#Hooptober9

💀 NUMBER THREE 💀
💀 EIGHT DECADES (1980s) 💀

"The Deadly Spawn" (1983)
* dir: Douglas McKeown
* Horror / Science Fiction / What The Mind Conjures Up When It Hears The Term 'Creature Feature'
[ ★★★★½ / ★★★★★ ]

After two movies ripe with heavy themes and foreboding dread, I think it's time I make a violent swerve into some goopy, goofy monster-filled delightfulness.

This is one of those films that desperately makes me want to go back to the days of making schlocky-yet-sincere horror flicks with my friends. What we lacked in talent we more than made up for in enthusiasm and free time! Granted: writer/director Doug McKeown and his dedicated cast and crew here are much better at this stuff than we ever were. But my point stands!

Seriously though: it really is wild to look up the aforementioned cast/crew after watching this thing only to discover that they all went on to do...nothing else. Down to the last name, absolutely no other film credits outside of this one feature. Which is a real shame considering what a goddamn gem this thing is.

Forgive me for getting all Stefon in this review, but "The Deadly Spawn" really does have everything.

- Gnarly worm beasties with a million dripping teeth and a real propensity for chomping off heads!
- A breezy, surprisingly well-paced screenplay filled with deliberate laugh-out-loud dialogue, plenty of gory incident, and just the right amount of characterization!
- A charming cast of entirely unknown actors who are JUST that much better than they need to be!
- Some of the most grotesquely inventive creature effects and creatively resourceful low-budget genre filmmaking this side of a combination Sam Raimi/Frank Henenlotter film festival!
- Cute science nerds in fuzzy kashmir sweaters!
- A windy, rain-swept East Coast setting that adds a ton of gloomy atmosphere and a wonderful sense of eerie isolation!
- A man with the most severe bald spot you'll ever see!
- A fine ceramic giraffe!

Plus: you always gotta love a flick that prominently features a horror obsessed kid. Charles George Hildebrandt being a solid actor as well as inarguably the most compelling character in the entire film (while barely speaking a word!) is just the icing on top.

I feel like I'm going to spend way too much to acquire a blu-ray copy of this thing, and I couldn't care less. "The Deadly Spawn" is the sort of semi-hidden genre gem that I already know I'm going to want to watch again and again, with multiple people or by myself, and my only complaint is the fact that I didn't watch the damn thing any sooner.