This is an incredibly silly yet entertaining swords and sorcery flick from executive producer Roger Corman. Richard Hill stars as Deathstalker, an oiled-up beefcake of a hero with long blond hair and a lantern jaw, who is tasked by an old witch with finding a trio of magical artifacts before the evil wizard Munkar does and can become all-powerful. Along the way on his quest, Deathstalker meets up with a variety of friends, including a guy who starts off as some kind of goblin in a cave, another happy-go-lucky adventurer, and a warrior-woman who remains shirtless throughout (played by Lana Clarkson, the B-actress who was shot dead by Phil Spector in 2003).

The early 1980's were a big time for fantasy films, with the two Conan films with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dragonslayer, The Beastmaster, and The Sword & the Sorcerer. Deathstalker is their trashy exploitation cousin. This film has it all: a bald bad guy with a dumb tattoo on his face, a pig-man with a snotty nose, giants, lots of people with no shirts, a weird puppet monster in a box that eats fingers and eyeballs, a fighters' tournament, lots of people with no pants, gangs of mutants, silly costumes, harem girls, flashy spells, and Barbi Benton. I was able to appreciate its good points - maybe it's just nostalgia - but most rational people will find it lurid and dumb. This was an American-Argentinian co-production with a sequel that actually is an improvement.

WOW ! If there ever was such a thing called a "guy movie" this is it. Deathstalker is one of few films that includes sword fighting, nudity, mud wrestling, full frontal nudity, and mid evil characters that talk like they're from New Jersey! You got to love it. Take my advice and rent this flick, buy a six pack and a pizza and lock the doors. This is one worth watching if you just broke up with your girl friend.

I found a new candidate for the one of the worst films of the 1980's, one of the worst sword and sandal films ever (and that includes many of the really bad Gladiator films from the 1960's),and the most boring T&A film that Hollywood has produced since the censors were sensored. While there are a few moments with interesting photographic shots and weird costumes (mostly hideous looking masks),the film is a pretty disgusting orgy of boobs and buns (and not erotic in the least) and in general, really bad acting that isn't even bad enough to be laughable, just nonexistent. Rick Hill is an uninteresting hero, and Barbi Benton and Lana Clarkson aren't even all that appealing to look at in the least of clothes lest the very tight ones.

From what I could make of this without having to constantly go back to read a plot synopsis, it dealt with the witch at the beginning sending the dull hero on his way to find those three items I mentioned above that will give him "power". There are a lot of scenes of raping and pillaging, a head flying off (or actually being tossed by a crew member),a big Festival which leads to drunkenness and more raping and pillaging, and then a Roman gladiator like game that leads to more of the same. Usually bad movies have a lot of fun things to laugh at, but there were only one or two for me. The photography is very bad, at times so dark that you can barely make out the action going on, and the print I saw was allegedly a pristine one. All you have to do is look at the pictures of this film online to see exactly what you're getting because there's nothing more than that. It's really an empty experience, and I certainly don't intend to waste my time on any of the three sequels that followed this. Conan is Shakespeare in comparison to this.