Creature (1985)

5/10

ElijahCSkuggs17 January 2009

My reaction to hearing about Creature, "Klaus Kinski in a creature feature? Count me in, baby!" My reaction after watching Creature, "Ehhh, sh!t."

The story of Creature revolves around dueling spaceship companies (haha) who end up discovering on Saturn's moon, Titan, a creature who's been in slumber for over 2,000 centuries. That's alotta snoozin. So obviously when this creature wakes up it's gonna be hungry as hell. And low and behold it is. The crew discover that the German Spaceship Company has touched down before they have, and when they land they also learn that may have been a godsend. Because they're all dead. Well, besides Klaus. He managed to stay alive. Yay! Well, Kinksi, the romantic waitress from Pee Wee's Big Adventure and the rest of the American Spacemen are trying to figure out to get off this rock and survive the Creature's wrath while doing so.

Didn't I just make that sound awesome? No? Oh. Well, like my summary the movie isn't very awesome either. But it's not totally worthless. Klaus in his minuscule screen-time plays his part in a pretty likable way. The gore though not a lot wasn't that bad, the sets were pretty good but too dark, and the cheesy writing and decision making were enough to make you smile. The ending especially was chock full of stupidity. Anyways, all these ingredients made a decently cheesy flick. Oh, it was a tad too long as well.

I have to leave my biggest qualm (word of the day) for the end of his utterly pathetic review. The Creature was a total disappointment. By the looks of it on the cover it looks like a freak monster ant-eater type thing. And it's cool. But when it's on camera it didn't shine at all. To make matters worse here the creature may possibly be the slowest villain in history of capable villains. Jason does that slowass walk thing but he manages to keep up. This thing literally takes 2 second steps, but still it manages to keep right up. There was one scene where they had the Creature in the distance trudging forward while the guy's screaming "Hurry up!". The dude's freaking out for no reason because the creature probably made about 3 feet in all the time he was panicking.

What a stupid review, huh? Anyways, if you like Alien ripoffs, Klaus Kinski, that chick from Pee Wee's Big Adventure, little bits of nudity and gore then check out Creature.

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5/10

You don't have to be original to amuse.

lost-in-limbo7 November 2008

If a film that gets trashed for ripping off 'Alien' (some around that period unfairly got lumped in that rip-off category, than really just riding on the back of it success), I always see this one being mentioned and to make matters worse it also got labelled as crappy b-grade hokum. Hey I can't deny some similarities (mainly the look of the alien) and routine structure, but I thought it was agreeably fun and soundly made feature that used its budget restraints to good use. It even manages to incorporate a 'few' unique novelties, like that of victims being transformed in to parasite-infected zombies to do the bidding of its alien guest. Um, has something like this been done before?

The film looks cheap, but director William Malone (hey I might like 'Scared to Death (1982)' more) does a commendably steady job of getting plenty of moody atmospherics from the confined low-budget sets (which is murkily photographed) and enough gory splatter to keep our minds at rest. Plus at an added bonus you get the flamboyant Klaus Kinski making a scene. Who knew watching someone munching a sandwich could be so mesmerizing. A small and unusual appearance, but what a scene it was. The rest of the performances end up being stiff, but there's the familiar faces of the credible Lyman Ward and Diane Salinger. Wendy Schaal makes for a wholesome leading girl.

The premise had something good to work with, but the script (with numerous references) is a turgidly silly mess and the real sore point. It really does go on to peter out with the main interest losing out the further along it goes, as you know every single step before it hit's the screen. Despite some nasty cracks and paranoid spells, the latter half just seems to get bogged down in some banal patches. Some of the make-up FX/special effects stand-up for what it had, but the alien costume isn't all that convincing that when it figures in its full glory. You can see why it mostly stays hidden in the dark up until then.

Accessible, but strictly fundamental none-the-same.

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4/10

Space-Cheese !!!

Coventry21 August 2003

Of course, this isn't a very good movie. In fact, it's pretty bad but I'm a whole different kind of movie-critic when I watch movies like this. Everybody needs some brainless and fun films to relax from time to time and William Malone's Creature is the perfect film for that. Creature is an shameless ripoff of Alien and it also stole several elements from John Carpenter's The Thing, but I hardly think that's a reason to ignore it completely. From the beginning of this picture you can easily point out those characters who're going to die but that's ok. You stay in your seat just to see in wich horrible ways they come to an end. These are the moments that make this film worth watching. Especially if you like a good share of blood, guts and gore. I tell you, some of the scenes are rated pretty high on the "vomit-scale". So, if you like to see heads flying around and love to see faces being ripped off...Creature is your cup of tea. All together, there are 2 major reasons to check this film out. The first one is the amazingly good musical score. I wasn't able so far to find out who made it, but I don't think they're big names in the field seeing the status of this flick. The score was a pleasant surprise and worth checking out. And last but not least... KLAUS KINSKI !! This guy is ( was...sorry ) a great actor. Without even trying he beats all the other acting-performances. Klaus clearly amused himself while playing the role of Hans Rudy Hofner and his own German accent really works here. I expected his role to be a little bigger but that's ok, the few times he's on screen are the most memorable ones. But it ain't really a big honor to be the best actor in this cast, though. All the others suck pretty bad. Wendy Schaal is very cute in her role of Beth but she can't act very well. That's ok, the girl who plays Susan can't act at all and above that she looks like David Bowie did during the 80's...and that's NOT a compliment !! I'm not even bothering to mention the rest of the cast. Oh, there is one last thing worth checking out on Creature. The very very stupid confession of Mrs. Bryce (Diane Salinger)at the end ...man, that's got to be the most ridiculous plot-twist I ever saw!! I laughed silly with that....4 out of 10

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3/10

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

mstomaso10 February 2007

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.

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Enjoyable ALIEN clone from William Malone

udar5513 July 2011

Two corporations are competing to mine a 200,000 year old archaeological find on the Saturn moon Titan. The crew of the U.S. ship Shenandoah crashes on the lunar surface, only to find the Germans beat them there. But strange things are abound as the German ship is deserted except for a pesky alien. Lone survivor Hans (Klaus Kinski) tells of the horror his crew encountered from a mind controlling alien, but no one is quick enough to combat it this go around either. It's probably been about 20 years since I last saw this and this low budget production has held up really well. Director Malone is definitely trying to ape Ridley Scott's trend setter, but he ups the gore factor substantially. Malone also seems to be having fun here, as evidenced by the female lead coming up with a way to kill the creature by recalling a screening of THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951). He even has a character reading a novelization of his debut feature SCARED TO DEATH (1981). The cast is good with the great Kinski doing his psycho German guy routine (shocking, right?). I wonder if he caused problems on the set as his character disappears, but then comes back zombified with clearly a double in his place.

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5/10

In space, no one can hear you scream for a bigger budget.

quadbastard16 October 2006

This movie is clearly a low-budget Alien knock-off. A hand full of explorers, comprised of a cast of television regulars, investigate Titan, one of the moons orbiting Saturn, for a life-form, that's seemingly done away with all of the previous crew that visited for the same reason. The acting is pretty much sub-standard, and the script is a case of sometimes it's so bad, it's funny, especially if you watch it late enough to grab you in a relaxed frame of mind. The ever entertaining Klaus Kinski makes a guest appearance here, albeit brief, gives this a bit of a shot in the arm, with some funny nonsensical lines and casual demeanor in what's otherwise meant to be a tense serious situation. The Creature itself is obviously a guy in a big rubber suit, but you could arguably say the same thing for Alien. The other effects in the movie are OK, with a notably gooey pumpkin head explosion in one scene. All in all, not altogether bad, but there's not enough here to sustain the 97 odd minute running time. Maybe worth catching on a slow night.

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4/10

In Space No one can see you... or anything else.

JasonXIX24 August 2019

The main problem with this movie is the poor photography. It's just too dark. I'm guessing the darkness was used to hide the low budget set pieces. The other problem is slow pacing, but the decent gore keeps you watching.

The big question I had: what is Klaus Kinski doing in this thing? Just three years earlier he was in 'Fitzcarraldo'. What happened? That would be like Tom Hanks going from 'Forest Gump', to three years later starring in 'Leprechaun 4: In Space'.

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5/10

Okay Alien knock off

Red-Barracuda13 September 2021

An ancient cannister is found on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. It turns out it contains a nasty alien. It escapes and you can guess what happens next. From the synopsis you can tell that this is pretty much a clear rip-off of Alien. Its not a bad riff but it does have one or two problems. The main gripe is it is what I would term a 'corridors in space' movie, a sub-bracket of cheap sci-fi where the sets are limited for budgetary reasons, leading to an over-abundance of 'suspenseful' scenes involving characters wandering corridors of the future. This lack of scenic variety becomes increasingly a problem, allied to the dark lighting which obscures the action a bit much too. That said, the alien is not a bad design and there are a few well executed visceral moments. The film also benefits from an appearance from Germany's scariest export since 1945, Klaus Kinski, as a highly lecherous lone survivor of a previous expedition - he's maybe even more alarming that the Alien to be perfectly honest.

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3/10

Bad visuals and poor lighting hardly makes this worth watching.

paulclaassen3 April 2022

I'm going to be blunt: there is nothing special enough about 'Creature' to make it memorable, or to watch it in the first place. You will be far more satisfied watching 'Lifeforce - also released in 1985, with a similar-ish premise, but far more superior. Alternatively, rather watch 'Alien' or 'Aliens'.

A Group of young scientists go on a research mission to explore an archeological find of alien origin. From the very beginning, there are authority issues between the crew members, and constant disagreement. Most of the characters are not fully explored and I found myself not rooting for any of them.

The sound - especially the dialogue - is surprisingly crisp and clear. The practical effects are rather good. The visual effects are mediocre. The lighting is exceptionally bad, making the film very dark and difficult to see at times. Even the good practical effects are shrouded in so much darkness, rendering all their hard work almost worthless.

The creature design is very bad. The creature is a lifeless blob that was difficult to see with all the darkness. One only really gets a glimpse of the creature during the film's final moments - looking a lot like a cheap rip-off of the 'Alien' creature.

'Creature' is a slasher film that follows the same recipe as almost every other alien creature feature, offering nothing new. On the contrary, it is cliched, and with the bad visuals and lighting issues, it might be best to give this one a skip entirely.

Would I watch it again? No.

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6/10

What hides beneath the nitrogen clouds of Titan

Vomitron_G7 March 2011

I have fond memories of "Creature (aka Titan Find)" and I can't deny it. I like it so much, I even want to rate it much higher than 4/10, so I'll just go ahead and do it. I saw it for the first time around the approximate age of 12-13 on a strangely compiled theatrical triple horror bill in one of my two hometown cinemas (together with Lamberto Bava's "Demons" and the Charlie Sheen vehicle "The Wraith"), so it's safe to say "Creature" left a life-long impression on me. Many years later now, I can still say that it is one of the best and most enjoyable "Alien" rip-offs ever produced (judged by cash-in standards, naturally). Sure it's a B-movie with anything but great acting... but there's gore (a wonderful head explosion!), nudity (horny naked undead blonde chick without a spacesuit while she was supposed to wear one), a nice-looking (though pretty rubbery) slimy creature-suit design with red glowing eyes, mind-controlling parasites, nifty-looking miniature spacecrafts and... Klaus Kinski as a German astronaut clearly having a lot of fun on the set and ignoring any guidelines from director William Malone. If you haven't grown up during the 80's & 90's getting acquainted with this type of sci-fi & horror movies, you might have a hard time getting into "Creature" and enjoying its dubious pleasures. Not to say: you're very likely to lack any form of appreciation for this type of (sub)genre cinema at all. I say it's great fun. Even a bit scary and atmospheric in some parts where it actually tries to be so, but that's maybe the kid still in me speaking. Yes, having watched "Creature" at a too young age in a big & dark old theatre, I can say it was a tense ride at the time. Does it matter that it's not anymore? Nah, it remains fun all the same. If you ever discovered it as a kid, that is.

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5/10

Good ideas, mostly too bland or imitative in execution

I_Ailurophile9 October 2022

Maybe I shouldn't, but I feel like on a situational basis I can readily forgive clear aping of pre-established pictures. Maybe those involved wanted to tell their own vision of a similar story, maybe they were on contract, maybe they just wanted an easy paycheck. Certain similarities to 'Alien' and other properties are undeniable, and even the one-word title is decidedly on the nose. None of this inherently means 'Creature' can't be appreciated on its own merits. And hey, there are some recognizable names and faces here! Unfortunately, the moment we get past the superficial bits, the experience begins to degrade. It's not that this is altogether rotten, but the entertainment value never really rises above "moderate."

Imagine, if you will, browsing the Internet and stumbling across trailers for 80s or 90s B-movies, the type that are immediately so outlandish and blunt that one can only react with tempered bewilderment. Think 'Eliminators' (1986), 'Metalstorm: The destruction of Jared-Syn' (1983), or 'Nemesis' (1992) as points of comparison. Now imagine one of these trailers realized as a full-length film that rides on the coattails of a highly respected sci-fi horror flick. That's the experience of watching 'Creature.' A fair portion of the visuals are pretty well done: special effects, creature designs, blood and gore, aspects of the production design and art direction, costume design, makeup. Elsewhere, chiefly interiors, the sets are less readily impressive. All this would be fine if not for the writing and direction, which impact the acting in turn, and other fundamental building blocks of the project. The tone varies between heavy-handed and overdone, lackadaisical and sluggish, airy and nonchalant. Only in moments of abject violence or frightful imagery does the feature seem to strike the right chord, yet for otherwise lack of meaningful atmosphere, tension, or suspense, these peaks aren't enough to carry the day.

William Malone's direction struggles to attain balance between moments of heightened emotions and violence and quiet moments that lack tension, and the same can be said of the score. Though the effects and genre visual elements look great in and of themselves, how they're employed is often somewhat senselessly over the top and forthright, unable to achieve the desired effect. This applies as well to the acting, with infamous legend Klaus Kinski particularly standing out like a sore thumb. Ninety-nine minutes drag on nigh interminably as scene writing, dialogue, characters, and the narrative at large fail to build momentum, let alone sustain any; for all the good ideas here, the plot is kind of all over the place, and there's far too little of the necessary refined touch to make anything stick. However much one wants to draw comparisons to other movies, 'Creature' could claim some strong potential all the same - but as it presents, it's instead largely so uninteresting that the viewing experience becomes a question of keeping ourselves occupied so we can maybe watch it with half our attention, for that's all the more it really earns.

Once again I find myself in the position of wishing I could say I like the picture more than I do. There are surely some worthwhile components here and there. From top to bottom, however, the realization of it all just limps along so blandly that it struggles to produce or maintain excitement or basic engagement. Most action sequences are just uninspiring, even the climax, and the ending is plainly weak and ham-handed - including the abrupt cop-out excuse for why one character just vanished for a substantial portion of the runtime, as though Malone and co-writer Alan Reed literally just forgot about them for most of the screenplay. Maybe, after all, I'm being overly generous in my assessment. I suppose there are worse ways to spend 100 minutes, but that's just it: these are 100 very long minutes, and since that time is best spent only half-watching, why commit to it at all in the first place? 'Creature' isn't downright awful, but even if you're a diehard fan of someone involved, unless you're desperate for genre fare then I can't readily conceive of recommending this.

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8/10

Much Better Than You Might Think

Ultimex_Varptuner29 August 2008

As a young lad I watched Creature or The Titan Find as it was boxed in the UK some time after my first exposure to the genius that is Alien.

At the time I was unable to pick out the often blatant rip-offs from Ridley Scott's masterpiece. I was however, scared sh*tless. The Titan Find creeped me out in a way that Alien, as magnificent as it is, simply didn't.

Years later my disgust at what has become of modern action and science-fiction films – rendered bloated by cost-cutting yet impotent CG effects has found me searching obscure websites for interesting films buried by the sands of time.

Put simply: I would much rather sit through a sleazy 1980's b-movie with dodgy acting than the modern breed of bloated, egocentric, cash cow, star vehicles.

Okay, so I shove the DVD of The Titan Find in the machine and discover that this film has obviously never had a proper DVD release and this is simply ripped from a VHS tape. Frankly, I don't mind, the grainy quality of the picture reminds me of the good old days of home video and stops some of the more shonky sets from looking too lame.

My next observation is the sheer lengths the film makers went to to emulate Alien. Even the score in the first half hour of the film sounds like it and the scene where the ship has a rough touch down on the surface of Titan is basically a direct transcript of the Nostromo's landing on LV426.

Yet, I still have feelings of nothing but love for this film. The reason for this is that underneath all the cheap emulation is a film that has it's own strong points. It is in fact a slice of lurid gore, loaded with cracking horror riffs all drenched in that delicious 1980's atmosphere.

If I may just go back in time once more and explain why I bothered to search this film out: Like many of you out there I have seen thousands of films over the years. Over ninety percent of them are consigned to the waste disposal chute of my mind. Destined to never be thought of ever again. Not so with the Titan find. Though it has been somewhere around the two decade mark since I watched it there are certain images, events and characters that are forever etched in my consciousness. As I watched the filmd anew last night and saw them again I was amazed that they have lost almost nothing with time. The bizarre image from the bridge of the space ship seconds before it crashes into the base at the beginning of the film is a profoundly disturbing moment even now and one that I found myself rewinding twice over before I continued.

Beyond that the first hour of the film (up until the monster's slightly disappointing reveal) is evenly peppered with wonderfully nasty stuff: Fennel being lured outside by his hot yet decaying girlfriend, the discovery of the German crew then Fennel's reappearance and gruesomely literal unmasking all still pack a punch and gorehounds will not be disappointed.

Despite some slightly B-movie acting The Titan Find even manages to notch up a few good characters with Bryce and Sladen providing diverse hotness with icy, post-Ripley cool in the former and cuddly, girly lovability in the latter. Oh yeah, and some bloke called Klaus Kinski is in it too, busting loose a few raw acting chops!

My only disappointment when comparing my memory to the modern reality was the final reel in which the creature itself is confronted. To be honest, the unpredictable, bloody atmosphere and creepy happenings leave the building completely as we see a ridiculous rubber model slug it out with the remaining survivors.

Happily the film makers obviously realised the monster was a bit crap and so hold it back until the final ten minutes. Search this film out and get your mind past the Alien-isms.

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7/10

A low budget alien gore fest delivering some good sci fi value

jbhitson-396-9122992 September 2012

Warning: Spoilers

I give this film a "7" mainly based on sentimental value because it is one of the earliest sci fi movies that I remember distinctly from my younger years (this came out on video when I was about 10 years old). The main thing I remember was the opening scene where one of the astronauts gets eaten through the seat of his pants as he sits on the creature's pod or egg or whatever it is (not much of a spoiler, but there it is). This is another one of those movies hoping to capitalize on the success of Alien by Ridley Scott. It takes the formula from Alien then copies it almost directly at times (even the opening credit scene panning across a distant planet is almost identical though not as well done). What is produced in the end...well it's no Alien for sure, but I sort of like it. I have a fondness for low budget sci fi that tries to present a film way beyond its means. The costumes and sets are pretty good and really, overall, its a creepy story. Compared to other sci fi greats, it's not much, but taken on its own, it's a good late night weekend find that is at least more entertaining than what you might find on TV these days.

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5/10

Yet another 80s alien movie; falls in about the middle of the pack.

capkronos18 August 2014

The director of the creature feature SCARED TO DEATH (1980) returns to familiar territory with this monster(s)-in-space flick; one of many similar films released in between the hits ALIEN (1979) and ALIENS (1986). Some time in the near future, rival corporations Richter Dynamics (out of Germany) and NTI (out of the U.S.) are competing for new materials to advance their manufacturing technologies. A geological research team stationed on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, runs into trouble in the form of a vicious alien creature, who makes short work of the team. Not long after, an alien-controlled ship flies directly into the space station Concord and blows it up. Suspecting an other worldly force is perhaps responsible, a seven- member group of volunteers from NTI - headed by corporate honcho David Perkins (Lyman Ward) - hope to make the archaeological discovery of the century by discovering alien life on Titan.

Upon approaching their destination, Captain Mike Davison (Stan Ivar) is forced to crash land their ship, the Shenandoh. Suffering extensive ship damage and facing a quickly-dwindling oxygen supply, the crew set out to get help from a German ship stationed nearby but discover it littered with the corpses of the crew. A big, blood-thirsty creature soon pops in for a visit and makes short work of crew-woman Susan (Marie Laurin). And that large, somewhat awkwardly-designed alien isn't the only odd creature inhabiting the planet. Outside, they stumble across the remains of a crashed alien ship and it was hauling a collection of different alien life forms; some of which are still living. One species is able to use "collective intelligence" to impersonate its victims to lure the others to their doom, which mechanic John (Robert Jaffe) soon finds out first hand when the dead "Susan" pays him a visit and strips off her clothes. And then something truly weird and terrifying happens: Klaus Kinski shows up. Ahhhh!

Kinski's character - Hans Rudy Hofner - is the sole survivor of the German expedition, and he acts extremely weird and hilarious childish and giddy as if he's not taking a second of this seriously explaining that the aliens have "vaited fer dem fer two tousan zenturres." I've watched three Kinski movies this past month and in all three of them he plays a character who grabs one of the female cast members and then squeezes their breasts! The victim this time out is Diane Salinger, who plays a potentially fun character - a tough security officer - but, like Klaus, she's not given enough to do and vanishes from a large portion of the film. Most of the action centers around the two male leads and the cute Wendy Schall (who now voices the mom of the animated series "American Dad"), who plays some kind of electronics expert.

Overall, this is a watchable, albeit clichéd and wholly forgettable, movie. The script is generic but otherwise it's well-made, the cast, art direction and special effects are all competent and there's some nudity and some gore, including a face getting ripped off, an exploding body and a female doctor (Annette McCarthy) getting her head ripped off. But at the end of the day, it's really nothing more than a passable time waster. I guess there are worse things.

Despite being pretty mediocre overall, this 750K-budgeted film ended up becoming quite profitable; making back its entire budget opening weekend alone in less than 200 theaters. As a reference point, Tobe Hooper's messy LIFEFORCE, released just a few months later the same year, didn't even make back half its huge 25 million budget in 1500+ theaters.

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4/10

'80s sleazefest lovers rejoice!

Dragoneyed36324 September 2020

Warning: Spoilers

I'm going to start off my review by saying that this is a very interesting movie, undeniably. It has a lot going on/going for it, both good and bad, and while I didn't particularly enjoy it as much as I was expecting to, I can understand and sympathize with the cult following it has gained over the decades.

I'll be frank and to the point; It is a very poor, very low budget mash-up of Alien (a huge chunk of it mostly) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, with a little of Forbidden Planet/Forbidden World and movies like that in there... One of my favorite attributes was that it contained quite honestly the most horrid hairdo I have ever seen on anyone, sported by Ms. Diane Salinger as Melanie 'Bryce'. I have no clue what anyone was thinking when they created that style; whether it was meant to be camp, or taken seriously, or what. I loved it. Another quality that adds to the cheese and sleaze factor is the overbearing cheapness. Costumes are laughable, sets and characters are silly. The movie is mostly cast in extremely dark rooms to help from being even cheaper than it is regarding costume, sets and effects.

There is fun to be had with this movie. I laughed especially at one scene where a character is clearly not alive because they appear without their space suit on perfectly fine, breathing and gravitated and another character falls for it! I give Creature a 4 on the basis that it is insanely corny fun, and entertaining, jaw-dropping at times, but ultimately questionable whether it's a "so-bad-it's-good" or "borderline complete failure"...

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1/10

It's not awful, it's just boring

breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com8 January 2013

I don't call poorly made films awful unless I don't agree with the tone that the story displays to me on screen. Besides the fact that, every film deserves credit for at least being given a theatrical release for the work that was done to create the production. However, that doesn't mean the production was executed nicely or was entertaining. And based off the hour and thirty minutes that I sat through, I was really bored with it. This is an Alien (1979) knock-off that doesn't deserve to be called a good knock-off.

The title of the movie is as bland as the plot itself. And before anything even started, everything but one credit ran onto the page and that was whose film it was. It was never stated who starred in this film and what actors I would see. What kind of introduction is that? Doesn't director William Malone want his audiences to know who will be acting in his then being released movie? Jeez, what a glory hound.

The story is about a space crew that answers a distress call from one of Jupiter's moons named Titan. There, they discover an alien that was thought to be long gone, but was only hibernating in which it then begins to kill off each member one by one. Quite honestly, it wasn't even the cliché plot that bored me. It was the poorly written character roles. Director Malone and his one time writing partner Alan Reed really did a less than professional job at creating characters with any depth.

There were so many areas that could have been touched upon and none of them were even looked at. There were two couples in the crew. How'd they meet? How long have they been together? There was a character named Bryce. She didn't even talk until about 30 minutes into the film. Why? Is there something about her we don't know? And possibly the weirdest individual of all is Hofner (Klaus Kinski) which many viewers seem to like for some reason. He too was never given a background. He's also an old pervert, but that's it.

There are also blatantly clear things that every character should have common sense for. If you know, that you cannot live in space without a helmet, why go following someone who doesn't have one on? Wouldn't that seem odd or unusual? I mean really. And if there is no possibility of surviving out in space without a spacesuit, how is it that one member of the crew able to survive after being left out in a vacuum for several minutes?

The only credit I'm giving is for at least having decent looking effects when it came to the spaceships, moon terrain and spacesuits. Yes there was blood, but the alien barely even showed its face in the whole running time. And then, once it was fully on screen, it looked like a teenage mutant ninja sloth. Also it was clunky as hell. It wasn't smooth moving at all. It looked choppier than King Kong (1933). And as for Thomas Chase and Steve Rucker's music, I don't know what to say about it. It's just music. It doesn't sound terrible or obnoxious but it wasn't engaging either. I probably enjoyed their music more from Dexter's Laboratory (1996) than in here.

The characters are one-dimensional and they aren't intelligent either. There is no tension anywhere and the special effects are derivative. Watch only if you want to waste time.

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5/10

A blatant Alien rip-off, not bad for what it is I suppose.

poolandrews21 December 2012

Warning: Spoilers

Creature is set in the far future where two rival companies are competing heavily in space in search of new materials & advanced manufacturing techniques in the as yet unused resource of the universe. The German firm of Richter Dynamics & the American firm NTI are battling it out for commercial supremacy, the location is Titan the largest moon that orbits Saturn where a geological research team from NTI have found an alien spaceship & are examining strange like capsules when one breaks open & something nasty & alive attacks & kills the team. A few weeks later the teams spaceship crashes into an orbiting space-station, NTI recruit a new team to travel to Titan & investigate what happened & lay claim to the alien artifacts. Arriving at Titan the NTI team discover that a rival team from Richter Dynamics has already landed, having damaged their spaceship on landing on Titan they look to ask the German team for help but find them all dead except Hans Hofner (Klaus Kinski) who warns them of an alien creature that has already attacked & killed one of them & which will stop at nothing to kill the rest...

Co-written, co-produced & directed by William Malone this was written & filmed under the title Titan Find which is what it was released as here in the UK when it surprisingly played cinemas back in 1985 before hitting VHS & more recently DVD & can be found in bargain bins all over the country, Creature is a blatant rip-off of the classic sci-fi horror film Alien (1979) & it never really tires to be anything else so in that context I didn't think it was too bad. At just over 90 minutes long the script feels a little padded, the build-up is maybe takes a little long & there's too many scenes of people walking around very dark corridors but that's expected in this sort of film. There's no great reasoning behind what the creature does, it takes control of a few people with parasite creatures but to what end I am not sure, is it after food? Does it just want to kill everyone? Wouldn't it be better letting a couple of humans get back to Earth and hide on the spaceship with them? It would have an entire planet to eat then rather than just a handful of people. Also, at the end how can that get survive in Titan's atmosphere without a spacesuit? No-one else in the film could & one character states that's it minus 77 on the surface which would have surely frozen the guy in seconds? The character's don't help the film much, they are all one dimensional & are only there to either be killed off or to recite the necessary exposition to keep the audience informed that they are all in danger or emphasise that the air is running out or to argue about how best to deal with the situation & so forth. None of them have perceptible personalities if you know what I mean. So while Creature is a bit predictable & does drag in a couple of places it's watchable enough, obviously if you like sci-fi horror films anyway you might like it more than those who don't but you could do a lot worse.

Creature looks surprisingly good, the special effects aren't to the striking levels of Alien but then Creature never had the talents of H.R. Giger designing it. The creature here is kept in the shadows for the majority of the time but is shown in full at the end & again the Alien influence is noticeable. There's some impressive effects, from the space & planet shots to the model work which really isn't that bad at all considering, the electrical effect when the creature is electrocuted at the end is terrible though & while the sets are alright they are a little dark. There's a decent amount of gore here as well, a head is blown up, a face is ripped off, necks are bitten, heads are ripped off & there's plenty of dead bodies lying around. One area where the original Alien beats Creature is in the suspense & horror departments, director Malone fails to generate any real scares & the film as a whole is a bit too predictable.

With a supposed budget of about $750,000 this apparently made nearly five million at the US box office, it has good production values & looks decent. The acting isn't great, the only name of note to me is the notoriously difficult Klaus Kinski who has a small cameo which he probably filmed in a day or two. Marie Laurin takes her spacesuit off on the surface of Titan & is completely naked in order to seduce someone.

Creature is an Alien rip-off that owes a little to The Thing (1982) as well, I was impressed with the overall look of Creature & it's a passable time waster but just don't expect anything original. I quite liked it for what it was but I don't think I would be in any hurry to see it again.

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1/10

Wow, words don't usually fail me... Here goes:

screwluce481 August 2011

Warning: Spoilers

"Contains spoilers" I think. (As if ANYTHING could spoil this even more.)

I'm currently sat with my head in my hands in despair. Crap day at work, thought I would come back and melt into movie mode with this. After all the bad things I hear about films at least I can say I give them a go, suspend my disbelief and just jump on in!! What a lot of disbelief to suspend...

This is quite frankly, absolute SPACEJUNK and from someone who really knows rubbish, heed my words!

The actors were so wooden I couldn't have given a bag of b@stards what happened to them. They could have been replaced with a chess set and it would have been more believable. Set was AWFUL. Something Geiger would have been beaten to death with his own shoes for if he had produced. The alien seemed a direct rip off of Alien, though bits of it managed to get inside people's heads, which was hey, different at least. The dialogue seemed to have been randomly produced from some kind of Amstrad Planetary Peril Mix-a-word 9000 (and after switching on its hideously flashing megabank of lights with the flick of a giant knob) gave such illuminating insights such as "God, oh my God", "the outer airlock is open", "that girl is too quiet", "we're next on the menu", "you should let me take a look at that" (No, don't, THERE'S SOMETHING INSIDE HIS HEAD AND IT ISN'T HAPPY THOUGHTS ABOUT HIS CAREER!!)

There were some memorable moments, from what I can remember in my haze of disappointed fury, such as when the aforementioned normally quiet, grumpy guy gets the thing in his head and puts on the most fake, cheery, frightening show via camera of how he found nothing in the other ship and everything was fine "Hey! I just want to get home guys"!!! :D Only for the members of the crew who have just spent God knows how long with him in space to only realise something was afoot when he didn't sweat properly later on! I would definitely want all of them on my alien recovery space crew.

And it went on and on and round and round and it's actually STILL on now!

The worst thing about it all is streaming this has just robbed my bandwidth of precious capacity and I will need something sharpish after this to restore my will to live.

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3/10

Creature: So badly wants to be Alien (1979)

Platypuschow6 December 2017

Creature is a highly dated looking scifi effort that has taken more than a little bit of inspiration from Alien (1979).

It's a dark gloomy movie about a team of scientists fighting for their lives from this formidable foe who also has the ability of turning humans bad........which is never fully explained.

The "Creature" sticks to the shadows and when you finally do see it I can confidently say it's basically a xenomorph.

Messy and unlikeable this b-movie scifi brings nothing new to the table and will appeal only to the most hardcore of scifi fans.

The Good:

Not so much

The Bad:

Aged badly

Whole thing is a bit of a ripoff

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

In space nobody can hear you get sued

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6/10

Actually not bad for an Alien clone

Rocketeer_Raccoon4 February 2017

I notice that a lot of people criticise the film by blatantly copying Alien but I say so what, for what it was I thought it was alright, I was never bored of the film and it did have an interesting plot. The film did make me laugh with how the doors sound in the film, the doors sounds like blaster firing from Star Wars so I thought that was definitely funny in a good way.

However I did find two problems with this film, the first problem I found was that the Alien creature was very under-used, it didn't really appear much until the final act of the film so that was a wasted opportunity. The second problem is that the story and some scenes were a bit ropey, and there's some things I find a bit baffling in it but not to the point of being obnoxious.

Even though people have discarded this film just because it's a low budget Alien clone but I say give it a chance because it's really not that bad.

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Not bad.....

Dark Star17 October 2000

This was a very scary (at times) film. While being dubbed by many as an "Alien" ripoff, the only thing where I noticed similarities is the creature itself. The opening is the best part. Good buildup! But, sorry to say, the dialouge is lousy, and the characters needed to be better developed. If only this film had been better written, I think it would have been more of a hit. It was well acted by Lyman Ward, Klaus Kinski, and Stan Ivar, but I think they had to wonder through production why they had dialouge as bad as this. All in all, very well made (William Malone did a good job directing), the effects were OK, and it is a very scary film. Rent it and give it a try! If you are a real horror movie fan, you won't be disappointed!

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3/10

It lags far behind the sci-fi abilities

SimonJack17 September 2016

The best rating I can give "Creature" is three stars. And that's only because it had a little bit of fright at times. Otherwise, the set, script, filming and acting show clearly that this is a second tier or lower monster sci-fi film. Had this movie been made in the 1950s, during the revival of interest in the genre, it would have stood up quite well. But by 1985, audiences had learned to expect much more.

The Star Trek TV series of 1966-69 had set the stage for greater imagination, special effects, and design of monsters and sci-fi films associated with space travel. It's spin-offs and three movies of 1979, 1982 and 1984 further advanced the art of sci-fi and monster films. Other films showed brilliant special effects, set designs and cinematography. "2001: A Space Odyssey" of 1968 and "Star Wars" of 1977 set high standards. And, of course, "Alien" of 1979 set the horror and fright bar for monsters above anything before it.

To rate this weak sci-fi monster film any higher, it seems to me, might be an insult to the film industry and people who can create such wonderful films and programs as those of the Star Wars series, "Alien," and others.

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8/10

Suspenseful Monster Attack Nightmare in Outer Space!

TopBrim10 February 2014

Warning: Spoilers

This show gives the audience an honest attempt at a crisis-type movie like: Airport, Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, and others in outer space where it tries to imitate but only to a degree the Aliens theme. It has decent acting and convincing settings. There are harsh conditions successfully portrayed- ironically with the too dim photography and low lighting used in certain scenes (imagine how turbulent conditions would be on some planets) but this is a well-intended effect and not because, as some viewers claim, it might be a low-budget B movie. There is lots of edgy friction between the astronauts, and scary suspense. Several mishaps put together including a surprise appearance by Klaus Kinsky, which is set as another angle to the story, happen to the crew that seem impossible to cope with in this show and holds the audience in tension. There are disturbing occurrences going on, in part because of the volatile nature of the planet Titan where this all takes place. There is a scene which eerily, although graphically, emphasizes a female crew member's physique because of the bizarre occurrences happening in this unstable atmosphere of Saturn's moon. This scene is a realistic, yet important, attempt that the movie makes at demonstrating the possibly intoxicating effects on people of the poisonous atmosphere there on active but unknown Titan which the mission crew have to deal with--just as authentic and technically-minded as a science fiction story by Robert Heinlein might have been written. The enemy monster in this show is reminiscent of an alien villain monster from Gerry Andersen's: "Steve Zodiac's Fireball XL -5", a science fiction television puppet show in the 1960's. Same sinister approaching movements although these actions are blurred a bit, but this monster is made on a larger scale of course. Movies like this one often times succeed in making Outer Space appear as believable to viewers as a dystopia would make them shudder in dread. At the end of the film during the credits is some very good sound system music played which fits the mood of Creature well. Creature is probably an underrated, and maybe under appreciated, film for this science fiction genre. It is a show very much worthy of you trying out!

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7/10

In space, no one can hear your arse being felt by Klaus Kinski

Bezenby10 November 2014

Is that his real voice he's using on this one? Man, it makes him even creepier than usual, not only that, he's doing a Stuart Hall and feeling up the female crew of an...wait...getting too far ahead.

Y'see what has happened is this - there's two rival companies, one German, one American, messing around on Titan doing mining and stuff, only something's gone wrong and the American's have to send a rescue mission out there, only to find an alien zoo where one of the creatures has escaped and seemingly wasted a German crew...except for Klaus, who makes himself known by grabbing the boob of one of the Americans.

This creature can control your mind if it gets close enough to plant some sort of leech on your head (kind of like the brain slugs from Futurama!), and it promptly begins taking over the crew and killing them off in various ways. It's like Alien, basically, with some zombie types thrown in, but it's rather good!

There's a few gory scenes to keep you going, from faces being ripped off, heads being bitten off, and a head explosion, and it must be said that the majority are right in saying that the film does slow down a bit towards the end, it's still worth it if you're into these early eighties films.

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5/10

Typical Alien rip-off with a lot of blood , gore and guts

ma-cortes16 October 2021

A regular and cheesy knock-off of Alien with shocks, tense, chills, being visually astonishing and astounding . This chiller features the reawakening of human-devouring life on one of Saturn's moons in a distant future . This monster has been sleeping peacefully on a moon of Saturn for 2000 years showing up at a planet with grisly consequences . A crew (Stan Ivar , Wendy Schaal , Lyman Ward ...) of a starship arrives in the Jupiter's moon and find a lot of surprises. As they become threatened by a strange form on loose, causing wreak havoc. First you die... then the terror begins .It's been sleeping for 2000 years , until now .

Ordinary and gruesome plot copying Alien, dealing with a two thousand-year-old alien life form is killing off astronauts exploring the planet Titan . This B-exploitation Sci-Fi has a well-known storyline and very used premise, that's why it displays many cliches of the genre. Nail-biting picture packs tension from start to finish , gory scenes aplenty , grisly events, thrills, chills , slime , screams and entertainment .Alien imitation has its moments but not enough of them . Klaus Kinski provides some tension and laughs as well . Special Effects FX are acceptable , in fact they were created by the same technicians as Aliens (1986) a year after.

It follows really the classic plot about a destructive Alien similar to other exploitation movies as "Galaxy of Terror" 1981 by Bruce Clark and "Forbidden World" 1982 by Allan Holzman, both of them produced by Roger Corman/New World Pictures. The motion picture was regular but professionally directed by William Malone, as it contains flaws, gaps, failures and with no originality. Malone is a nice writer and director expert on terror movies, such as : House on haunted hill", "Feardotcom", "Parasomnia" , "Masters of Horror", "Perversions" , "Death county" , "Tales of Crypt" , "Freddy's nightmares" , "Scared to death", among others . Rating : 5.5/10 acceptable and passable . Rated R for violence, nudism and gore.

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