Dead Space

If I am to remember correctly this movie is not half bad until the alien 'hatches' then it goes so far downhill it'll make you feel like your on a rollercoaster.

One particular point sits in my memory, the 'alien' has just escaped and the scientists need to go to the surface for some reason. They make a big deal about how hostile the surface is and how no one could survive on it, but damn it he has to go out and fight the alien. Then they override the computer and open a hatch to ... the south western US! Now we get to see some dude in a suit walk around for like 5 minutes while they blow smoke infront of the camera to make you feel like your in an alien landscape. I believe you can even spot tire tracks on the ground and a rv in the back ground. Then we get a close up of the actor's face looking surprised, a close up of some purple weird dragon head going 'ROAAR' and then the scene of the dude running back to the hatch.

My friends in I had to break down and start laughing, it was one of the most inexplicatble sequences in film since the burlesque scene in Glenn or Glenda.

DEAD SPACE (1991) is your garden variety ALIEN rip-off about a remote research laboratory on a distant planet trying to find a virus to destroy another even more deadly contagion decimating mankind. They succeed, only to inadvertently create a xenomorph-style monster that quickly works its way through the assembled scientists. Right from the outset you get an outer space battle lifted from BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS so you know this one's going to be cheap and cheerful, and it certainly is.

Muscle star Marc Singer (THE BEASTMASTER) is the hero come to save the day, complete with android sidekick, and amusingly enough BREAKING BAD star Bryan Cranston also features right at the outset of his career. There's a bit of sex, a bit of nudity, some gore and a rather stiff monster that's only seen briefly. Don't go expecting much from this one.

From the Roger Corman factory comes this extremely forgettable remake of his 1982 production "Forbidden World". The Beastmaster himself, Marc Singer, stars as Commander Steve Krieger. Exactly what he's a commander of, I don't know, but he picks up a distress signal from the scientists on the planet Phaebon. These morons have been monkeying around with genetics and viruses and they've managed to create a mutating, evolving life form. It's up to Steve to save the day, with some occasional assistance from the doofuses around him.

If people seek out "Dead Space" for any reason, it's likely because they learned that it was a very early credit for the Emmy winning actor Bryan Cranston. Because of him, the acting is a hair better than you'd usually be subject to in a LOW rent production like this one. Directed (not so well) by Fred Gallo, it's routine through and through, and highly uninspired. The makeup and creature effects are actually not that bad, thanks to the efforts of Gabe Bartalos, an old pro at this sort of thing. If one is already familiar with "Forbidden World", they'll experience a fair bit of deja vu, as this version sticks pretty close to the original plot.

Singer is passable as the hero, and the ladies (Laura Mae Tate, Judith Chapman, Lori Lively) are pretty. Randy Reinholz delivers a useless performance as an equally useless character named Tim. Cranston does his best given the circumstances.

"Forbidden World" wasn't exactly a movie crying out to be redone, and "Dead Space" itself isn't a movie crying out to be watched very often - if indeed one watches it more than once.

Four out of 10.

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.

I saw Alien. I loved Alien. Dead Space is no Alien. Take Alien and leave out Sigourney Weaver and other credible actors, remove artful direction by Ridley Scott, eliminate wonderful special effects, extract suspense, banish a sensible, thought-provoking script, exile any kind of passion in the material and you have this mess of a film called Dead Space. What a complete bore! Master thespian Marc Singer stars as the space vigilante out to help a space station in the middle of cheesy special-effects land. Soon due to biological testing, a metamorphic mutant is created to fight disease only it ends up becoming a behemoth of evil trying to kill every person alive. The mutant goes through several excrutiating special effect stages including an adolescent stage where it resembles not a little a mini-Godzilla. The film was a test of my endurance not to fall asleep or fast forward or turn the television off. Roger Corman produced this innate rip-off and he should be ashamed. At least if you are not going to use something original, try and do some justice to your source. The film is so bad that there is even a softcore sex scene which happens in a dream! The only dead space in this film was the 80 minute void that I can never replace! Whew! Bow Wow!