The Deadly Spawn

source: The Deadly Spawn

I only have one complaint regarding this incredibly fun and deliciously cheesy gem of early 80's monster-gore... It's way too SHORT! Plain and simple: "The Deadly Spawn" rocks! It's a fast-paced series of gooey make-up effects, exceptionally cool monster designs and likable teen characters. Writer/director Douglas McKeown (why this guy never did anything else is beyond me) doesn't waste any time, as the pre-credits sequence shows how a meteorite crash-lands on earth and out comes a very hungry creature that promptly devours a duo of campers. There's no actual plot and you certainly shouldn't anticipate any explanations on where the alien comes from or why exactly it selected this particular place to breed. Immediately after its landing on earth the "mother"-monster settles in a cozy basement and spawns hundreds of mean but strangely cute-looking little slugs with sharp teeth and an insatiable hunger for human flesh. As you can see on the DVD-cover image, the alien invader is a truly engaging creation and it looks surprisingly convincing despite the extremely low-budget values that were involved. It's a three-headed, eyeless monster with a gazillion teeth and bites people's heads off and gnaws the skin right off of their faces. Since this all shown rather explicitly and often in close-up, "The Deadly Spawn" even got listed as a notorious Video Nasty! Well yes, the bloodshed is really enormous and some of the deaths are quite shocking, but nevertheless "The Deadly Spawn" always features a charming and tongue-in-cheek type of humor. There are loads of references towards great classic horror films (also because the young hero is a horror movie buff) and the acting performances are overall acceptable. For once, the recent DeLuxe DVD release did a good job restoring sound, lighting and colors. The disc quality is a joy to behold and you'd buy the film if it were for the magnificent cover design alone. This is, simply put, vintage 80's cheese & gore and no real fan of horror can afford himself to skip it.

To me what they did with such a low budget is astounding. This movie entertained me all the way through, which in the year 2014 a movie from the 80's can't do anymore. Compare it to 10 million dollar CGI snooze-fests and this movie is GOLD. GOLD I SAY!!! The effects are where the movie stands out. Usually it's a kid with a bucket of fake blood but when it's there, GOD DAMN it's awesome. My final verdict 12/10. Best movie since Dawn of the Dead (1978)

For some it's probably criminally easy to dismiss a movie like this just because of it's low budget, but "The Deadly Spawn" was somewhat of a cult-hit in it's day and it's easy to see why. The make-up-effects are quite good for a movie this cheap (reportedly it cost just $ 20,000 and ended up making millions), and writer/director Douglas McKeown actually takes time building characters before he lets them die gory deaths (moahahaha). The monsters are quite effective, at least those small eel-like buggers reminiscent of the chest-burster that ruined everyone's breakfast in "Alien" (1979). It also deserves kudos for - in the end - painting a realistic picture of the traumatizing effects something like this would have on those who survive. If you like alien-invasion-movies in general, or just love the charm of horror on a shoestring-budget, this might be your cup of tea.

I first saw this in the mid 80s on a vhs. Revisited it recently. The initial kills r offscreen with jus blood on the ground, on the spectacles, on the bulb n on the wall with lots of slurping noise but the film does get gory later but nowhere tensed or fast paced. A woman's face gets munched upon by an alien suffering from bruxism. An old uncle gets devoured by the aliens offscreen. A teenager gets decapitated by an alien's teeth n the aftermath defenestration scene of the rubber body will make u lol. The salad scene from the film Slugs was inspired by a similar scene from this film. Inspite of the running time only 82 mins, the film gets tedious considering the old ladies' chit chat n the teenagers conversations.

I can't be objective when I talk about horror movies or something similar... I've been a fan of b movies since I was 4. Personally I think that this is one of the best b movies I've ever seen. And everyone who likes that genre wont be disappointed. The rest of you, you who don't like monster movies and gore, keep away from it and don't kick a genre that you can't stand or understand, you are who will be disappointed (some of you maybe still like it). The genre lovers don't be afraid of it, you'll really enjoy it. I promise you.

Extremely low budget, but lively sci-fi horror movie about a group of people trapped in a house full of toothy extraterrestrial monsters, hatched from a fallen meteorite, which look like a cross between a giant salamander and H.R. Giger's creation from the ALIEN movies. The shoestring budget actually adds to the movie's charm, as it appears to have been written, shot and designed by a bunch of talented kids who had nothing better to do with the weekend (which is actually not far from the truth). The dialog and performances, in general, are fair at best, but the swift pace, campy atmosphere and enthusiastic carnage balance out the shortcomings. Great music score, too. At any rate, you get the feeling that the filmmakers have a true love of the horror genre. It's creepy, gory, and a lot of fun, and would be a perfect flick for a Halloween horror-thon.

I don't know what happened with horror movies in 1983, but I'm yet to find one that actually blew me away. The best by far were 'Cujo' and 'Videodrome'. I'm still sitting here wondering what the hell I just watched; that being 'The Deadly Spawn'. This movie is at the bottom of the barrel of bad horror movies, with B-movie acting at its worst, B-movie visuals almost at its worst, and B-movie props also incredibly bad! On top of this the movie has weird dialogue with the characters saying and doing the strangest things. Speaking of characters, I didn't care about any of them. There's no clear protagonist - just a bunch of uninteresting, bland, two-dimensional characters. A young boy, Charles, comes to the rescue during scenes towards the end, but he doesn't have protagonist trademarks and didn't feature much during the film. 'The Deadly Spawn' is more comedy than horror, but it certainly ain't funny - it's just bad in every way. In fact, it was laughably bad - and that's no laughing matter! The creatures were lifeless, mechanical things. And what an absolutely stupid climax! This is an 80's horror movie you'd want to avoid - unless you enjoy laughing at badly made vintage movies... Would I watch it again? There's no chance...!

When a meteorite crashes to Earth, it unleashes a horde of toothy bloodthirsty extraterrestrials that eat everything, and everyone, that they can get their gnashers on. A young boy obsessed with monster movies discovers that these critters hunt using sound, and sets out to destroy the hungry aliens. A low-budget gory treat for lovers of monster B-movies, The Deadly Spawn has developed a small but loyal following thanks to its no-nonsense story, an enthusiastic cast and a whole load of impressive, and wonderfully gruesome effects. Despite being made with limited funds, over the course of a couple of years, this nifty nasty not only manages some truly grisly moments (faces are devoured, heads chewed off and eyes eaten out of the sockets) but also delivers a nicely realised main monster (complete with huge gaping jaws, row upon row of teeth and bizarre claw-like appendages) and a whole load of smaller eel-like wriggly aliens. With a running time of only 78 minutes, there really isn't time to get bored of proceedings, although a couple of the talkier moments (in which characters chat about such exciting topics as vegetables and science exams) could've been replaced with more action, and would've seen me rate this enjoyable film 8/10. As it stands, it gets a very respectable 7.

During the eighties there were more bona fide cult classics released than one could shake a stick at, and while this film has all the makings of being a cult classic; for my money, it's just a cheap Alien rip-off that makes good use of a small budget in some ways, but didn't do much for me. The most notable thing about the film is obviously the monster itself, and it's an interesting creation and is brought to the screen in a manner that is boisterous and fun. It's clear that the film is meant to be a horror-comedy, but the comedy is not really funny and the film is not scary because of the focus on comedy. There's a fair bit of gore featured, but again it's cheap and cheerful and not really up to much. None of the characters are engaging and I couldn't really care less what happened to any of them. The focus is very small scale, focusing mostly on a farmhouse and it's good because it keeps the action contained and since the central monster is fairly big, it looks more impressive in the small surroundings. But there's not a great deal of invention and I felt like I've seen all this stuff before. You've got to give some respect to low budget stuff like this for the fact that it didn't have a lot of resources to draw on; but it just didn't do much for me.