is, basically, every cheap action/sci-fi movie that ever went straight to videotape in the 1980s. It was made for a ridiculously small amount of money, and relies on a lot of goodwill from viewers, but if you share the affection for those halcyon days of big box VHS gems then you should enjoy Manborg as much as I did. In fact, my rating here is a baseline. I already want to rewatch the movie, and I'm sure that it's a film that just gets better on repeat viewings.

Matthew Kennedy IS Manborg. He's part man, part machine, all hero. Sort of. It's not long until he finds himself in trouble, and in a prison that's overseen by The Baron (Jeremy Gillespie). Prisoners are taken from their cells when required to compete in battles that almost always end in death, but Manborg has an edge that other prisoners never had. His very manborg-ness. Battling alongside a few other incarcerated folks (#1 Man, played by Ludwig Lee, Justice, played by Conor Sweeney, and Mina, played by Meredith Sweeney), it's not long until a plan is hatched that may lead to freedom and the downfall of a great evil.

Directed by Steve Kostanski, who also wrote the script with Gillespie (which may explain why The Baron gets so many great lines), Manborg is chock full of so many references and homages to past cinematic "gems" that to list them all would be almost impossible, by my reckoning. It may have been made on a budget that doesn't look much bigger than my monthly pay, but that doesn't stop it from packing in more cinematic reference points, heart and sheer entertainment than most movies that have millions of dollars to play around with. Necessity is the mother of invention, and despite often looking cheap it has to be said that these guys can make their budget stretch a hell of a long way.

Kennedy is good in the lead role, but the most fun is had by Lee and both Sweeneys, with Gillespie also creating a lot of laughs every time he appears as the Baron. If someone stumbles across Manborg, somehow, with no prior knowledge of it then I am sure that they will rate it as a worthless piece of trash, and also dismiss the main performances. But knowing what movies are being homaged, and knowing that the cast are all serving the material in the way that they rattle off numerous hilarious cliches, allows greater appreciation of the effort being made by everyone.

If you dig the humour running throughout Manborg then you'll be won over within the first few minutes. If you don't understand how anyone could enjoy the movie then nothing will convince you of its merits.

7/10

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