As it was tradition for the longest time (up until sometime in 2010s) the new Deathstalker movie has a Music Video!Chuck Cirino, the veteran composer who wrote the original (and the most memorable) theme for Deathstalker II is back with the new franchise composer Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica, Walking Dead OST), his brother vocalist Brandon McCreary, drummer Gene Hoglan (Death, Dark Angel, Testament, Metalocalypse), bassist Pete Griffin (Steve Vai), guitarist Omer Ben-Zvi and of course the movie’s co- producer Slash of Guns N’ Roses fame on lead guitar.
I knew the theme would kick-ass but a heavy rocked up version w/ vocals is an awesome surprise!
Song is also a part of the upcoming EP paired up with a Radio Version of the theme and also a songWalking Alone by the actress/ singer Nina Bergman, and it can be pre- ordered right here. For those in the US and Canada Deathstalker (2025) is playing in select theaters startingtoday and hopefully for us across the pond Europe release won’t be far behind.
Around the year 2000 masked virtuoso guitarist Buckethead was a part of revamped line-up of Guns N’ Roses that recorded what’s considered one of the most expensive albums in history of Rock music- Chinese Democracy. After various studios, producers and even band members album was finally released by Geffen (via Best Buy deal) in 2008 when Buckethead was already long gone– although a lot of his contributions still survive.
Buckethead at Rock in Rio ’01
Now, almost everyone has heard about Chinese Democracy at this point- but did you know that around the same time Buckethead was involved in another project just as crazy and that one has yet to come out.
It all starts in ’86 with Cannon produced Texas Chainsaw Massacre II. Hopper’s long awaited sequel was too comical to some expecting more of the same but still, metal- plated Vietnam veteran Chop-Top (played by Bill Mosley) was a bit of a breakout character. Mosley even hoped to flesh out the character in a sequel and wrote a pitch but nothing ever come out of it. Well, at least until he befriended a young guitar prodigy Buckethead (who turned out to be a giant fan) in the ’90s and he appeared in character on one of his records. They even ended up forming a band up forming the band Cornbugs together (with addition of drummer Pinchface and keybordist Travis Dickerson). Cornbugs would release their first album in ’99 just as movie revival would for Chop-Top finally became a reality.
All American Nightmare (2000), an unofficial (?) sequel to the ‘Chainsaw Massacre II was originally developed as a short by Moseley and Toby Hopper’s son William “Tony” Hopper. Shot on HD digital it was supposed to be a 15 minute film but it evolved into a 60 minute feature by the end.
And to circle back, the most famous Sawyer brother was played by none other than Buckethead, trading one mask for another. He would also go on to provide the music for the film. Similarly to the Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 movie would consist of a journalist interviewing the imprisoned Chop-Top who would talk about his past but end up getting free and starting a new massacre by the end. Formula that absolutely can work.
Unfortunately due to a lack of funds movie was never released and all we have is this trailer and couple short clips.
But shockingly a VHS with a number of unedited scenes just showed up on Ebay! Turns out the seller got the tape and the accompanying 40 promo slides when the locker of Nightmare’s actor and producer Stephen Lokotsch was sold off. Despite the hefty 8500 dollar price tape is already bought and the new owner promised to upload the long- lost movie to youtube.
Yes, it’s not a full movie, and in all reality when edited it will probably amount to 20ish minutes but still, after 25 years All American Nightmare will finally see a light of day. And hopefully renowned interest leads to the full movie someday soon. I know they tried Kickstarter in the past but with this momentum with the fans another one would for sure be a slam dunk.
In case the recent teaser posterwasn’t enough for you, Shout! Studios just put out the first trailer for the new Deathstalker and it doesn’t disappoint. For those of us missing the 80s cheeseBarbarian flicks in our lives this is a breath of fresh air.
In Deathstalker, the Kingdom of Abraxeon is under siege by the Dreadites, heralds of the long-dead sorcerer Nekromemnon. When Deathstalker recovers a cursed amulet from a corpse-strewn battlefield, he’s marked by dark magick and hunted by monstrous assassins. To survive, he must break the curse and face the rising evil. Death is just the beginning… of great adventure!
Also, notice the Albert Pyun‘s Sword and the Sorcerereaster egg at the end there- wasn’t expecting that one!
After the recent news that Shout! Studios bought the U.S. rights for the new Deathstalker movie staring Daniel Bernhardt just before it’s premiere on Locarno Festival (Switzerland) we finally have the release date for the movie too! North American release date is October 10 with Shout! handling U.S. and Raven Banner handling it’s native Canada.
Japanese and German- speaking territories rights were also sold at the Locarno Festival with more to follow.
With this and the long gestatingRed Sonja reboot (coming out today!!!) this is shaping up to be a fun year for Sword and Sorcery fans. (And that’s not even counting the comicbook side with the titular Deathstalker from Vault Comics, Titan’s Conan and Savage Sword of Conan and Dynamite’s Fire and Ice.)
Just ahead of the official premiere at the 89 Locarno Film Festival Shout! Studios has closed the deal and acquired the English- speaking territory rights for the new Deathstalker movie, directed by Steven Kostanski (Psycho Goreman, Frankie Freako). That’s great news for us Sword and Sorcery fans- it’s been decades since the last sequel (Deathstalker IV) of the classicCorman series was in cinemas and now we can actually expect a new one later this year.
Daniel Bernhardt (Bloodsport 2, Matrix 2, John Wick) Martial Art movie veteran stars as a Deathstalker a forth actor to carry a titular role. He is joined by comedian Patton Oswald who voices the minuscule wizard Doodad as well as well Nina Bergman, Paul Lazenby and Christina Orjalo.
Deathstalker and the wizard Doodad
Movies follows the Deathstalker comicbook series by Vault, Deathstalker: The Damned Blood by Seeley ,Terry and Russelpresented by legendary guitarist Slash (Guns N’ Roses) who is also the executive producer of the movie- as well as a co-composer of the Deathstalker (2025) theme (w/ Bear McCreary and Chuck Cirino).
6 years after his unlikely comeback with Color Out of Space (staring none other than the legendary Nic Cage) Richard Stanley is back at it again. In his first UK production since his debut Hardware (1990) Stanley is preparing to shoot a Rock Festival meets Lovecraftian Horror film called Iron Donkey.
And if that isn’t enough he is casting a number of Rockstars and at least one Martial Arts star, because the first casting is surprisingly a Hong Kong action movie veteran Cynthia Rothrock (Yes, Madam, China O’Brian & Black Creek).
“The stars have aligned to conjure this dream into manifestation, a perfect storm of metal, martial arts and cosmic horror, precision calibrated to burn its way into the brains of a whole new generation of metal fans. It makes me hugely happy to be back in the UK and to be returning to my cultural roots with this supernaturally charged psychedelic hand grenade, freely inspired by a real-life misadventure from my younger years. Given the current state of the nation, I firmly believe Steel Donkeys is exactly what Britain both needs and deserves…”
Movie is to be shoot during a Bloodstock Open Air festival (in Derbyshire) in August with additional filming in KK’S Steel Mill, owned of course by none other than K.K. Downings (ex- Judas Priest). Doesn’t get much more Metal than that.
Heavy Metal meets Horror ( ala Trick or Treat) has always been one of the sub-genres we had crazy fun with, so we can’t wait to see more of this project– hopefully we won’t be waiting long.
A sheriff’s sister seeks revenge against the terrifying leader of a group of outlaws after discovering he brutally murdered her brother, his wife, and other family members in a gritty southwestern town.
For fans of 80s and 90s Martial Art flicks, movie is significant as a reunion of China O’ Brian (1990) team of Rothrock, Keith Cooke and the late, great Richard Norton almost 35years after their last film together. And the rest of the cast is also rounded out with who’s who ofold school Martial Art movies with names like Don “Dragon” Wilson, Benny “The Jet” Urquidez, Keith Vitali and Ninjutsu pioneer Stephen Hayes all there.
After finally completing one long gestating project, stop- motion creature feature THE PRIMEVALS, Charles Band found another lost gem of his Full Moon filmography. It’s a Tony Todd movie he directed almost exactly 20 years ago that ran into financial trouble just 2 days before the production was supposed to end then even worse had it’s negatives lost for decades. Negatives were finally found last year and the Band was hard at work at finishing the movie and now it can finally see the light of day.
Despite being filmed in ’00s Cutter’s Club is an extremely old school horror feature with practical effects by John Carl Buechler (Halloween 4, Friday the 13th 4) and some nice cinematography by the late Mac Ahlberg (Re-Animator, From Beyond). Script was by Neal Marshall Stevens (Thirteen Ghosts).
You can see the official trailer bellow and if you like what you see you can watch the moviefor free on Tubiright now.
Back in December we spoke about the fantastic Tiger Cops: Project A short- a love letter to the 90s Hong Kong/ Girls with Guns genre in which the titular heroine Inspector Tiger (Maria Tran) finally confronts the mysterious crime boss White Ghost played by none other than Hong Kong movie villain royalty Richard Norton (Mr. Nice Guy, City Hunter, Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars).
Richard Norton with “Black Bear” Sifu Damien Chauremootoo
Well, now we finally have the release date for the short film (spoiler: you won’t have to wait long) and the full trailer too. You can enjoy it bellow via Fideo youtube channel:
Starring: Maria Tran, David Hong, Wilson Zou and Richard Norton
And the fun doesn’t stop with Tiger Cop: Project A on the 17.03. because Norton also filmed a short cameo in Tran‘s next installment of her Echo 8 film series, Echo 8: Beyond that we can hopefully expect by the end of the year too. It’s a good time to be a Kung Fu movie fan for sure.
No Retreat No Surrender (1985) was at the time a rare hybrid of Hong Kong and U.S.A.– an attempt to bring Asian Martial Arts movies to American audiences. It was written by Keith Strandberg and directed by Corey Yuen (Dragons Forever, Yes, Madam) in his English language debut. (Yuen would go on to have a successful career in the west from No Retreat 2 to working on Jet Li‘s American movies like Lethal Weapon 4, Romeo Must Die & The Expendables as well as effectively launching Jason Statham as an action star with TheTransporter.) It also notably had remaining vestiges of 70s Bruceploitation genre by inexplicably having a main character being trained by a ghost of Bruce Lee (Kim Tai-Chung aka Tong Lung.)
Directed by Oliver Harper (In Search of the Last Action Heroes) documentary features interviews not only with the likes of No Retreat producer Ng See-yuen, original cast members such as Kurt McKinney, J.W. Fails, Peter “Sugarfoot” Cunningham as well as sequel’s Cynthia Rothrock and Matthias Hues but also with famous fans such as Scott Adkins(Undisputed, Ninja). The only one missing is The Muscles from Brussels himself, Mr. VanDamme.
As of now movie is over 40% financed on Kickstarter and if you want you can pre- order it right here. I have no doubt this will get to 100% in no time.
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