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The Deadly Spawn (1983) - Douglas McKeown


The Deadly Spawn is one of those giant alien monster movies that TerrorVision was so good at making fun of. It's cheap, it's confusing and it's full of gore. Unfortunately, it has good effects that suffer from underfunding. Much like 90% of everything horror that was put to celluloid during this era. It's just a part of the eighties. Bad movies that became cult classics. 

A meteorite crash lands on earth. Attached are man-eating alien parasites, that make their way to a nearby house on the outskirts of some town. They hide in the basement, growing larger and eventually maturing into a full blown giant monster. This thing brings chaos with it. Everyone is attacked by these arm-length worm like creatures with giant teeth. They even attack some random meeting of like eight old ladies just trying to enjoy tea. It's bloody. A woman has her face ripped off, people are devoured whole and the old women being bitten to shit by these things are just a few examples of the violence and gore. 

The filmmaker had been inspired by some National Geographic story about seed pods unearthed in Antarctica or something like that. It's interesting that he had been inspired by that small event to make such a crazy giant monster movie. They didn't have much money and this showed. Just about everything is suffering from this lack of funds. This includes the effects department. But that just adds to the charm. This is where cult classics come from. 

While this movie is portrayed as more down to earth, you can't help but laugh. It's just so bad, it's good. I really enjoyed watching the horrible actors getting ingested by this giant blob of flesh with massive teeth. I loved the wormites too. This was all around a good cheap monster flick. 

Directed byDouglas McKeown
Produced byTed A. Bohus
John Dods
Tim Hildebrandt
Written byDouglas McKeown
StarringCharles George Hildebrandt
Tom DeFranco
Richard Lee Porter
Jean Tafler
Karen Tighe
James Brewster
Elissa Neil
Ethel Michelson
John Schmerling
Music byPaul Cornell
Michael Perilstein
Kenneth Walker
CinematographyHarvey M. Birnbaum
Edited byMarc Harwood
Distributed by21st Century Film Corporation
Release dates
April 22, 1983
Running time
78 min
CountryUnited States


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