The Deadly Spawn (1983) 21st Century Film Corporation/Horror-Sci-Fi RT: 81 minutes Rated R (violence, gore, some language) Director: Douglas McKeown Screenplay: Douglas McKeown Music: Paul Cornell, Michael Perilstein and Ken Walker Cinematography: Harvey Birnbaum Release date: April 22, 1983 (US) Cast: Charles George Hildebrandt, Tom DeFranco, Richard Lee Porter, Jean Tafler, Karen Tighe, Ethel Mitchelson, John Schmerling, James Brewster, Elissa Neil, Judith Mayes, Andrew Michaels, John Arndt, Jack Piccuro. Box Office: N/A
Rating: ***
Anybody looking for a good splattery horror flick involving carnivorous aliens could do worse than The Deadly Spawn, a cool low-budget piece that doesn’t try to dazzle the viewer with expensive effects and lofty ideas. It’s exactly what it looks and sounds like, a killer alien movie with a simple plot, lots of blood and a legitimately scary monster. What’s truly amazing about it is how great it looks for a movie that cost only $25,000 to make. That’s less than Night of the Living Dead and The Evil Dead.
The terror begins when a meteorite crash lands on Earth. A couple of guys camping nearby unwisely go to investigate and are promptly devoured by the alien creature that emerges from it. It then makes its way to a nearby home where it sets up camp in the basement. The first ones to go are the parents Sam (Brewster) and Barb (Neil) who make the mistake of venturing to the flooded basement. Their two kids, college age Pete (DeFranco) and preteen Charles (Hildebrand), don’t notice right away because their parents are supposed to be out for the day. They’re being looked after by their visiting aunt and uncle, Millie (Mitchelson) and Herb (Schmerling).
Herb, a psychologist, is there to talk to Charles about his obsession with old monster movies. Millie leaves right after breakfast to help her mother Bunny (Mayes) set up for a vegetarian lunch with her friends. Pete, a science freak, invites his friends Frankie (Porter), Ellen (Tafler) and Kathy (Tighe) over for a biology study date. Little do they know the horror that awaits them this rainy Saturday.
The first one to spot the alien is Charles when he sneaks into the basement to scare the electrician (Piccuro) who’s come to fix the circuit breaker. When he gets there, he sees little slug-like creatures feasting on the remains of the electrician (and Mom too). They’re the deadly spawn (A-HA!) of the mother alien, a giant creature with no eyes and lots of sharp teeth. Since it hunts by sound, the boy has no choice but to remain still and quiet. Upstairs, Pete’s friends arrive bearing a strange gift. They found the dead body of one of the alien’s spawn although they don’t yet know that’s what it is. They decide to dissect it in the name of science.
From here, The Deadly Spawn is an all-out alien attack movie with the mother creature chasing the freaked-out teens around the house while Charles comes up with a plan of counterattack. A number of people die gruesome deaths usually in gory close-up. One victim literally gets their head bitten off. Somebody has their face torn off. There’s no shortage of blood either. It flows freely and splatters everywhere. As a bonus, it never looks fake. The same goes for the main creature, a rubber puppet controlled from below by wires. The gore and alien effects in The Deadly Spawn are extremely well done especially when you consider the budget constraints.
The acting isn’t too bad, but it isn’t too good either. Let me ask you this? Was any of the acting in The Evil Dead any good? No, not really. The only difference is that Bruce Campbell became a cult star for playing Ash. None of the stars of The Deadly Spawn achieved stardom. Most of them made only this movie. While their performances don’t rate especially high, they get the job done. Not that it requires a lot of effort playing characters of limited intelligence. Nobody except the kid is particularly smart. The teens might possess some intelligence in the area of science, but like all teens in these movies they do some dumb things. The adults aren’t much better. It’s a good thing that dumb characters doing dumb things are a key component of 80s horror movies.
Writer-director Douglas McKeown, in his one and only cinematic effort, understands the genre and what the fans want. He totally delivers with The Deadly Spawn. He tells a good story, throws in a few nice scares and keeps it short and sweet at 81 minutes. Sure, it has a few pacing issues and slow spots, but McKeown makes up for it in other areas. In short, this is one of the better low-budget efforts from the 80s. It’s thrilling, chilling and fun.
Trivia buffs might be interested to know that it went under a different title in some locations, The Return of the Alien’s Deadly Spawn. I think we can all correctly guess what popular sci-fi-horror it was trying to cash in on.
