The Deadly Spawn (1983)

The Deadly Spawn (R) - Review

"ET Spawn Home"

Independant Horror films have always been a haven for those who wish to break into the Film industry.  George Romero with his Living Dead series, Sam Raimi and the Evil Dead, all began by creating midnight masterpieces to scare the tar out of audience, but more importantly take their money.  The Deadly Spawn is a distant cousin of this process, a charming zero budgeted diamond in the rough overlooked for decades.

Meteors fall to earth containing the Deadly Spawn.  They begin to devour the local residents, and the teenage kids must band together to survive, yadda yadda The Blob yadda yadda Little Shop.  The appeal of this movie is not the horror movie tropes it fetishisticaly (and articulately) abides by, but in fact its the ones it eschews.  The plot of the film is entirely unpredicatable and delightfully surprising at every turn.  No one is safe from the toothy blind menace, not even a granny cooked vegetarian smorgasbord!  The creatures themselves are amateurish yet authentic looking, their teeth supposedly handmade by a local dentist.  As the little devils grow so does the bloody violence.  Smart cliche-busting ideas, thick coats of elbow grease and amatuer zeal soak the entire production making it a highly enjoyable experience as you root for the cast and the crew.  The ending screams "Hollywood, are you paying attention?  I'm better than most of your huge budgeted snorefests, lets make sequels together!", a cry that fell on deaf ears (or were they chewed off?).

7 No Way Should It Be This Good out of 10 (GOOD)