A New Deathstalker, the Same Terrible Production Values

Roger Corman’s films were not known for any of the standard hallmarks of the movie-making industry. Films were made on the cheap, with bare-bones materials sourced from anywhere possible. Cheap sets, cheaper costumes, reused props, and, most importantly, reused footage. If there was a way for Corman to stretch a buck even further, such as taking whole swaths of scenes from one film and shoving them into another, he’d do it so long as it’d make anything even vaguely approaching a film. And, certainly, he wouldn’t let a little thing like continuity get in the way of a new movie.

Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans came out in 1987, four years after the original Deathstalker debuted, and it was the last of a series of eight films Corman produced under contract in Argentina. Many of these films all feature everything you expect from Corman’s movies, right down to reused costumes, sets, characters, and footage, and Deathstalker II is no exception. You’ll see characters, like a pig warrior, from the first film show up in the same tavern, eating the same food, doing the same actions as they did in the first film because, hey, it’s the exact same footage. And there’s this kind of reuse everywhere, largely in tavern scenes where characters you know died in the first film show up again as background characters in the second.

Honestly, it’s all pretty hilarious and it sort of works in Deathstalker II’s favor because, unlike the first film, which was a pure adventure movie, this sequel is an adventure-comedy. It leans hard into the idea that all of this is silly and no one should take it seriously, and so we don’t. When we see bad sets, crappy costumes, and reused footage we don’t mind as much because this isn’t a serious adventure, it’s all just a bit of a lark. It’s not the funniest film by far, but for a cheesy little adventure movie produced by Corman it actually kind of works.

We pick up with our old pal Deathstalker (now played by John Terlesky) as he’s off adventuring. He intervenes as three guards try to have their way with a woman, Reena the Seer (Monique Gabrielle), saving her from probable rape, at a minimum. But after, when she asks him for more help, he brushes her off. “Only one heroic duty per day.” Still, she begs and pleads and eventually wears him down when she mentions an adventure that will turn him into a living legend. Money, fame, power, and his name in the history books? Sign him up.

As we learn, Reena is actually a princess, Evie, but an evil sorcerer, Jarek (John LaZar), somehow managed to make a clone of her and put that clone on the throne. Reena ran, hiding out in the world as a lowly seer. She needs the help of a hero to go back to the castle, depose the clone, and dispatch of her double and Jarek once and for all. That hero, naturally, is Deathstalker, and now that he’s on her side, they just have to evade capture by Jarek’s men. Oh, and they need to avoid all the other trappings of a barbarian adventure. It’s all in a day’s work for our hero.

Deathstalker wasn’t a great film but by Corman’s levels it was watchable enough. It was dumb and silly but it treated itself like a serious adventure just enough that you could get into it. Realizing they probably couldn’t pull that trick off twice, especially not with a reduced budget at the end of the Argentine contract, it seems like the production team knew they had to make things sillier and far more broad just to be watchable. Thus the team leaned into the humor to make a comedy out of this Deathstalker sequel, and I think it does make the film more watchable.

In part that’s because the film will do just about anything for a laugh. There are scenes that should be serious, but lead actor Terlesky plays it off with a joke or a quip. There are other scenes, like a battle in a tribe of women, that are inherently dumb on their face and then the film plays it up past the point of parody. The people making this film knew what they were doing and they decided that being funny was better than trying to make a realistic film, and so they went with it. Being dumb and funny hides a lot of the problems the film would otherwise have, and it does end up improving the experience.

That’s not to say the film lacks adventure. There are plenty of action sequences in the film and Terlesky is a competent performer. While he’s not great with a sword (but then no one in this film is) he has raw physicality that helps make up for it. He’s good in a brawl, okay in scenes that actually require him to wave around a blade, and generally seems happy to throw himself into stunts just to make things work. It keeps the action focused and watchable, and you’re never sucked out of the film because the stunts are too awful.

The real highlight, though, is Terlesky’s performance. He has that bravado and charisma that Deathstalker needs, maybe even more than original actor Rick Hill. He’s handy with a quip, and can sell most scenes with his smile. He makes most of the film work just by acting like he knows it’s all kind of a joke but he’s still here to enjoy himself. While not exactly a star-making role (this was probably his most prominent role in any film in his career), it did show that the guy could sell bad material and actually make it work, which is a godsend in a Corman production.

With that said, Terlesky is the best actor in the film as the rest of the crew, well, sucks. Monique Gabrielle delivers a bad performance as Reena / Evie, being too shrill, to whiny, and not that enjoyable at all. She was a Penthouse Pet of the Month in 1982, her biggest claim to fame, and you get the feeling she was hired more so she could eventually get naked in the film (which she does more than once) than for her acting chops. Still she’s better than John LaZar as Jarek the Sorcerer or Toni Naples as Jarek’s right hand woman Sultana, both of whom are so bad in the role that, when they’re acting at their best, they’re still painfully bland.

Really, I think the trick of the film is that while it looks and feels like it should be a serious, very-low-budget adventure, the writing team and the lead actors knew it was all a joke. They make it fun to watch because, otherwise, it would be a dreadful bore. A lot can be done with a funny quip, a charming smile, and a bit of a laugh, and Deathstalker II gets all the mileage it can out of that mix. I do think it actually makes for a slightly better film (but only slightly) than the first just because it’s enjoyably dumb and it knows it. But it’s a thin line and it could have just as easily failed. The fact that it didn’t and is, for a Corman film, actually kind of fun is a testament to the work the product team did on this film.