Currently being shot in Canada and shopped around for a distributor at Cannes. Dig it:
You didn’t laugh at Bernhardt’s wig, did you? This is very serious stuff, as those of us of a certain age will tell you. Here’s the VHS cover art we saw before we rented the actual movie in 1983:
I don’t remember the actual movie, but I sure as heck remember that VHS cover. The actual movie can’t have been as good as Hawk the Slayer, which will be the only fantasy movie worth watching until Peter Jackson comes along. Krull apologists line up for your ritual humiliation over here on the left.
Anyway, for whatever reason, they put a wig on Bernhardt to play the Deathstalker. But here’s the important question: Who did this to Bernhardt? Who’s making this reboot? And why on earth would anyone want to reboot a throwaway Roger Corman fantasy movie?
The answer to these questions is Steven Kostanski, a dorky kid who loves practical effects and genre movies! His most recent movie is a kind of kiddie horror yarn called Psycho Gorman, which is fun and energetic. But I think to really get excited about a fantasy movie starring bad-ass soft-spoken craggy-faced Daniel Bernhardt in a wig, you have to see The Void:
It’s not great, but hoo boy, does it have heart! Kostanski basically makes his own John Carpenter movie and while the results are uneven, I love what he’s doing because he obviously loves the same movies as me and is unabashed about channeling that affection into his own project. So however this Deathstalker reboot ends up – fingers crossed for dark and violent and very R-rated, but after Psycho Goreman, I’m doubtful – I’ll be there for the Bernhardt and Kostanski!
