The Deadly Spawn is a cult classic sci-fi/horror flick, and for good reason. Despite having poor picture quality for the 80s, and despite an odd absense of nudity in an era when it was pretty much required of schlock cinema, the monsters and over-the-top gore more than make the movie worth your time.
It begins like a thousand other sci-fi/horror movies. No, not with a mad scientist creating monsters to take over the world. That was the last review. The Deadly Spawn starts with a meteor crashing to earth, unleashing flesh-eating creatures upon the earth. And these creatures…well, they look like giant cocks with teeth. Yes, this movie without nudity is about alien monsters that look like dicks. Or am I the only one who thinks that?
Anyway, the monsters are great, even if they do look like male genitalia. It’s clear that a lot of time and effort was put into the production of the creatures and gore, even if the rest of the film was below par. So cheers to Greg Ramondous for the special effects.
I was shocked to discover that this was Douglas McKeown’s sole directing and writing credit on IMDB. For his first stab at film-making, The Deadly Spawn showed promise, suggesting Mckeown could likely have made a career out of horror movies, not unlike Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper. One has to wonder why he stopped here.
The plot is cliché and the cinematography is okay at best, but it’s a bloody good time, with dick-monsters ripping flesh off of folks and eating them alive. Check it out on YouTube.