Why Slash Wanted to Revive the Wild ’80s Movie

Slash is best known for his day job as the legendary guitarist of Guns N’ Roses, but is also a major horror movie fan. While he’s had some small acting roles through the years, he dove deeper into the industry in 2023 with the launch of his own horror film banner, BerserkerGang. The label’s latest project, a reboot of the 1983 sword and sorcery epic “Deathstalker,” written and directed by Steven Kostanski, had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival on Aug. 15. Slash has an executive producer credit on the film, and unlike some vanity titles, he was deeply engaged with the nitty gritty details of filmmaking.

Slash spoke with Variety about why he loves the original “Deathstalker,” how making movies is like recording albums and the valuable advice about creativity he got from Keith Richards.

What was your first experience with “Deathstalker”?

I was working at Tower Video on Sunset in Hollywood in 1983. We had “Deathstalker.” I’m not even sure it was a video rental. There were two of them, and I used to put them on the monitors at work. I used to think they were great because there were so many genre movies of that ilk at the time, and they all took themselves very seriously. It’s scary if you take “Dungeons and Dragons” and sword and sorcery too seriously because it is what it is, right? “Deathstalker” had a certain kind of charm to it. It was very low-budget, had a great sense of humor and it was just a lot more fun than, say, “Conan the Barbarian.”

Fast forward all these years later, and my partners and I got this script for “Deathstalker” as a reboot. Not a sequel, not a remake, but a reboot of the IP, and the script was fucking great. It captured everything about “Deathstalker” that made it a fun movie. It had a great sense of humor. The dialogue wasn’t dumbed down and stupid comic book stuff. It actually had fun dialogue and all the violence, action, the monsters and everything. It was all there. I thought, “If we do this and we can visually represent this the way that the script has, it would be great.” So we decided to pursue it.

When did you realize that you and Steven Kostanski were on the same page about reviving “Deathstalker”?

Finding the right director for this was a bit daunting because it had to be somebody who appreciated it for the same reasons we appreciated it. But Steve’s name came up and I’m a big fan because “The Void” was this movie a friend of a friend wrote. I actually hung out with this guy one night when I was on tour years and years ago, and he had just done “The Void,” and I hadn’t seen it yet, but we talked about it. Then I finally saw it and thought, “Oh my God, that guy’s a rock star.” That’s how I became familiar with Steve. Long story short, Steve’s name came up and I was really excited about it. My partners talked to him and said that he was interested, so we did a big Zoom call and we got into it with him and he was really enthusiastic about it and had a passion for it, which was a really important, crucial element. He had all these great ideas of how we wanted to do it.

We didn’t have a huge budget for this and he wanted to do everything practical, which I’m a big proponent of. I did not want something that was steeped in CGI, so that really was exciting. So he came on board, and then we found Daniel Bernhardt, who’s the only person I can think of that could play Deathstalker. I was on the road when production started, and they were sending me dailies, and they looked amazing. I was really shocked. Then I flew to somewhere in Ontario for a day of production. It was great.

One of the great things about being a producer is I get to get involved in the music. We wanted to do a remake of the “Deathstalker” theme, and I’m good friends with Bear McCreary, so I called him and it turns out he’s a big “Deathstalker” fan and a fan of Chuck Cirino, the original composer for the original song. So we thought, “Let’s remake the song: We’ll get a live band and we’ll do it like that.” So we went into a studio, Bear and I and some musicians and Chuck. And we did a great version of the original theme song. It was just a blast to do. That’s how it all came together.

How has your relationship with film changed now that you’ve ramped up your production duties?

It’s a lot like music. Keith Richards once said, “Once you actually pick up an instrument and start playing, you forfeit the right to listen to music like everybody else.” That’s the same thing with films. I’ve always been a huge fan of films for as long as I can remember. But as soon as I got into producing, I looked at everything a little bit differently. You start to dissect stuff, which is great, except that you can be a really harsh critic. But I think that is probably the key thing that changes when you get involved in making movies and watching them, as opposed to when you were just watching movies to watch them.

What is the feeling like when you look at an album or a film that you’ve just completed that you’re happy with?

It’s the sole motivation. You get into something like this, and it’s really about putting all the components together to make something that you are satisfied with. Music is the same thing. It’s putting together all these different components to make the end product. It doesn’t always happen. There’s a work ethic that goes into it. There’s a certain amount of skill, and a certain amount of luck and all these different things that play into it, but it is orgasmic to have something that you’re happy with at the end of the day. It’s what keeps you doing it.

Given that you grew up getting so much experience in rock bands, do you bring some of those lessons about collaboration and patience to film sets?

I think it has a lot to do with how you work with people. You’re working with people who have a different craft, but it is very much a collaboration. A lot of patience and certain sacrifices and things happen when you’re working with a group of people to arrive at the same conclusion. I think that my experience up to now has really aided me in working with more people in the film world, because obviously there are three times as many people on a production compared to recording with a band.

You’re a known horror lover. What are the types of scripts are you excited about as a producer?

There’s a book that I just read called “Demon Copperhead.” It’s just fucking great story. It has nothing to do with horror whatsoever. It’s a boy’s tale, sort of a modern telling of “David Copperfield.” That’s something I would love to make, and I’m looking to see what options have been taken on it and so on. So there are different things that I like, depending on what it is. It doesn’t necessarily have to be horror. I use the term “horror” because people are familiar with it. I grew up with that term. But it’s a very limited description of what I’m into.

I love story and character-driven, different types of scary things: Horror, psychological thrillers, scary science fiction. I love that stuff. But then I also love fucking love Westerns, cop movies, detective stories, courtroom dramas — a lot of different types of stuff. I grew up on great comedies, but I have to say that comedies are probably the least interesting thing to me these days. I think the whole comedy genre has been very diluted because it’s just a sign of the times, the issues that we have. But I love anything as long as it’s good.

Could you see yourself taking other roles behind the camera, like directing a movie or writing a screenplay?

Right now, I’m just a producer, which has been a complete labor of love. I’ve been doing this for 13 years now, and I’ve got three movies under my belt. Things are picking up, and I have a lot of other stuff in development now with these producers that I’m working on “Deathstalker” with. That’s really where my wheelhouse is. The idea of actually sitting down and writing a screenplay is something that maybe could happen, but it’s not in my immediate future. I don’t want to be a director. I think to be a director, you have to put in as many hours as I have to put into guitar at this point. I just don’t want to say, “Hey, I’m gonna be the director now.” I think it’s too delicate and artistic a job to be able to just do. But producing I like, because you have an idea, be it a concept or script that needs developing, whatever it is, but you have an idea, and then you put all the elements and components together to develop that into something that works. That’s something that really speaks to me. It’s in my wheelhouse.

To end, a music question: Are there any recent albums that you think really kicked ass?

Metallica’s last record [“72 Seasons”]. I thought that was a brilliant record, and I was really impressed with everything about it. I also liked the last Dirty Honey record [“Can’t Find the Brakes”]. It was really good. I’m sure there’s more, but those are the first things that come to mind.