WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Creature (1985) 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:08.800 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:16.640 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.119 And this is Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House, 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.000 we're going to be talking about the nineteen eighty five 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:27.120 sci fi thriller Creature, widely regarded as one of the 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:32.360 many copycats of nineteen seventy nine's Alien, though I want 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:34.680 to say, to be fair to Creature, it actually copies 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:36.000 a number of different movies. 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:39.120 Yeah, you know, and he gets into you also end 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:41.320 up getting into that area where it's like, all right, 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:43.919 it was inspired by some of the films that inspired Alien, 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:46.919 so you know, some of it kind of evens out 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:50.240 in the wash, but it is. So I've been getting 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:54.600 into Alien content a lot recently. I've been rewatching the 0:00:54.600 --> 0:01:00.800 original films. I'm gonna be running the Alien RPG aim 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:04.240 from Free League here with some friends, and also we 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:06.400 have a new Alien picture coming up in a couple 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.000 of months, Alien Romulus. So you know, I'm geeking out 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:12.920 for all of these things. So in addition to rewatching 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:15.440 the original films, I've also been digging in a bit 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:19.800 into some of these Alien knockoffs and Alien inspired films, 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:22.480 some of which I've never seen before, some of which 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:24.480 I have been avoiding, some of which I'll probably can 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:27.520 continue to avoid. But this one is often held up 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:29.400 as being one of the more entertaining ones. 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:32.960 You know. I was having a thought about that Alien RPG, 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.360 which looks very fun and I would like to play it, 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:38.440 But I was thinking about how it shows the way 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:45.040 that character cliches turn into character types, so that like 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:48.120 things that are established in these movies as like, oh, 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:50.840 here's just a type of character you see in Alien 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:53.840 or Aliens, and then a lot of its copycats that 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:57.520 apparently in this game becomes a class. Like you would 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.360 have classes of characters in D and D, and you've 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:05.160 got wizards and rogues and you know, and warlocks and 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:08.040 all that, and apparently in this Alien game you've got 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:10.919 company men. I think you can be like a Burke, 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.600 You've got space marines, you can be a Vasquez. You've 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:18.920 got like all those types of characters are classes, right, Yeah. 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:21.800 Like you can be a marine, you can be you 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.160 can be a Marshall company agent. 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:25.079 You can be a kid. 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:28.520 Of course kids have special rules and so forth. Yeah, 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:31.480 so I'm really excited to play it. I think it 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.560 does a pretty phenomenal job of taking the Alien films 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:40.359 like accepting everything and then managing to do a lot 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:44.560 of great world building out of it. So solid recommendation 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:46.680 thus far from me. But I'm not actually playing it 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:48.480 for the first time until tonight. 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:51.800 I would want to play as a slimy whyland UTAWNI 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:53.639 suit that my class. 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:55.880 Yeah, it's pretty great. There's one of those in the 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:57.639 scenario that I'm running tonight. 0:02:58.160 --> 0:02:59.760 Oh but wait, sorry, because you were in the middle 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:02.280 of talking about how I know you haven't just been 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:05.720 on a kick of strictly alien and Alien franchise stuff, 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:09.560 but everything in that zone of storytelling and media, right, 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:13.040 Like you've been going back to the the pre alien stuff. 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:15.280 Yeah, I mean like one of the classics, of course 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:17.560 is Mario Bob has Planet to the Vampires, which we've 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:22.119 previously discussed on Weird House. Another one that I recently watched, 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.720 probably for the first time in full, was John Carpenter 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:29.040 and Dan O'Bannon Dark Star, which, on one hand, you 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.000 have the Dan O'Bannon connection there. He's one of the 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:35.200 screenwriters and one of the very instrumental in Alien obviously, 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:39.720 but also Dark Star has this blue collar like space 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:42.480 trucker feel to it, you know, something that is very 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:45.920 much an essential part of the DNA of Alien, you know, 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:49.640 because if you take out the creature and the setting 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:51.880 is still a vital aspect of that picture. 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:54.240 I've said this on the show before, but I have 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:58.040 a theory that Alien is one of the best movies 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:01.240 ever made about work, and that's kind of what makes 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:07.440 it unique and interesting and realistic. The characters in Alien 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:13.240 are not friends. They know each other reasonably well, not 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:16.880 super well. They're not close, and the kind of relationship 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:19.599 they have is the kind of relationship people often have 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:21.719 with like co workers. It's like, you know, you got 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:23.839 to get along to get the work done, but you 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:26.120 don't even you know, you might or might not like 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:28.240 each other, You might or not, you know, have all 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:31.200 these conflicts. So it's not just a movie that features 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:34.360 blue collar workers, but is itself about work? 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:40.000 Yeah, yeah, I think that's a solid point. There are 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:42.040 some other films that are often thrown out as being 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:46.159 like predecessors to Alien, nineteen fifty eight's hit The Tear 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:49.560 from Beyond Space, which I haven't seen. I was looking 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:51.680 at it the other day but that's one that the 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:53.760 director of this picture points out as being one of 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.080 his inspirations. I think there's some obvious inspiration here from 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:00.880 Planet of the Vampires, but again, I think Creature is 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:07.720 ultimately one of the more entertaining and also, as I'll 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:13.839 discuss tasteful alien knockoffs that has come out. 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:16.200 Yeah, I know what you're saying. Some of the Alien 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:18.800 knockoffs from the eighties, which I have seen and have 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:21.640 enjoyable parts, some of them just get kind of gross 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:26.600 with like the you know, the weird sort of implied 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:30.839 sexuality of Alien is realized in a nastier way in 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:32.120 a lot of these copycats. 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:37.240 Yeah, because, I mean, you can't take topics and ideas 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.600 of sexuality and reproduction out of Alien. It's very much 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:42.479 part of the DNA, It's very much a part of 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:47.360 hr Giger's visual surrealism that informs so many aspects of 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:52.480 the film. But yeah, you'll look at various Alien knockoffs 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:55.520 like the Corman produced Galaxy of Terror and the British 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.960 and Seminoid, both from nineteen eighty one, and these are 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:02.239 both examples of film that they end up just coming 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:06.960 off sleazy and exploitive in my opinion, because they don't 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:09.280 deal with these things with the nuance and that kind 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:13.640 of almost subliminal energy that Alien does so well. Now, 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:17.360 another thing to keep in mind about Creature here is that, Okay, 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:21.640 Alien was of course a world class production. I think 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:24.200 I had a budget of eleven million dollars. This is 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:28.719 late seventies money. It had helming it one of the 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:33.880 most visually visionary directors you know of our time, and 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:35.360 on top of that, you know the work of hr 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:40.320 Giger and so forth. Creature, however, was made for less 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:42.440 than half of this amount of reported four point two 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:46.520 million dollars, and it's a pretty ambitious project for what 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:51.080 was reportedly even half that in budget at the outset, 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:54.520 because you end up having multiple sci fi sets, like, 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:58.200 you know, over a dozen different sets, including spaceship interiors, 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:05.200 alien planets. You've got spaceship models, planetary surface models, various 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:09.800 special effects, and ultimately a respectable cast. You know, this 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:12.640 is not one of those casts where everybody's green and 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:14.320 acting like they just though out of the back of 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:18.680 a truck or something. It's ultimately, I think pretty commendable 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:22.480 what they're able to do. When you remind yourself that 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.720 this was low budget that was shot in a warehouse 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:31.600 during like a super hot summer where they're just totally 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.320 unable to cool things down enough and having to deal 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:37.280 with everyone's sweating in their big spacesuits. You know, I 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:39.640 think it comes together pretty well when you take all 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:40.480 that into account. 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:43.360 Oh, I wonder if they sort of improvised a way 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:45.680 of writing that into the script, because there's a whole 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:48.200 subplot in the middle of the movie where a couple 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:51.800 of characters are able to figure out that another character 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:56.880 is brain slugged and tricking them because they're sweating in 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:58.320 this hot ship and he's not. 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:01.600 Yeah, yeah, that's so, because yeah, there are all these 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.680 behind the scenes tidbits about just how hot it was 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:06.560 and it was. There were sweating and it was like 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.360 steaming up the insides of the helmets. So yeah, it 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:12.760 sounds like it was a grueling, but most of the 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:13.720 accounts seem to say it was. 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:14.680 You know, it's a pretty. 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:17.520 Pretty fun shoot for the most part, with some some 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.680 key caveats that we'll come back to. All Right, Joe, 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:22.840 what's your elevator pitch for creature? 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:26.840 Oh, let's see how to create the perfect organism. Get 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:28.880 a little bit of your Alien, a little bit of 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:31.200 your the thing, and a little bit of your the 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:34.480 brain eaters, and put them all into blender and here's 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:35.400 what you got. 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:37.679 I want to say that there's a little bit of 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:40.920 dinosaur costume to this guy as well, especially if you're 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:43.199 in the in the film when you see him more 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:45.679 of a full body shot, there's kind of like a 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:51.360 big rubber dinosaur costume sense to him. Yeah. Again, it's 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:55.080 an unenviable task to try to create something that is 0:08:56.080 --> 0:09:00.840 alien esque but on a budget without a you know, 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:04.040 visionary artist behind its design. 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:07.520 Now, I think it would be impossible to deny that 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:11.040 this movie is derivative of Alien in many ways. But 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:13.640 one thing I think is kind of surprising about it 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:18.120 is that it also feels derivative of Aliens, and yet 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:21.040 it's not because this came before Aliens. So there are 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:22.920 several things in it where I was like, oh, this 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:25.559 is this is taking this thing from you know, the 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:28.360 camera in movie, but actually it wasn't out yet, so 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:29.160 this came first. 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:31.559 Yeah. There's also stuff in here that reminds me a 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:33.960 little bit of things we would later see in Prometheus, 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:39.600 with Prometheus reaching back and drawing from things like Planet 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:41.120 of the Vampires. But like we have this scene with 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:44.480 like the Black Ooze we'll talk about and yeah, and 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:48.839 like the space zombies are abominations, so so yeah, it's 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:50.920 a really fun one I think to watch as an 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:54.520 alien fan. And again, it avoids, I think, most of 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:57.080 the pitfalls of lewdness that you encounter with some of 0:09:57.080 --> 0:10:00.160 these other alien knockoffs. All right, let's go ahead and 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:14.000 listen to that trailer audio. 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:21.280 In the near future, in the shadow of Saturn's rings, 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:27.280 stranded beneath the surface of the barren moon called Titan, 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:32.320 scientists find the one thing they never expected. 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:43.120 Is anybody here was expecting them. 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:47.439 And suddenly those who had traveled across the galaxy had 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:55.960 one out of space. Creature. It kills to live, and 0:10:56.040 --> 0:11:01.720 it lives to kill. 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:04.720 All right. So at this point, if you were thinking 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.200 to yourself, well, I would like to see Creature, I 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:08.679 haven't seen it, or I would like to see it 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:12.360 again before continuing on with this episode, well, luckily, Creature 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.040 has been available in various home video formats for quite 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:18.439 a while, but in my opinion, the twenty twenty two 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.520 release from Vinegar Syndrome the Blu Ray is definitely the 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:23.520 way to go for physical media on this one. I 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.920 rented it from Atlanta's Videodrome. It's got some cool extra features. 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:32.040 It has the original Titan Find cut of the film, 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:36.079 which is a bit darker compared to the main theatrical 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:38.760 cut that you have on the disc, but still interesting 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:42.960 to check out. You can also stream Creature digitally on 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:46.640 multiple platforms, and there are multiple digital rental and purchase 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:47.480 options as well. 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:51.480 I'm in a weird situation that I watched the first 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:54.720 half of the movie as the Titan Find cut and 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:57.679 the second half in the theatrical cut, so I don't 0:11:57.679 --> 0:11:58.800 know what the difference is. 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:02.679 Did you did you notice any changes in lighting, because 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:04.880 I really didn't look at the Titan Find one much, 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:05.880 so I can't speak to it. 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:11.240 You mean, not darker in terms of tone, but darker visually, Yes, 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:15.480 the Titan Find cut is very dark. In fact, we 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:17.720 were talking off Mike about how one of my main 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.400 complaints about the movie is that you can't see the 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.120 sets at all. The characters are just standing around in 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:26.000 darkness talking, so I can't even tell if the sets 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:30.000 are good or not. In the theatrical cut. Yeah, it 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:33.319 was a little. It did seem a little bit more illuminated, 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:36.199 a little bit brighter, but still you couldn't see a 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:37.520 lot of the sets on the planet. 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:41.600 Now, speaking of physical media, I want to give a 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:45.040 shout out to Future Shock Video in New Orleans. This 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:48.160 is a new video rental store that we just read 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.960 about in New Orleans Magazine. It's operated by Eden Chubb, 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:56.120 who was apparently partially inspired by Weird House Cinema and 0:12:56.200 --> 0:13:00.760 certainly inspired by Atlanta's own video rental store, Videodrome. The 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:03.200 name of the store is also a nod to the 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:06.000 concept of future Shock, which we've discussed on the show. 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:09.760 So kudos to Eden for keeping the physical media circulating. 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:14.560 You can learn more about Future Shock Video at Futureshockvideo 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:17.760 dot diz, and you can follow the store on Instagram 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:29.040 at future Shock Video. All right, Well, let's get into 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.480 the people who made this film, all right. Starting at 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:36.400 the top, director, writer, producer. It's William Malone born nineteen 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:40.679 fifty three, UCLA Film School grad, writer and director who 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:44.000 started out in acting and some special effects work, but then, 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:46.240 in the wake of nineteen seventy nine's Alien, which he 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:49.200 was inspired by, he was able to raise a reported 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:52.760 seventy four thousand dollars to make the film Scared to Death, 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:56.200 in which a Giger esque creature runs amok in the 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.160 La sewer system. I haven't seen this one, so I 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:01.440 can't really to it, but I looked at a couple 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:03.080 of stills in the Monster Man. 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:07.240 This must have been a really precious project to him, 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:09.680 because he works. I don't know if you caught onto this, 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:14.080 Rob how many references too Scared to Death? He works 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:16.640 into creature? Did you notice these? 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.240 I didn't notice them so much, but you were pointing 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:21.040 out some of them, and I guess you'll point them 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:23.400 out as we go here. Yeah, maybe they're supposed to 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:24.920 be the same cinematic universe. 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.160 Oh, I didn't consider that. Well, but I don't know 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:30.440 if that would work because one character is reading the 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:32.200 novelization of Scared to Death. 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:38.040 All right, So this film Creature, which was originally he 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.400 talks about this on the extras. It was originally in. 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:43.680 It originally had the working title Titan Fined, which the 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:46.520 producers did not like the other like the main money 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:48.480 behind it. They were like, it sounds too much like 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.520 tight and fine. People are going to think it's something else, 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:55.360 which seems like it's a little reaching there. I don't know, 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:58.280 I didn't think about that connotation. I think Titan Fine 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:02.600 sounds rather fascinating and very sci fi. 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.800 It makes me think maybe they were thinking sounds too 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:10.280 intellectual and they were coming up with an excuse for 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.160 why they wanted to just call it monster. 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:19.120 But anyway, this was the follow up. He mentions in 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:21.360 some of those extras that he was always terrible at 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:23.680 writing to meet a particular budget, and that was very 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:26.520 much the case here. It was apparently a real struggle 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:30.000 to go after everything they needed to make Creature, and 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:32.400 at one point in the production, one of the producers 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:37.320 I think this is Mush Diamond Diamant, It could be wrong, 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:40.320 but he comes in and says, oh, you guys need 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:42.720 more money for what you're trying to do here, and 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:46.040 essentially double their budget at that point, which Malone says 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.400 was of course it was a lifeline, but also it 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:50.480 was a bit frustrating at that stage in the production 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:54.200 because they were already a certain way into making everything 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:57.520 based on what you had, and suddenly you have additional resources, 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:01.040 which and you can't really redo what you've done already. 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:03.720 You have to think of other other ways to make 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:04.720 use of those funds. 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:08.320 I feel like we have talked about more examples of 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:10.600 it going the other way, where you start making a 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:12.200 movie and then the budget gets cut. 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:13.520 Yeah. 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:15.120 So, I mean one of the things they ended up 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:17.160 doing when more money came in on this one is 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.640 hired klas Kinsky, which we'll get into, which I don't 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:23.480 think is always I would go so far as to say, 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:27.560 is maybe never a good use of extra money in 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:32.240 your film, to say, well, let's bring in noted nightmare Kloskinski. 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:34.440 That's gonna be great for the film and great for morale. 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:36.760 Oh, we just got a bunch of extra money. We 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:38.880 can use that to rent a jar of red back 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:40.920 spiders and release them onto the set. 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:42.480 Essentially. 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:44.080 Yeah, it really spiced things up. 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:46.720 Yeah, yeah, I mean it's gonna make people more excited 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:47.440 in front of the camera. 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:48.160 Let's do it. 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:53.000 Well, more on that in a bit, But both Scared 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.880 to Death and Creature we're apparently successful. Creature was a 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:59.040 theatrical release, and Malone followed the film up with some 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:03.120 TV projects. He directed three episodes of Freddy's Nightmares, and 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:05.520 he also directed two episodes of Tales from the Crypt, 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:08.280 one of which he also wrote. He also did one 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.200 episode of the short lived sci fi spinoff of Tales 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:14.240 from the Crypt Perversions of Science, and after some additional 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.760 TV projects, he directed the big budget remake of House 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:20.160 on Haunted Hill in nineteen ninety nine. 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:23.760 I know you remember this one, Joe. I mean, I 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:26.840 don't think there's any way to make the case that 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:29.640 it's good, but it's very watchably bad. It has a 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:32.360 great cast, kind of star studded, you know, a lot 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:36.000 of great character actors running around doing ridiculous things. I 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:39.720 remember it being really ugly, like a movie that's quite 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:44.240 hard on the eyes, but it's I had a great time. 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:47.440 Yeah, I remember Jeffrey Combs has a fun, i think, 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:51.399 non speaking role in it, and then Jeffrey Rush basically 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:55.439 plays Vincent Price in the film, like in fact, the 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.280 character's name is Stephen Price, and that is as fun 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:01.240 as it sounds, you know, just letting Rush go wild 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.600 for the duration of the film as Vincent Price. 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:06.960 Just trying to remember who else is in it. I 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:09.840 looked at up. It's got Tay Diggs, Chris Catan, fam 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:11.120 Ki Janssen. 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:13.600 It's oh Man. When Tay Diggs was in a lot 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:17.600 of different movies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, anyway back to Malone. 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:21.920 His only two films after that were two thousand and 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:24.960 two is Fear dot Com, which I remember is being 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:27.880 quite awful, speaking of. 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:31.520 Ugly movies that are hard on the eyes, that we're 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.320 right in that zone around the turn of the millennium 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.720 where movies it seems we're just the color palette and 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:41.240 the and the brightness level and everything was optimized to 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:43.119 hurt the eyes to watch. 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:45.200 Yeah, Like I mean, I don't even want to throw 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:47.680 too much shade at Malone for Fear dot Com because 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:50.719 Fear dot Com was exactly the sort of movie that 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:54.880 the year two thousand and two wanted. And even though 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:57.200 I do not like it, there are a number There 0:18:57.200 --> 0:18:58.760 aren't a lot of films from two thousand and two. 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:02.600 I'm exactly going going back and feeling nostalgic for He 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:04.480 did one more film in two thousand and eight, and 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:06.880 he also directed one episode of two thousand and six's 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.200 Masters of Horror, The Fair Haired Child. As a writer, 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:14.280 he also worked on nineteen ninety nine Universal Soldier, The Return, 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:18.960 and the Year two thousand movies Supernova. Now there's another 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:22.280 writer that is credited one Alan Reid. But I couldn't 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:24.040 find much about them. This is not to be confused 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.080 with the original voice of Fred Flintstone, different Alan Reid. 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:30.359 But I could not figure out exactly who this individual is. 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:32.760 Sorry, this is a completely out of order, but I 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:36.000 just remembered another actor in his house on Haunted Hill, 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.520 and that there's a cameo where Lisa Loebe plays a 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:43.200 TV reporter. What yeah, why, I don't know. 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:47.920 I'm good for her, all right, Moving on to the 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:51.320 actors in this film. This is of course an alien 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:54.919 esque picture. So we have a crew, and if you 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:56.560 have a crew, you got to have a captain. And 0:19:56.640 --> 0:20:01.760 our captain is Captain Mike Davison played by Ivar born 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:05.000 nineteen forty three. Not only is he our captain in 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:07.960 this film, he's he was. Also he's also a future 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:12.040 actual ship captain according to Malone. So he chalks that 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:13.879 up to good casting, like he saw this guy and 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:16.000 realized this, this dude can command a ship. 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:20.200 I mean, he is believable as a ship captain. I 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:22.639 will say that no offense to Stan. I don't have 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:25.120 a lot to say about his performance here. It's sort 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:27.560 of a like a It's like a slice of white 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:31.439 toast with no butter or Jam's there's nothing wrong with it, 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:34.280 nothing to offend, but also it's very plain. 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:37.879 Yeah, and it's fitting that at this point in his career, 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:41.639 mostly a TV actor, he had just played John Carter 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:44.560 on Little House on the Prairie, along with some other 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:49.800 various guest show spots, guest spots on shows. But you know, 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:52.439 he is the kind of actor he can easily imagine 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:55.120 doing a lot of scenes where he's just coming back 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:57.880 from some farm work and he needs a nice drink 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:01.520 of water back at the Little on the Prairie. Anyway, 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:03.720 this sort of work would would continue with him doing 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.000 a lot of one shots on popular TV series of 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:10.440 the eighties and nineties. His latter film credits include roles 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:13.280 in nineteen ninety one's Harley Davidson and the Marlborough Man 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:17.159 and nineteen ninety three's Aspen Extreme. His last credits were 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:20.760 a pair of NCIS episodes in twenty ten. But yeah, 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:24.000 he's he's solid in this, you know, like you said, 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:29.080 he does a solid job. No notes really, but you know, 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:32.679 he's no Tom Scarett, but he is maybe Tom Scarett esque. 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.280 I think they were clearly going for a Tom Scarett type. 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:41.080 They wanted to replicate Dallas as a relatively soft spoken, stoic, 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:46.280 strong masculine captain, and he sort of gets there, but 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:49.240 he doesn't really have Tom Skarett's quiet charisma. 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:52.520 Yeah, all right. Now, he does have a girlfriend on 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:55.040 the crew though. You know. That's of course, one of 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:57.159 the very notable things about Alien is there are no 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:00.919