Deathstalker IV: Match of the Titans is the final entry in the longest running Corman’s barbarian series. It also has the honor of being the only “official” sequel of Deathstalker being the only that acknowledges the first part ever happened.It also has the same lead actor (he was extremely unsuccessfully switched with John Terlesky and John Allen Nelson for parts 2 and 3) and we even witness a bit of his mystic sword power in the end.
Films starts with a nice mix of Deathstalker 1 and Sorceress footage to set the tone and then we cut back to lion-man (man with lion heads) chasing a beautiful woman. Of course they don’t get far as the Deathstalker apears. Now armed with a bow and arrow, cocky as always he starts killing them off one at a time. It also helps that his adversaries have the intelligence of an animal.He takes her off to her village where he hopes to find his friend Adelar.
Unfortunately it turns out Adelar left and that’s very bad because he has Deathstalker’s sword (of justice). You see- in the recent battle they accidentally ended up with each others swords (cue in the more Corman archive footage).Deathstalker gets on his way towards the Kana’s castle while we enjoy a bit more archive footage (this time we can place it as pillaging of the village from Barbarian Queen). Even stranger he runs into a medieval bodybuilder (80’s hair and all) and his earnest trainer- small mustached man. Also bodybuilder insist on running while other people ride horses, I don’t think that ended up working out for him…
With those muscles and mullet no one can possibly defeat him!
They run into some marauders attack the two girls and decide to help out. Unfortunately the warrior woman dies but at least Deathstalker menages to save her pretty blond sister.A lion man appears and menages to bury Deathstalker and Blond in a cave with assurance “you’ll never get out of here”. Strangely after a change of clothes- girl assumes her sisters warrior attire, they walk out of the cave without even trying. There’s something strange going on there. Also this is the first time I’ve ever witnessed Deathstalker being able to control himself confronted with a nude female body.
And everything worked out just fine…
They finally reach the castle to find premises are filled with all kinds of scum you can imagine- killers and muggers, barbarians and beast people and even a tribe of amazon- like lesbian warriors. Deathstalker also engages in an American Gladiator style test of strength just ’cause he can. Unfortunately Adelar is nowhere to be found. Kana shows up and announces the beginning of their new tournament. ‘Stalker starts making up with the blond with queen Kana calls for him so he switches his priorities.But they get into a bit of a fight and queen commands him to leave and then calls for a man “the bigger, the better… and drunk” in a comedic highlight of this film.
The blonde, Dionara menages to really piss off a leader of Amazons and they get into full blown chick fight. Duels continue with a new mish mash of archived sequel including my favorite- a barbarian Roberto Benigni betting brutally killed.
She sure knows what she’s doing…
Of course the bodybuilder and Deathstalker eventually get to fight one another and we find out (like people keep finding out to this day), bodybuilding is not the best “Martial Art”
Like I said…
Deathstalker suspecting something is wrong (with his friend still missing and all) decides to sneak around a bit and finds all kinds of interesting stuff like amazon orgies, raging pigmen and also some strange dealings of the Queen Kora (including poisinging men with her wine and doing strange stuff to them).
Queen enjoys watching porn in her free time, who knew?
Deathstalker and Dionara decide that the only way to trick queen is to send her an only person who’s not a drinker in the castle- a bodybuilder! Deathstalker also uses opportunity to teach him a lesson he might need- lesson in “ravaging” women. Strangely their plan works and he occupies the queen long enough for them to sneak in. They finally figure out her plan to make an invincible army using her magic wine to transform mighty warriors into stone obeying her every command. She almost gets to Deathstalker too but Dionara saves her using her amulet. He then proceeds to expose her evil plan an massive (for B- movie budget) battle ensues. Fight between her Russian sounding bodyguard, famed as the greatest warrior (yet so old he can barely move) and Deathstalker is
a special treat.
Then we finally see that the Kora had Deathstalker’s sword all along. She tries to stop him with he magic but he burns her a bit and she sudenly dies- turning into stone herself (I have no idea how that works). Movie ends with a kiss between Dionara and Deathstalker (D&D right there) but Deathstalker runs away on his horse as soon as he has the chance.
Maybe a kiss could wake her up?
Verdict: Judging by the standards of Roger Corman production (cutting corners with ton of previously used footage ) Deathstalker IV is a solid entry featuring fun (if not particularly well done)action scenes, more than a few (intentional and unintentional) comedic moments and a fair dose of gratitude nudity needed for a watchable Barbarian flick.
Trivia: Maria Ford aka Dionara is Quentin Tarantino’s favorite B- movie actress. Who would have known.
Worsemovies 
DEATHSTALKER 4 was a massive lift up from the previous two terrible sequels(one which was mainly a tongue-in-cheek T&A comedy,and the other a massive bore),for the only thing I have to complain about(I don’t want to sounds like a peabrain here) is why didn’t they bring back the gory violence from the first film(which was also missing in the sequels)since they brought back Richard Hill as DS for this film,but at least it’s got Maria Ford(n the prime of her career) in the film to make us overlook that flaw,otherwise it’s a great and fun sequel..
LikeLike