The Deadly Spawn (1983)

Wonderful character development!

recommended

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

When I used to go to the local Mom and Pop video store I would be confronted by cheap pieces of film disguised as entertainment such as this. One look at the cover tells you all you need to know. The correct reaction is "I don't want to see THIS movie!"Bingo. If you're like me, that is incomplete. I don't want to see this movie. I NEED to see this movie. I will do whatever it takes to buy this movie which I am now enjoying on my copy on VHS with the oversized case.A labor of love produced on a $30,000 To $50,000 budget backed up by a serious love of old time schlock cinema.Ted Bohus did graduate to some better budgets, such as Vampire Vixens from Venus which via friendship with Fred Olen Ray did include Michelle Bauer in the cast, but this work including nobody you ever heard of is one of the best cult movie classics you can get a hold of.As usual with reviews of this type of movie, do not expect high art. Just turn you brain off and enjoy the ride.

A meteorite lands in America bringing with it an alien lifeforce which proceeds to go a bloody killing spree. Mega low budget sci-fi/horror from 1983 which delivers buckets loads of blood and gore. The acting is quite reasonable, unusual for films of this budget. There is plenty of dark humour but also a few moments of fear, for example when young horror obsessed Charles (with whom I can easily identify) enters his home's cellar in the dark, only to find the creature down there. The special effects certainly are not of Rob Bottin standard but they are surprisingly gruesome and plentiful. Great, fun b-movie that can be enjoyed with repeated viewings and is proof of what can be achieved despite such a low budget.

What this film lacks in budget and professionalism it certainly makes up for in terms of special effects; I would say that these are some of the most inventive, imaginative and damned good effects that I've ever seen in an amateur film. Okay, so some effects, like the miniatures at the beginning and end, are predictably awful, but the actual alien creatures themselves here definitely do not disappoint.The plot is a typical one involving an alien invasion which begins with a meteorite crashing into the woods (hmm, where have we heard that before? THE BLOB maybe?). Scores of little worm things are released into the countryside, and some take refuge in the open basement of a house, where they quickly develop. The family members are then picked off one by one by the horrible creatures. So, to put it very basically, a group of people, trapped in an isolated location, are menaced by a toothy beast. I guess the makers of this film saw ALIEN when it came out four years previously.The acting is, as you can imagine, really bad, with people either reading the lines off their cards or simply not bothering at all. It's not really, really, bad but it's quite laughable. There's nothing in the way of scenery or atmosphere, and the amateur nature of the film is noticeable at all times. And, sad to say, towards the end it all gets rather silly indeed, with our young hero employing the same methods as Roy Scheider did in JAWS to get rid of the monster.But...there are some real stand-out moments here which just have to be seen to be believed. Some notable gore moments include a corpse with worms wriggling from the eye sockets and bursting from the sockets, and a head being pulled off and the decapitated body being thrown through a window. There's another hilarious moment where the worms attack a group of old ladies having a party. The creatures themselves sometimes look bad, sometimes look real enough to be convincing, especially during an impromptu dissection on one of them.The highlight of this film for me, and I'm sure for many others, comes when a young boy ventures into his basement. He wanders through the darkness before his torch lights something up in the gloom. It's the alien, a multi-headed creature with rows of sickly-looking teeth, something which could almost be Lovecraftian in nature. At its feet (or should I say tentacles) lies a half eaten body. Then, from its jaws, falls the head of the boy's mother, all mutilated. The tiny monsters then proceed to tear the flesh from the head in graphic detail. Let me say, this scene is absolutely PERFECT. It immediately repulses, horrifies and scares, setting out exactly what it was meant to do. The effects work, because the basement is dark and the darkness hides any joints. There's no CGI, this monster has body, texture, you can almost smell it. I'm actually inclined to say that this one scene is one of the best I've ever seen in a monster movie; in this one moment everything falls into place and it actually becomes better than ALIEN, the film which it was ripping off. Therefore, it has to be watched because of this, just to watch this totally unexpected, graphic and shocking moment. And the rest of the film isn't that bad, so why not give it a go?

Recently picked it up on DVD (SE) of this movie that I almost completely forgot.It's gory, to the point that some scenes become hilarious (aka Braindead). There isn't much plot, it's pretty basic, and that's why I liked it. Few people are trapped in a house which is invaded by monster from outer space that wants to eat everyone. It's that simple, but that doesn't mean it isn't lot of fun.Characters aren't all that great, but they are functional. They work within the story, because, let's face it - you're watching this movie to see monster eat somebody. Script starts out fast, and it's fast moving for most of the parts, but there are some moments when movie tends to drag along, like it's trying to fill in the runtime. There's a random scene with grannies and baby aliens that is so over the top that you'll laugh hard. (You have to experience it)Gore is well done for a time period and budget it had. Monster looks great and puppets are well handled. Direction and camera work isn't all that impressive, but it's not terrible. Acting is mixed bag, but it won't matter much. If you're watching movie called "Return of the Aliens: The Deadly Spawn" you're probably horror fan that's use to campy acting in campy movies.5 stars. If you're horror fan, don't miss it.Ps. There's no "first alien" movie. Title was probably made up by distributors to cash-in on Alien movies, much like it's unrelated so- called sequel "Metamorphosis".