The aforementioned chestburster scene is left largely to the imagination, as we just watch a reaction shot of Singer as the thing presumably finishes bursting from the host, scurries about and then climbs through an air vent (we finally cut away from Singer to see said vent, which Singer then runs toward).
Dead space 1991 movie#
But the idea of this movie seems to be “let’s hit all the bullet points of what constitutes a plot and skip the shit in between”.Īnd even for Corman it’s obnoxiously cheap. Then the rest is nearly nonstop action, all of which works and excites because you genuinely care for Cage (and even Harris to some extent). Look at The Rock it’s almost an hour into the movie by the time Cage and Connery even arrive on Alcatraz, because we’ve spent a lot of time getting to know them, understanding Ed Harris’ plan, etc (OK, and wrecking half of San Fransisco in a car chase). There’s no rush to get to the action if you’re spending that time giving the audience a reason to give a shit who lives or dies. And while that may sound great, it actually makes it boring. This is pretty much an entire act of a movie condensed into half a reel, and the rest of it carries on in a similar fashion. In the movie’s first ten minutes, we’ve met Singer, seen him tackle a minor problem, learned about the possible existence of the monster on the science base, and had Singer land there (answering a distress signal, of course) and find out what’s going on. Everything that might allow you to actually take an interest in the proceedings (a thought out plot, character development, etc) is skimmed over if not raced through with a mercenary attitude. Amazing.īut most of the movie involves stuff that doesn’t feature anyone’s head being bitten off, so it’s a giant bore. But he doesn’t get the chance, because “hero” Singer literally pushes him into the monster, which promptly bites Cranston’s head off. He gets a hilarious death scene too he’s dying from some virus and figures out that his tainted blood can stop the monster (which was born from the attempt at an antidote or something along those lines), so you think he’s gonna go all Harry Stamper and sacrifice himself to save the others/planet. If you watch him during big group shots, he’s the only one bothering to act as the rest more often than not sit with blank expressions until it’s time for their closeup. As you may expect, he’s the best actor of the bunch, and it’s great to see him putting effort into it. The other notable character is a scientist played by the great Bryan Cranston, long before his career skyrocketed by Malcolm In The Middle and then of course Breaking Bad. There IS a robot in this one though, but it’s not evil if anything it’s the most likable character, and I was delighted to see Tinpan’s unexplained return at the end after seemingly being killed around the end of the second act. At one point she’s fighting a miniature baby monster while Singer tackles the real one, and they can’t even let her accomplish this much Singer finishes his fight and then runs over to kill the baby too. They don’t even bother creating a strong female character the female lead hilariously stammers and all but drools over hero Marc Singer the instant they meet, and spends most of the climax screaming instead of fighting. To be fair, it’s not as blatant as the other film they only restage a few of the obvious scenes (chest-bursting), and there aren’t any obvious replacement characters. If me of all people can’t get through a 71 minute movie in one sitting, then you know there’s a problem.Īs with Terror, Dead Space is a ripoff of Alien, but it’s also a loose remake of Corman’s earlier Alien knockoff Forbidden World (which I have yet to see). Hell I actually had to take a break from it around the halfway mark.
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Dead Space, on the other hand (which was on the same disc) offered next to nothing, boring me to tears after 20 minutes and never getting much better, and despite only running 71 minutes (!), it felt at least twice that long. Yesterday's The Terror Within may not have been a very good movie, but at least it moved along, had a couple of minor memorable bits, and never felt longer than its 85 minute running time.