The Deadly Spawn

By: themovielord
Date: Saturday, December 22, 2007

A meteor crashes to Earth and out crawls the Deadly Spawn to wreck havoc on the typical American family.

In 1983 there was almost no such thing as direct to video releases, unless they were adult titles. So almost all films had to be released somewhere by a studio. Whoever released “Return of the Aliens: The Deadly Spawn” must have thought they had the next “Evil Dead” (1981) on their hands. They didn’t. Instead what they did have was what all children of the late Eighties and early Nineties would go on to produce. A homemade horror film shot in someone’s back yard.

“Return of the Aliens: The Deadly Spawn” starts off with a less is more effect and entices the audience with creepy shadows and sounds. The movie hits a high note here and quickly falls into clichés of corn syrup colored blood that is thrown on discarded items and light bulbs. Adding to that are continuity errors, not in epic proportions, but ones that are noticeable. The best example of which is the Dad going down to the basement from the upstairs bedroom and his hair changes each time on each floor. Now that is sad but all these problems take this stereotypical meteor crashing story directly nowhere.

The film also has several bad jump cuts. One is acceptable but four mean rank amateur editing this horror. Now “Evil Dead” isn’t Jean Renoir’s "The Grand Illusion" but it is still competent film making. The make up and creature effects were not half bad for the time. Make no mistake this is a bloody awful mess (in a good way). The skin shredding and monster eating are pretty good and make the film fun, but all too briefly. The “Spawn” itself is a cleaver creation. Part chest popper from “Alien” (1979) and part Audrey II from “The Little Shop of Horrors” (1960) with a pinch of “Piranha” (1978) for the teeth. So with a big incarnation of the “Spawn” and little ones as for the terror, well scares, come from a plethora of places. The best being and most “Muppet” like came at Grandma’s vegetarian luncheon.

Now in films like this, as they emerged in the movies, there have always been two of the exact same type of characters. The first is a scientist (Tom DeFranco), whether he be young or old, there is always a man/ woman of science who tries to puzzle everything together. The second, and more relatable especially in the Eighties, is a kid (Charles George Hildebrandt) who knows all about monsters. This film has both of these characters and makes them brothers. What is interesting for the young scientist and older brother Pete (DeFranco) is that he loses control, after his would be girlfriend is decapitated he refuses to accept what he is seeing as real. In short he never rises to the challenge. Now the young brother Charles (Hildebrandt) is the survivor and hero even after he sees the corpse of his own mother. A different take on the genre’s characters; one that hopefully will find its way into a better movie.

This film is much like Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead” in production value and casting. Though where Raimi took what he had and made a modern horror classic, Douglas McKeown made an abysmal movie that should be shown in every film school. The classes should start with “Return of the Aliens: The Deadly Spawn” or what not to do while making a film 101.


Click here to read the staff review by Mania.