Terrore nello spazio

My review was written in June 1991 after watching the movie on video cassette.

An okay clone of "Alien", "Dead Space" has been in regional release since January but is mainly for sci-fi fans who haunt video stores.

Debuting helmer Fred Gallo has carefully watched the Ridley Scott 1979 monster hit and has smoky sets, chest-bursting monsters and the other ingredients. Film was shot as "Biohazard", a moniker used in 1983 by Fred Olen Ray.

Marc Singer toplines as a space jockey investigating a distress call from a research lab on the planet Phabon. Beautiful genetic researcher Laura Tate is worried after a research assistant died working on creting a new virus to combat the deadly Delta 5 virus. The other scientists, led by Judith Chapman and Bryan Cranston, want to hush up the incident and continue their research.

It turns out that the new virus is a "metamorphic mutant", changing its own genetic structure as it grows. Soon it gets loose, keeps changing form and starts killing people. Gabe Bartalos' makeup effects are okay in the gore department, but the little puppets representing the monster aren't scary. Full-grown monster resembles a huge praying mantis.

Leads Singer and Tate make an attractive team. Outer space scenes look like stock footage from "Battle Beyond the Stars", a 1980 production from Roger Corman who backed this one as well.

The first thing about "Dead Space" I couldn't help noticing immediately was the running time displayed on the back of the VHS-cover. It states 70 minutes! Okay here on the IMDb the running time is supposedly 80 minutes, but that probably includes trailers and/or full closing credits. 70 minutes is practically nothing. How can you possibly tell a proper Sci-Fi tale in such a short period? Well, see below this review for a couple of tips on how to make your film shorter, but usually it's not the best idea. But hey, "Dead Space" is a very redundant movie in general. It is more than obvious that this thing got made in probably even less than a week, under the strict surveillance of Roger Corman. It's a remake of "Forbidden World", which was released also by Corman not even ten years earlier. That movie was a shameless "Alien" rip-off, so basically "Dead Space" is the remake of a rip-off. Only Corman is shameless enough to make the exact same film twice and then still include footage from his other work, like "Battle Beyond the Stars". Marc Singer, who here looks like he might be Kevin Bacon's older brother, plays a lone space macho cowboy who arrives on the research facility planet Phaebon together with his pet-robot Tinpan after they picked up an S.O.S signal. He literally crash-lands amidst a group of scientists that are trying to develop a virus to destroy another virus; namely the lethal Delta-5 disease. Little problem, however, their anti- virus developed itself into a monster and finds pleasure in killing off the crew members. One of the main reasons why I liked "Forbidden World" so much was because of the awesomely cheesy monster design and special effects. That film had an amazing low-budgeted B-atmosphere going for it! "Dead Space" is also very low-budgeted and cheesy, but it never manages to bring forward the same irresistible charm or outrageous enthusiasm. I guess that's a privilege exclusively for 80's movies. The mutant monster looks like a clay dragon and the killings are very uninspired. This is one film that can easily be skipped, except of course if you're a sucker for cheap and amateurishly directed "Alien" rip-offs like there are literally hundreds of out there.

As promised, I'm going to reveal some tips about how to make your movie fit right into the 70 minutes limit. For example: combine sequences! Director Fred Gallo knows that every self-respecting Sci-Fi movie needs (A) a sex sequence, (B) a dream sequence and (C) a monster-bursting- through-the-chest moment. In "Dead Space", these three classic scenes are one and the same! The lead girl dreams she has sex with Marc Singers and witnesses the creature bursting through her chest right before waking up! Secondly, if you have a eight-headed cast but not the time to introduce them, start by killing two of them before the cause of the problem is even properly established. If you don't want to waste too much time on the remaining six neither, then make sure they live up to the most commonly known stereotypical trademarks of cinema. One of them needs to be an obsessed scientist who'll continue with the experiments no matter what, one of them needs to be an insufferable coward and you also need one strong female cast member to put the link with Ellen Ripley in "Alien". See, it's easy.

The filmmakers apparently had enough money to be able to afford decent makeup effects, but not enough for a creature that would move around and attack convincingly. We never get a chance to see the "monster" move from one place to another - whenever that happens (supposedly), the camera focuses on the "terrified" reactions of the humans that are nearby. And when a man is attacked by it, he simply seems to be holding an inanimate object against himself so that it won't fall to the ground. This is still not the worst "Alien" rip-off around (the two "Xtro" films are even worse, for example); it's actually sufficiently entertaining if you've got 68 (!!) minutes to spare. (*1/2)

It started cheap looking, then it continued cheap looking, and it ended cheap looking.

This movie is pretty much Alien without Ripley, on a $30 production budget.

The story and the monster are both Alien. A small group of people, hunted by a xenomorph looking monster.

I think they had blank shooting guns on set, and I thought the malfunctions were part of the script, but they had so many, maybe their prop-guns were just bad and they didn't work right.

The movie was illogical, the guns (even when they were operating) didn't hurt the monster(s).

I would say 2 stars, but I add +1, because of the "Walter White" actor (Bryan Cranston). So... 3/10.

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

The plot,as it were,has Marc Singer as a character called Captain Krieger who along with his robot,er,Tinpan (Rodger Hall), zooms about the universe doing not a very lot,it would seem.Until,that is,he answers a distress call from a research facility by the name of Phaebon,where a potentially lethal virus has been discovered.Before long,all manner of hell has broken loose and the virus (that,by the end,has somehow inexplicably taken the form of a giant monster) must be stopped.

Only 70 minutes long.Only 10 characters featured.Yet Dead Space still manages to be a total Dead Zone of a film.

I was enticed to view this very obvious B movie on account of a nice looking cover of a skeleton in a spacesuit.Needless to say,none of the characters featured are ever seen in spacesuits and neither are any of the characters astronauts.Misleading advertising or what?

And the actual film itself is nothing worth watching,despite it's (extremely) compact running time,with it's droll script,bland characters and special effects that could be bettered by the standards of a Wrigley's Spearmint Gum advert.

Tinpan was cool,but that was a robot who belonged in a much better movie.Actually,he's a very,very poor man's C-3PO,but I've got a thing for robots (nothing sexual,but,you know).

12 year old DTV garbage is still garbage.Tinny and one mildly effective jump scene are the only reasons why I feel in any way lucky to have seen what should by rights be in it's DTV grave yard by now.*