Creature (1985)

User Rating:

3.6/10   

Director:

William Malone

Writers:

William Malone (writer)
Alan Reed (writer)

Release Date:

8 May 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Thriller | Horror

Tagline:

It's been sleeping peacefully on a moon of Saturn for 2000 centuries ... until now!

Plot:

A expedition to Titan uncovers an alien being, that goes on a rampage.

Plot Keywords:

Alien | Planet | Creature | Outer Space | Moon

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Stan Ivar	...	Mike Davison
Wendy Schaal	...	Beth Sladen
Lyman Ward	...	David Perkins
Robert Jaffe	...	Jon Fennel
Diane Salinger	...	Melanie Bryce
Annette McCarthy	...	Dr. Wendy H. Oliver
Marie Laurin	...	Susan Delambre
Klaus Kinski	...	Hans Rudy Hofner
John Stinson	...	Astronaut #1
Jim McKeny	...	Astronaut #2
Buckley Norris	...	Concord technician #1
Michael Griswold	...	Concord technician #2
David Moses	...	Mission Coordinator
Earle Dugan	...	Technician
Thomas C. James	...	Technician

Also Known As:

The Titan Find (UK) (video title)
Titan Find (USA)

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:R | France:-12 | UK:18 | USA:R | Norway:18 (video premiere) (1986) | Norway:(Banned) (1985-2003) (cinema release)

Company:

Trans World Entertainment (TWE)

Trivia:

Some of the classic sci-fi props and gizmos in the movie are from Forbidden Planet (1956). Director/producer William Malone, a sci-fi fanatic, owns a collection of "Forbidden Planet" items (including Robby the Robot), and thought it would be fun to use some of them in his film.

Quotes:

Hans Rudy Hofner: We found... a child's butterfly collection... but some of zees butterflies... were not too friendly...

Movie Connections:

References The Thing from Another World (1951)

A bit more genre than the usual Alien/Aliens rip off

This not-very-original sci-fi horror flick pits a mysterious alien with telepathic powers and very sharp teeth recovered from what appears to be an ancient intergalactic zoological collection by a corporate exploration expedition against the expedition's crew. The action takes place on Titan, one of Jupiter's larger moons.

The film starts out relatively strong although the script and directing are more than just a little off throughout the entire experience. A surprisingly well fleshed-out backstory is provided in the first 10-15 minutes of the film. As the crew are, of course, picked off one by one (none of them seem to have much in the way of basic survival training or even instincts), and the audience gets closer to seeing and understanding the alien, things fall apart pretty quickly.

Most of the acting is OK, but a little hamstrung by the weak script and generally poor direction, pacing and editing. Kinski makes the best of his cameo - a very strange role for him for since his enormous personality and screen presence do not fit comfortably into the quirky, somewhat perverse German engineer he plays. And Wendy Schaal does a nice job with her very poorly scripted character.

For the most part, the special effects are good. But the creature itself, who thankfully does not appear until fairly late in the film, is neither freightening nor very aesthetically interesting. There is really no pay-off in the creature's appearance - it's obviously a poorly animated rubber puppet, and some of the melee scenes are actually laughable. More judicious editing and cinematography would have made this a better film, but even with these imrpovements, the derivative plot and poor script would have probably limited its potential to about a 5 in my rating system.