Synopsis:
An interstellar vessel on a mission to claim resources before a rival corporation can lay claim crash lands on an alien planet. The meager crew is then toyed with and hunted by an extraterrestrial terror.
In any given twenty minute stretch there is probably something to really like about this movie. Unfortunately there seemed to be no cohesive whole to make one entertaining motion picture. William Malone would go on to do television for over a decade after this, and he thankfully got better over time.
Creature begins fairly well. Scenes are shot with attention to mood and color in a way that few low budget or horror films ever seem to even think of.
Once the ship reaches its destination, we are treated to talking. A lot of talking. William Malone can typically direct a really fun character driven movie. Creature, sadly, was not one of them.
Some fan service arrives. Nudity. Gore. Amazing gore. Some of it outright memorable.
Finally, the conclusion draws itself out with the same pacing problems that really crushed the rest of the feature.
Thoughts while watching:
Blood and gore effects are light years beyond Scared to Death. It takes some time for the horror element to kick in, but it’s fun once it does.
On the subject of time: The first 20-25 minutes had some beautiful work with colors and lights. Everything between that and the 50 minute mark is really generic science fiction. A number of these characters resemble each other in almost every way. They fill the logical and different roles as the ship’s crew, and provide a greater body count.
Some really fun horror begins after that 50 minute mark. Malone’s work with visual and makeup effects is as much improved as the gore. The monsters look like monsters. The corpses look like corpses. The things in between are a treat for the eyes.
The characters split up to explore a strange, labyrinthine space ship. In House on Haunted Hill, the characters will split up to explore a strange, labyrinthine basement. Never split up. You’re stuck in the strange labyrinthine place, so there will be plenty of time to explore as a cohesive unit.
In closing
The alien acts like a compendium of all things great about alien movies. From cold-war body snatchers to early 80s slime-covered monstrosities, this creature does it all. The design and execution are a large and very welcome improvement over the Syngenor from Scared to Death. What could have been a simple imitation of the H.R. Geiger Alien is given a lot of personality and a whole toolbox of evil tricks. This is cool. Blood looks like blood, and less like orange corn syrup. There is so much going for this movie on the way in.
Sadly, the movie lacked good characters or rhythm. Characters were either forgettably generic or wildly unbelievable. The mission leader started as the unbelievable type and eventually became just another face. Malone’s talents for characterization were squandered on useless characters.
If this movie would have found its rhythm, then even those faults could have been overlooked. Enough heads are mangled, mutilated, or even blown up to make an excellent popcorn movie. In fact, were I a character in that movie then I would want my last name legally changed to “Not In The Face.” That way my name patch would be humorously juxtaposed against the most common cause of death in outer space.
Creature, in short, did not live up to its potential. There are brief, wonderful glimpses of something great trying to break through. For reasons I won’t speculate on, they never get that chance.
William Malone would go on to make very entertaining movies. If not, then I would not be writing this. I hate to write a “love fest” and write of my dislike for any of the works. This is thankfully going to be the only down note of the entire project.
Before moving on to House on Haunted Hill, I want to briefly touch on the television work that Malone did. It was a sincere surprise to look him up on IMDB and associate his name with some favorite television shows. Whatever Malone learned in those times would also go on to bring about one of the best moviegoing experiences that I ever had.
There’s an up-note to end this love fest entry on after all.
