Deadly Spawn, The |
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 • USA • 1983 • 81m •    • Directed by: Douglas McKeown. • Starring: Charles George Hildebrandt, Tom DeFranco, Richard Lee Porter, Jean Tafler, Karen Tighe, James L. Brewster, Elissa Neil, Ethel Michelson, John Schmerling, Judith Mayes, Andrew Michaels, John Arndt, Diane Stevens. • Music by: Paul Cornell, Michael Perilstein, Kenneth Walker.      Two campers in the New Jersey woods have their outdoor fun interrupted by the arrival of a meteorite crashing nearby. They go to investigate the crater, but are suddenly attacked and devoured by alien parasites who have hitched a ride to Earth. After finishing off the campers, the hungry space monsters head for a nearby town, where they make their domain in the basement of an old house soon begin polishing off one hapless inhabitant after another. Four young teenagers, plus one pre-teen boy, try to find a way to stop the angry space monsters before they reproduce and literally eat humanity.
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Review:
I love movies about slimy, squirmy and elusive creatures from outer space and this is one of those. It reminded me a whole lot of "Night of the Creeps" because of the way that the movie is unafraid to be what it essentially is a low budget splatter fest that pays homage those old alien invasion movies of the 50s! It also reminded me of David Cronenbergs "Shivers" because of the slug like appearance of the aliens when they are babies. There's plenty of those slugs here! The special fx for the slugs squirming their way through walls and through the basement floor was very imaginative. For a second there I thought they were real tadpoles that they had used for the movie, later in the making of featurette I found out that they created these really cool rigs for the fake slugs to slide through.
Which brings me to one of the coolest points of this flick, the make up effects. OK, first off, they aren't like, Stan Winston type of make up effects, but given the type of film that this is I say that they are pretty fun to watch. And by fun, I mean gory, bloody and slimy. The aliens have these huge jaws with thousands upon hundreds of teeth's...to rip your flesh with. The look of the creatures is very unique and original I would say. The gore effects with the monsters ripping flesh off faces and eating hands and peoples heads where very well achieved. It reminds you of just how cool the 80s were gore wise. I don't think you'd ever see a flick like this getting made nowadays. It was the time when Latex was king and R rated films where cool.
The acting is decent, nothing to spectacular. The actors here serve only one real purpose...to become alien monster food. And that they do pretty well. The movie has got some funny moments as well...like the moment when some alien slugs invade a elderly home. My god! That scene was funny and gruesome at the same time! Old ladies being devoured by slugs! Cool! Technically speaking, the image is very grainy, its not widescreen and the sound is mono...which means that it sounds like you were hearing the movie through your alarm clock. Also the score was obviously made on a synthesizer and sounds like your brother could have cooked it up. But still, I think that the cheap sound of the synthesizer music helps the whole b movie feel that the flick has.
All in all I think that the movie makes up for all its shortcomings (as far as I'm concerned anyway) with imagination, buckets of blood and cool make up effects. Id recommend it to any schmo who wants to have a fun brainless time.
P.S. If you enjoy this flick then be sure to search out its sequel...Metamorphosis: The Alien Factor which has a slightly higher budget and if I remember correctly is just as fun.
Review by spacemonkey_fg from the Internet Movie Database.
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