Movie #2: Creature

Welcome to Sci-Fi 100! 
100 Sci-Fi movies in 100 days!

Welcome to day 2 and movie 2 of my 100 movie journey through Sci-fi.
Movie #2 is "Creature" from 1985. Made on a modest budget of $750K, at first glance this film seems to be a ripoff of the 1979 film "Alien." I remember seeing this film when it came to VHS in the late '80s, but I remembered very little about it. The first thing that I noticed while watching it this morning was the '80s hairstyles, especially on the women. It looked like they used a whole can of "Auquanet" or "White Rain" hairspray on each actress. This kind of dates the movie, but it actually added to my enjoyment of the film.
The plot of the film is... after Earth looses contact with a group of scientist/astronauts that were exploring Titan, a moon of the planet Saturn, more scientist/astronauts are sent to find out what happened to them. Once there they find out that the first team has awakened an ancient alien species that has been asleep for thousands of years. Now, the new team must try to keep from becoming the aliens next meal.

check out the trailer for "Creature" in the box above.

The film is directed by William Malone, who later directed the films "House on Haunted Hill" & "Fear dot com." I read that he is a total Sci-Fi nut and has a collection of original props from the classic Sci-Fi film "Forbidden Planet," including the original Robbie the Robot. He even used some of those props in this movie, but I didn't notice them.  "Creature" stars Stan Ivar (from "Little House on the Prairie,") Wendy Schaal, Lyman Ward (the Dad on "Ferris Bueller,") and the very odd and creepy Klaus Kinski. There wasn't anything that stood out about the acting in this film... definitely not Robert De Niro worthy performances. The characters were pretty much one-dimentional... not much development at all. I really didn't care who lived or died because I had nothing invested in them.
The costumes looked good, resembling the spacesuits used in "Alien." The sets however, I could tell were cheaply designed. The filmmakers tried to hide this fact by using lots of shadows, low light, and tight shots of the actors.

One difference from the movie "Alien" is that these creatures can kill a person then re-animate their bodies by taking them over. The crew never knows who the aliens could be. It's not only an "Alien" ripoff... it's also a "The Thing" ripoff combined with an "Alien" ripoff to make a completely different, yet familiar story.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give "Creature" a 5. It isn't a horrible movie and though it was predictable, I did find it somewhat entertaining. 
The film is available on DVD and as a streaming purchase or rental from Amazon.com. It's also available for instant viewing on Netflix. If you watch it, let me know what you think about it.

- Patrick Shawn Bennett
Broadcasting from the Saturn moon Titan!

XXX