Deathstalker (4 Stars)

This is the 31st film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Fest.

It's a remake of the 1983 film with the same name produced by Roger Corman. I think I saw it on television 25 years ago, but I can't be sure. Everything that I watched before starting my blog in 2010 is lost in the mists of time.

Deathstalker isn't a hero. He's a scavenger who visits the fields after battles to steal treasure from the dead and dying. A spell has been cast on an amulet that he takes from a dying prince. It binds itself to whoever owns it, and the owner can't get rid of it until he dies. That wouldn't be a problem, except there are warlords who want to kill Deathstalker to get the amulet for themselves. The problem can't be solved by brute force alone, so Deathstalker allies himself with a wizard called Doodad and a female thief called Brisbayne.

This is a film that I need to see more than once. The epic battles and the gore are overwhelming. It was difficult to take it in on first viewing.

There's one more film in the festival this evening, but I'm not going to watch it, so for me the festival is over. My overall impression of the festival is that it wasn't up to the usual quality. In last year's festival I gave five films a five-star rating. This year my top rating was four stars. My average rating last year was 3.2 stars, my average rating this year was 2.8 stars. That means that this year's festival was below average. I hope it will be better next year.