The Deadly Spawn

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.

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.

"The Deadly Spawn" is a classic example of a horror flick made on a shoestring budget which is nevertheless worth watching due to the ingenuity of its creators.

The plot is basically non-existent. An alien comes to Earth in a meteor and hides in a family's basement. It starts picking people off and having little babies that look and behave like land-based piranhas.

The characters and dialogue are all completely forgettable. The enthusiasm that went into the creature and gore effects obviously didn't rub off on the cast.

But that's not what you watch it for. You watch it to see what a talented crew can do with little money and on that score, "The Deadly Spawn" more than delivers.

Some deadly aliens have landed on planet Earth. Soon they are hiding in the basement of a normal middle-class American family. The two brothers Pete (Tom DeFranco) and Charles (Charles George Hildebrandt) must outwit the killing aliens if they want to survive.

Supposedly made for only $25,000. It is the effects or the look of the aliens that in my book are excellent given the shoestring budget. The acting as well is better than you are expecting, but please remember its not like any of them were robbed on Oscar night. There are also a couple dialogue heavy scenes that maybe could have been rewritten to add some spice to those scenes, but it doesn't make me not recommend this to any fans of gory, low-budget horror flicks.

This is one of the best alien/monster slaughtering and splattering movies I've ever seen! It is so funny and creative as the monsters are something I hadn't seen before. They are ugly, disgusting, hungry and have about 7000 teeth! They can also move, but pretty slowly. How they did those monsters with the low budget? They look so fantastic and scary as they actually have nothing but huge mouths and hundreds of sharp teeth in them.

Some alien stone comes from the space and crushes into the Earth with these nasty visitors. Soon they find a new home in a cellar of one apartment, and then the "fun" begins. There is one slow sequence in the middle of the film and it is boring to sit through, but fortunately for most of the time, there is always something going on.

The effects and overall look of the film is so 80's and low budgeted and nostalgic and it really makes to miss those golden days when these were made. Nasty slashers, stupid Conan rip offs, alien clones etc. Those were the legendary days that produced us these gems, that we can now track down and enjoy. The Deadly Spawn is recommended HIGHLY for all fans of marginal cinema and especially monster cinema, because these babies are something new! They bite in a way that no other monster has ever bitten before! They appear also in a form of slithery worms, and it only raises the puke-o-meter and fun-o-meter, but only for those who understand these rare pieces of gold. Others will only feel sick watching these!

This film earns at least 7 ultra gory stars out of ten, and these films will NEVER die, no matter how many stupid mainstream efforts or "modern horror films" are made!