Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell is the third entry in the Deathstalker franchise. It stars John Allen Nelson as the titular Deathstalker. Like John Terlesky, who played the role in Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans, Nelson plays Deathstalker as a Lovable Rogue and Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Sadly, his Deathstalker isn't all that lovable, is a terrible rogue in the Dungeons & Dragons sense of the word (he gets caught trying to steal a horse AND sneaking around the villain's castle) and comes off as a Jerkass rather than a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
The plot, such as it is, centers upon the Evil Sorceror Prince Troxartas and his efforts to acquire several magical stones that will enable him to Take Over the World. He is also dabbling in Black Magic, which lets him bring warriors he has killed Back from the Dead, so he can build an Invincible Army of the Undead. Deathstalker becomes involved after Troxartas' men try and grab one of the stones from his friend, the wizard Nicias and he is entrusted with a second stone by a dying princess, who was going to use the magic of the stones to find a legendary city full of treasure for her landless people.
Along the way, he gets framed for the murder of the princess, runs into the princess's Rich Bitch twin sister (who is also Troxartas' betrothed), seduces a potato farmer's daughter and — somehow — saves the day.
Filmed entirely on location in Mexico! AND is the only one of the Deathstalker films not available commercially on DVD... at least, not the vanilla movie. You can purchase the MST3K version though.
For the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode see here.
Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell contains these tropes:
- Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Troxartas seems to be either impersonating Shatner, or hyperventilating.
- Affably Evil: Troxartas. Sure he enslaves the souls of the dead in his quest for supreme power, but at least he's usually polite about it.
- Animal Motifs: The Dragon's helmet, with its bat-wing motif.
- Antihero: Deathstalker. He's kind of a self-centered jerk with delusions of superiority and practically oozes smugness, especially when dealing with women. Pretty much par for the course for this type of movie.
- Arranged Marriage: Elizena is betrothed to Troxartas in exchange for aide to her starving people. Troxartas only hopes to get information on the stones from her and plans to kill her once he does.
- Back from the Dead: The titlular "Warriors from Hell" are dead warriors returned to life by Troxartas' magic and controlled by means of a soul-trapping magic jar. Their reactions vary; a few see it as a second chance at life, but the ones who had been dead long enough to get used to it are just annoyed.
- Bald of Evil: Troxartas, of the circle of power variety.
- Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: Interacts with
Fashion-Victim Villain when Troxartas (who favors lavender robes and short tunics without tights) finds the princess and orders that she be given a bath and a change of clothes.Troxartas: (To Camisarde) Give her something of yours, then... something beautiful and soft.
Crow (as Troxartas): Wait, something of mine!
- Berserk Button: Elizena does not like being compared to her sister.
- Brainless Beauty: Elizena. Even her own twin sister says so.
- But Now I Must Go: Deathstalker goes off looking for another magical city full of treasure at the end.
- Camp Straight: Troxartas is pretty fey but appears to prefer women.
- Cassandra Truth: Elizena spends nearly the entire movie believing Deathstalker killed Carissa despite his constant protests.
- Casual Danger Dialog: Deathstalker, nauseatingly and smugly.
- City of Gold: The treasure the MacGuffin stones are supposed to be able to find is a city full of gold, jewels, and magical artifacts that was sealed away long ago.
- Contrived Coincidence: Nicias teleports into the castle, presumably to rescue Deathstalker, just as Troxartas and The Dragon are walking down that specific hallway. Troxartas clearly can't believe his luck.
- Covers Always Lie: While the above cover artwork is a good Boris Vallejo piece, the Barbarian Hero doesn't look a thing like Deathstalker in this movie. Nor do any of the heroines resemble the kneeling Amazon. And we never get to see our hero fighting monsters creeping out of coffins, as we do here.
- Deadpan Snarker: Deathstalker, like any Jerkass/Jerk with a Heart of GoldDeathstalker: Strange, I remember killing you in that duel.
Dead Warrior: Oh, you did. You did.
Deathstalker: Good. That clears everything up. - The Dragon: The head mook with the bat helmet.
- Dull Surprise: Carla Herd, as the twin princesses, Carissa (the dead one) and Elizena (the dumb one). She has difficulty conveying any emotion other than annoyance.
- Dumbass Has a Point: When Elizena starts to say it's difficult to be a princess, one might expect the usual whining of a spoiled brat. Instead she makes good points about how sad it is to see her people starve and how it's unfair that she has to go into an Arranged Marriage, but she's willing to do so to help them.
- '80s Hair: Quite a few people have it.
- Fan Disservice: A female Warrior from Hell who is effectively topless, but still made up to look like a half-rotted corpse.
- Fanservice:
- During Deathstalker's torture scene - strapped down and wearing nothing but very tight pants.
- Elizena has two topless scenes and Marinda has a sex scene with Deathstalker.
- Friendly Enemy: One of the titular warriors cheerfully introduces Deathstalker to his companions as the only man who ever beat him in a fair fight. He clearly considers the fact he died in said fight incidental.
- Groin Attack: As Camisarde uses electric torture on Deathstalker, the final shock is to his crotch, causing him to pass out.
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Deathstalker's preferred weapon is a sword, while love interest Marinda is an expert with a bow and arrow.
- Heel–Face Turn: Troxartas' undead minions are quite willing to turn on their master.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Deathstalker, for being framed for killing the first of the twin princess.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Marinda to save Deathstalker.
- Hidden Depths: See the Dumbass Has a Point entry above. Elizena might be a Brainless Beauty and act like a self-centered brat, but she does care for her people and is willing to sacrifice her happiness for their well-being.
- Honor Before Reason: Deathstalker is determined to win his fights fairly (although this comes out of nowhere; the very first fight has him win a sparring match by cheating). Because he doesn't kill Troxartas when he's disarmed, his love interest is killed returning his own sword to him shortly thereafter.
- Informed Ability: We're told that Deathstalker is a great swordsman and hero but he seems to spend most of the movie getting caught stealing things, sneaking around where he isn't supposed to, running away and getting his ass kicked. Hell, the only reason he wins the final fight against Troxartas is because his sidekick threw him a sword and distracted the evil wizard.
- To be fair, the claims of his always fighting fair are justified. He even refuses to kill Troxartas while he's unarmed (despite that leading to the death of his girlfriend).
- Lampshaded by Deathstalker, who at one point exclaims he doesn't know how the stories about him get created.
- It's All About Me: Only when Elizena learns of Troxartas' plan to kill her does she finally believe Deathstalker didn't kill Carissa.
- Jerkass: Deathstalker, though he's also The Ace too.
- Karma Houdini: Camisarde, who seems to face no consequences beyond being shoved once by a Warrior of Hell for her aiding and abetting Troxartas's evil reign. Not only that, but she also sliced Nicias' throat, albeit unintentionally.
- Large Ham: Troxartas. He may be one of the hammiest villains ever.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to the previous Deathstalker films. This film is lighter on rape, and the worst it gets is some male sexual torture on Deathstalker.
- Lovable Rogue: Deathstalker tries for this but misses the Lovable part.
- Considering how lousy he is at sneaking around and stealing horses, it can be argued that he misses the Rogue part too.
- Macguffin: The three stones needed to find the lost city.
- Made of Explodium: Somehow, getting stabbed by a sword makes Troxartas explode.
- May–December Romance: It's implied that the wizard Nicias hooks up with Troxartas's girlfriend Camisarde at the end.
- Misplaced Vegetation: A potato farmer gets a prominent role in what is otherwise a relatively standard Medieval European Fantasy world.
- Ms Exposition: The first of the twin princess that Deathstalker meets.
- Ms. Fanservice: When Elizena isn't topless, she's wearing rather revealing outfits. Ditto for Marinda.
- Neuro-Vault: Nicias the wizard has one of these hiding the location of the Macguffin stones.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: In his first scene John Allen Nelson makes a half-assed attempt at an English accent before reverting back to his native Texas twang for the rest of the movie.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: Deathstalker, natch.
- Punch-Clock Villain: The Warriors from Hell are surprisingly affable for undead soldiers controlled by an evil overlord. They even politely introduce themselves and invite Deathstalker to eat dinner with them, before informing him that they are under orders to kill him.
- Recycled Soundtrack:
- This is yet another fantasy or sci-fi movie to recycle James Horner's Battle Beyond the Stars score.
- Another, much more copyright-infringing example occurs when Deathstalker gets a new horse, the scene uses Brian Eno's "Prophecy" from Dune as almost a love theme.
- Shirtless Scene: Troxartas and Deathstalker both have one.
- Smoldering Shoes: The wizard leaves behind some smoking moccasins when he teleports away.
- Soul Jar: It's how Troxartas controls his undead minions.
- Spinning Out of Here: Nicias spinning his way out when casting his teleport spell.
- Spoiled Brat: Elizena.
- Sword Fight: One of the worst put to screen. Kevin Murphy called it "the worst stage fighting I've ever seen on film." and Skallagrim had an episode breaking down its crappiness titled "A Movie "Sword Fight" so Bad it's Mentally Painful...
" - Talking Your Way Out: Deathstalker tries this on Camisarde, but she just gets annoyed. He does seem to succeed with the Warriors from Hell, though.
- Too Kinky to Torture:
- Deathstalker seems to really enjoy being tied down by Camisarde.
Crow: His "area" mocks me!!- Also, the look on his face when she applies the Electric Torture to his groin area is really closer to pleasure than pain.
- Wizard Beard: Nicias
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Used hard in the opening scene but it doesn't last.
