Dead Space


Krieger: "He means us. It wants to kill us."
scientist: "Want...is not quite right. It exists to kill."


release year: 1991
genre: sci-fi/horror
viewing setting: home DVD 6/22/20

synopsis: At some remote research station, a virus has gotten out of control, in this case mutating into a bad special-effects monster that ambles around without any clear purpose and kills most of the people it encounters.

impressions: So this was a remake of an existing bad movie by the same people, and by all accounts it was much worse. That was certainly my opinion after sitting through it. First of all, the only SPACE in this movie was a short scene at the beginning using battle footage recycled from yet another movie, then the main guy crash-lands on the planet and the entire remainder of the movie takes place indoors or just outside in a windy environment. It was like 7 minutes of space battle with lasers, and then an hour of non-space-anything. On top of that, there were the usual plot inconsistencies of any bad monster film: a monster that's there one second and then just gone the next...the monster immediately killing some characters but having trouble even wounding other (main) characters...people using the same weapons to try and stop the thing, even when it's already been proven that they DON'T WORK AT ALL. And there's a robot too, and it makes random remarks and also requires constant repairs, but proves absolutely useless in battle (kind of like the 1983 Nissan 280ZX that I used to drive a quarter-century ago.) Oh, I almost forgot, the main guy's ship has a sauna (!) in which he rests while the robot flies the ship!

acting: Marc Singer is the visiting commander, who's also the only person willing to stand up and fight the monster. Laura Tate is the doctor/scientist who bonds with him (including a pointless dream sequence.) Bryan Cranston, in an early appearance, is the main doctor/scientist. Randy Reinholz is a character who appears to have no real purpose, except maybe to be a coward and to whine about everything.

final word: A decent try, but the only "Dead Space" here will be the 72 minutes of your life that you'll never get back.

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