Deathstalker

• Canada-USA.
• Direction: Steve Kostanski.
• Production: Pasha Patriki, James Fler, Andrew T. Hunt, Michael Paszt / Hangar 18 Media, Raven Banner Entertainment, BerserkerGang Films.
• Screenplay: Steve Kostanski.
• Photography: Andrew Appelle.
• Music: Blitz//Berlin.
• Edition: Robert Hyland.
• Cast: Daniel Bernhardt, Christina Orjalo, Paul Lazenby, Nicholas Rice, Patton Oswalt.

The highly rigorous Locarno Festival went crazy this year. Because you would expect us to adore Steven Kostanski, the master make-up artist and expert in prosthetics and practical effects, the outlandish craftsman who worked on The ABCs of Death 2 (2014) and V/H/S/94 (2021), and the great massacre from In a Violent Nature (2024). As well as being the director of such masterpieces as Frankie Freako (2024) and The Void (2016). You would expect us to bow down before him, but it is quite something that the festival of the Golden Leopard should have selected Deathstalker. But there you have it, Locarno is now one of ours. The film's plot? "The kingdom of Abraxeon is under siege by the Dreadites, heralds of long-dead sorcerer Nekromemnon. When Deathstalker recovers a cursed amulet from a corpse-strewn battlefield, he is marked by dark magic".