Bullet Points: Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans

While I have no proof to back it up, I would like to believe that the Van Halen classic “Finish What Ya Started” was Rick Hill’s inspiration to return to the Deathstalker franchise, a franchise Hill got started way back in 1983.

Rick Hill’s reprisal of the titular Deathstalker character was one of the positives of the final film in the Deathstalker franchise, 1991’s Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans…

• Previously on Deathstalker: The movie begins with narration done by Maria Ford’s character Dionara, setting the table for what was to come. It’s the typical stuff you’d expect… the world is in chaos, honest men and beautiful women live in fear. The weak live or die based on the whims of the evil overlords. Fortunately there are a few great warriors left, who are fighting the good fight. One such warrior is Deathstalker and this is where we get some highlight featuring Rick Hill as Deathstalker in the 1983 original. It became pretty clear that Part 4 was going to ignore the two Deathstalker movies in the middle.
• Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood?: After the long intro, Deathstalker makes his first non-archival appearance as he surveys the aftermath of an attack on a caravan. Deathstalker hears the cries of damsel in distress in the nearby woods and goes to rescue her from a trio of feline foes. Deathstalker then escorts the damsel back to her village and when they arrive he inquires about his friend Aldilar. Deathstalker and Aldilar had recently seen some action together and in all the chaos they ended up with each other’s swords and Deathstalker wants his sword back. The damsel’s father tells Deathstalker, Aldilar was headed to a tournament for the greatest fighters in the land. Deathstalker now has a destination… along the way he meets a warrior that is training for the tournament, Vaniat (Brett Baxter Clark, Project Eliminator) and shortly after that, he meets another damsel in distress, the aforementioned Dionara (Maria Ford, Ring of Fire), who is mourning the loss of her sister, who was set to compete in this much talked about tournament as well… but with her sister falling victim to a vicious attack, Dionara will now fight in her place and after watching her change and the scene abruptly ending, Deathstalker decides to accompany Dionara to the tournament.

• Opening Ceremonies: When Deathstalker and Dionara show up at the castle that will play host to the tournament, there’s a lot of activity with the warriors both male and female enjoying themselves prior to the big competition. Deathstalker tries to have some one on one time with Dionara, but one of his drunk buddies crashes that party and Deathstalker finds himself in an impromptu American Gladiators like jousting competition, while Dionara finds herself at odds in some muddy water with another of the female warriors competing, Janeris. Everything comes to a temporary halt when the host of the tournament, the lovely Kana (Michelle Moffett, Hired to Kill) welcomes the fighters to the tournament and seems to be smitten with one Deathstalker.
• Let the Games Begin: Deathstalker IV is filled with plenty of barbaric tournament action, but the game that Deathstalker and Dionara are trying to figure out is Kana’s game. This isn’t a typical tournament, there’s bars on the windows, there’s guards all over the place and Kana seems to want the fighters to be drunk on her special wine. It turns out that Kana’s wine has the power to turn the warriors into slow moving stone warriors that she has total control over (hmmm maybe that’s what happened to Aldilar?). It also turns out that Dionara has very personal reasons for coming to this tournament. She’s a princess and Kana’s castle used to belong to her family… before Kana’s father and his army stormed the castle and took it by force years ago.

• Battle Plan: There are now two clear objectives for our heroes, they need to find the antidote to Kana’s wine. Deathstalker and Dionara enlist the help of the extremely inexperienced Vaniat to woo Kana so he can get into her inner sanctum (that may or may not be a euphemism, especially after what she gave him after he asked to see her wine cellar) and Deathstalker still needs to reclaim his sword if they stand any chance of defeating Kana and her low budget magic.

Rick Hill did in fact finish what he started in Deathstalker IV and even though the movie was released well after the height of the sword and sorcery craze and was a step down from the original, I was thankful that the series did not end three years earlier with the terribly misguided and miscast Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell.

If the third installment scared you away from the franchise, do yourself a favor and pop on your animal themed mask and take one last ride with Rick Hill’s Deathstalker in Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans. And if you want to do yourself another favor, check out these Bonus Bullet Points…

• Favorite Scene: There’s a moment when Deathstalker is snooping on Kana in her chambers and is beyond amused at a titillated Kana watching an orgy in her magic mirror.
• Double Duty: Deathstalker IV was written and directed by Howard R. Cohen. Cohen also pulled double duty on such films as Saturday the 14th and Time Trackers.
• Favorite Quote: “If you were remotely attractive, I’d let you live” – Janeris
• Ranked: Now that I have seen the entire run, if I had to rank all four Deathstalker movies, I’d still go with Deathstalker II in the top spot, followed by the original, then Deathstalker IV and at a distant fourth place Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell.