User Reviews

Wow, I'm actually speechless … I have watched lots of awful horror movies in my life and I definitely know to keep my expectations low regarding late 80's low-budgeted monster movies – especially when the name Fred Olen Ray is even remotely involved – but still somehow I'm truly baffled about how inept and terrible "Evil Spawn" actually is! The best way to describe the film (if you can even call it that) is to label is a smutty and sleazy 80's remake of Roger Corman's "The Wasp Woman". Vain and arrogant actress Lynn Roman still considers herself as beautiful, young and successful, but her surrounding is slightly more realistic. Her agent can't find her any more roles, befriended directors prefer young brunettes and even her own husband sleeps with younger actresses. Luckily for Lynn, a totally bonkers female scientist comes to see her with a serum extracted from intergalactic Venus microbes that supposedly will make her appear younger again. Yes, seriously! The serum actually works, but not sufficiently and it doesn't help Lynn to obtain new roles. And thus, like any normal person would react, she injects copious amounts of serum into her veins and mutates into a gigantic alien bug creature that feeds on humans.

Sounds like a lot of brainless B-movie fun, doesn't it? Well it certainly is, but exclusively for people that are already familiar with the oeuvre/style of Fred Olen Ray and then still have an incredibly high tolerance lever for incompetence. The little intro video hosted by Olen Ray himself, known as the Night Owl Theater, already states clear that the man isn't really interested in good horror cinema, but merely in ugly monsters and especially naked women. It's particularly the retarded little details that make "Evil Spawn" such an amusing waste of 70 minutes. The film opens with images of a ridiculous looking spaceship, and yet the rest of the entire film takes place on earth. John Carradine, who looks more dead than alive, appears for approximately three minutes even though he receives top-billing on the DVD cover. He mumbles a couple of inaudible sentences and then literally drops dead in his seat. Several monster films of the 1980's have become genuine classics thanks to their marvelous transformation sequences. Like "An American Werewolf in London" for example. The transformation sequences in "Evil Spawn" are slightly less overwhelming. When Lynn injects herself with serum, she first receives a mouthful of ugly sharp teeth but then immediately changes into a full-grown and unidentifiable creature! It's harsh, but I more or less understand why this film didn't receive an Oscar nomination for the special effects. There's plentiful of gore and nudity, of course, quite often at the same time, like when the sexy brunette secretary gets eaten by the poolside and blood runs down over her butt-cheeks. The acting performances are horrible, although most of the cast members aren't all that inexperienced. Lead actress Bobbie Bresee appeared in a handful of B-movies, including "Mausoleum" and "Ghoulies", and furthermore there's Gordon Mitchell (who starred in literally hundreds of Italian flicks) and Jerry Fox. "Evil Spawn" is a lot of dumb fun, but I think everyone agrees the best thing about it is actually the DVD cover image.

"Evil Spawn" is good for some laughs. This 'cautionary tale' about the price that must be paid by taking short-cuts to acquire beauty, power, fame, and money qualifies it as a morality tale. Obviously, this literary theme must have secondary in the collective minds of the three directors--Kenneth J. Hall of "Ghost Writer," Ted Newsom of "The Naked Monster," and the schlockmeister par excellence Fred Olen Ray of "Tomb of the Werewolf." They were struggling to make a goofy, gory, ghoulish monster epic. Naturally, the low-budget special effects hampered their credibility, but this rank amateur quality endows it with a modicum of charm. Unless otherwise notified, it is anybody's guess who helmed the bulk of this nonsense. The directing trio have also slipped in some soft-core porn scenes with frontal nudity. Happily, the naked ladies are beautiful, even the elder of the bunch Bobbie Bresee as a starlet who refuses to let her age impair her in her pursuit of marquee's role. Actually, not only does "Evil Spawn" incorporate soft-core nudity, hilarious lobster-looking behemoths, but it also boasts science fiction content, too!

The film opens with a title card that spells out this exposition: a "Odyssey" probe to Venus has returned to Earth with alien microbes for analysis by independent laboratories. "The use . . . and misuse of these microbes is the subject of this film." Afterward, we see a spaceship made out of cardboard tubes heading toward Earth. A striking looking woman with a weird hairstyle enters a lab and releases a sickeningly bad alien critter and bars the exit from the lab so that the scientist cannot escape and is attacked by the critter. Blood is splashed everywhere. Miraculously, he gets to this feet later and walks away. Later,a young couple in a Renegade jeep show up searching for her cat. They encounter the bitten scientist, and it tears off the guy's arm The gal leaps into their jeep and rams monster. Not surprisingly,continuity suffers in this assemblage of story lines. Meantime, as an aging actress with few starring roles in sight, Linda Roman (Bobbie Bresee of Mausoleum") sells her soul sort of to the devil. Actually, the devil in this equation, Dr. Emil Zeitman (the venerable John Carradine of "House of Frankenstein") isn't alive long because his treacherous assistant kills him. Turns out that this scene wasn't originally in the screenplay! Olen Ray inserted it no doubt to draw on Carradine's name as a fixture in horror movies dating back to the 1940s. This insane scientist has created something evil from alien DNA that enables the vilest part of your personality to assert control over an individual and shape-shift them into something hideous. Linda Roman listens to Zeitman's homicidal assistant Evelyn Avery (Dawn Wildsmith of "Surf Nazis Must Die") who is trying to convince Linda to participate in a study. Our protagonist runs Avery off, but she finds two needles in a case nearby on her table. Reluctantly but desperately, she injects herself and so begins a quasi-"Jekyll and Hyde" yarn. Linda's closest friends are amazed at her reborn youth, and she yearns to star in a movie entitled "Savage Basically, she turns into a monster like "The Wasp Woman" only this time more like super nasty looking marine specimen that resides in the waters off Maine. The acting runs the gamut of tolerable to terrible, but Bresee does an adequate job with her serious, straightforward thesping. Poor Carradine didn't even know that he was in this fiasco.

Most of the gory stuff occurs toward the end, but there is that trademark bursting from the chest scene that occurs "Carrie" like at the end. Earlier, the monster feasting on its victim resembled a giant rat covered in pizza with glowing eyes. Clearly, the filmmakers were too frugal to treat the story on a national basis with these unsavory monsters attacking the Earth in a takeover of the planet. The body count looks to be no more than five, including Elaine (Pamela Gilbert), her untrustworthy Hollywood agent Harry (Fox Harris), and philandering boyfriend, Mark (Mark Anthony). The production was presumably compromised from the start. Scenes appear out of nowhere with the least justification. For example, one scene has a beauty dancing erotically for Linda's boyfriend and then she appears in full insect armor with giant claws and lays waste! Nevertheless, the outlandish storyline, the cheapo values, and the derivative content lend it enough charm if you're willing to let it dominate at least 75 minutes of your day. "Evil Spawn" might properly be seen after dark with lots of alcoholic beverages and pizza to go around for everybody. One last thing: Olen Ray wasn't prepared to let "Evil Spawn" waste away in B-movie Hell, he recycled it with new footage as "Alien Intruders."

An aging actress, Lynn Roman(Bobbie Bresee;who, at 37, had one knock out of a body), desperately desires to retain her past glory by nabbing a major part designed for a 20 year old lead, decides to inject an experimental formula given to her by a mysterious scientist. This scientist, Evelyn Avery(Dawn Wildsmith),an obsessive fan of Roman's, caused the deaths of her boss, Dr. Zeitman(John Carradine; whose role was actually lifted from stock footage of another proposed Fred Olen Ray project, Frankenstein's Brain)and fellow colleague using a formula designed from alien DNA. It is designed to make Lynn look younger, but has a nasty side-effect, when angered, she transforms into a hideous insect monster! Yes, Bresee turns into yet another monster. Anyway, Lynn's biographer, Ross Anderson(Drew Godderis, in a dreadful performance with equally appalling voice over narration that seems to attempt a homage of sorts to Sunset Boulevard)investigates the drug she's been injecting and discovers some disturbing truths. Meanwhile, Lynn's alter-ego, the insect monster, emerges killing her maid, Elaine(Pamela Gilbert), back-stabbing agent, Harry(Fox Harris), and cheating boyfriend, Mark(Mark Anthony).

I believe there's an alternate version out there with extra footage shot by Fred Olen Ray, but the version I viewed gives Kenneth J Hall full credit as director. On this page, several cast members represent characters that aren't in the film I just finished, which was released by Fred's distribution label for DVD. Anyway, the quality for this movie is below par and the camera-work is exceptionally flat and unimaginative. Bobbie Bresee, however, is well cast and gets a chance to flaunt her magnificent naked figure in a gratuitous shower sequence. Unfortunately, the close-ups of her false monster teeth are laughable, although her creepy eye contacts and furious facial expressions work a bit better. The monster costume comes right out of those bad creature features in the 50's which I felt was intentional..a beloved spoof of those films, placed within an 80's modern setting. The film's theme is the longing to remain a vital figure in Hollywood despite the expiration date looming(..again, right out of Sunset Boulevard)and Bresee, despite how yummy her figure is, seems to tap into the rage that befalls older actresses trying to keep up with the much younger gals entering the industry. The sub-plot with Wildsmith, as the diabolical, deranged scientist, really off-sets the tone of the rest of the film, particularly her scenes in her apartment, taping collective photos and clippings of Lynn on the walls. The monster mayhem is(intentionally?)goofy and rather poorly executed because the costume isn't the least bit scary..more likely, seeing it will give you the giggles. Pamela Gilbert(..a tall, athletic figure, with long brown hair), as Lynn's maid, disrobes for the horny male(..and female?)viewers during a swim while her employer is away, eventually falling prey to the monster..told she was too old for the desired lead role she so covets, Lynn's rage causes the beast to rear it's ugly head. The scene with an elderly Carradine, attempting to speak his lines(..and obviously reading from cue cards), looks to be on death's door..it's kind of hard to watch knowing that he wouldn't be with us very much longer and seeing him struggle with his lines, barely being able to breathe, kind of brought about sadness because I'm such a fan of his. The opening of the film, concerning the alien monster who attacks Evelyn's colleague, leads to the film's standout gore scene..the scientist interrupts a couple in a jeep searching for their pooch, ripping the arm off of the man attempting to see if he's okay.

Okay. I've seen some low budget films in my time. Some of them have been quite entertaining on a basic scale of laughing at how bad they are, and others have been absolutely dire. One film which falls at the bottom end of this bad film scale is METAMORPHOSIS. I knew I was in for a bad time as soon as the credits showed up. Well, maybe I shouldn't say the "credits", as I'm not exactly sure what they were. Bad computer titles appeared over a scene of what looked like (and was) someone holding a Camcorder out of a car window, and just taping the view in front of them. Wow, great credits. Then the "film" began.

I have to say, even at the low price I paid for it, I was sorely disappointed. Another case of "don't judge a book by its cover", this video sleeve had a cool design but the film itself was nothing like it. Most of the time we were watching Bobbie Bresee (an apparent horror icon of the '80s, she was in this and GHOULIES...but the question is, where is she now?) talk and chat to her friends.

The trouble with the film is that everything is so s-l-o-w. One slow motion scene of Bresee going to collect an Oscar was shown twice in its prolonged agony. John Carradine turns up at the beginning for two minutes and dies (he probably saw how bad the film was). I guess the producer thought adding in some gratuitous nudity would make people enjoy the film. He was wrong. Forrest J Ackerman turns up in a comedy cameo again, what was it with him and bad low budget films of the '80s? The film is so bad at one point the camera isn't even in focus. The acting is atrocious as well. This film is only worth watching if you want to see how bad it is. Otherwise...if you see it, burn it. It's for the best you know.

Boy, does this astonishingly awful direct-to-video late 80's low budget horror abomination commit all the so-utterly-wretched-that-they're-weirdly-wonderful trash movie vices. For starters, the central premise is basically an ungodly blend of "Sunset Boulevard" and your typically tacky Grade Z 50's type deadly monster picture done with 80's style gore, nudity and profanity to make it seem more "modern": Faded over-the-hill former big film star Lynn Roman (atrociously played by buxom blonde babe Bobbie Bresee of "Mausoleam" fame) takes a special experimental anti-aging serum to make herself look young again. Naturally, there's a nasty side effect: the serum causes Lynn to mutate into a lethal giant humanoid insect beast which predictably bumps off a few folks. Kenneth J. Hall's pathetic (mis)direction, Hall's equally dismal script (Hall is the same genius dreck feature scribe who penned the brilliant screenplay for "Nightmare Sisters"), Christopher Condon's endearingly crude'n'clunky cinematography, the dreadful dialogue ("Aren't they the ones who do those schlocky low budget films in Italy?"), the cheesy gore, nil suspense, sluggish pacing, terrible acting, a laughably hokey some-poor-guy-in-an-obvious-rubber-suit monster, Paul Natzke's annoyingly droning synthesizer score, and even a heavy-handed morale about the perils of vanity ensure that this hilariously horrendous honey is an absolute campy hoot from start to finish. Better still, Bresee takes a steamy shower and the exquisitely ample brunette knockout Pamela Gilbert goes skinny-dipping prior to being killed by the creature. An extremely feeble John Carradine has a very sad cameo as a doddering old fuddy dud of a mad scientist and Forrest J. Ackerman makes a fleeting appearance as a pool cleaner. As Lynn so aptly puts it early on in the movie: "This sounds like something out of a bad science fiction film." And indeed that's exactly what this sublimely shoddy stinker is.

GOOD AMOUNT OF NUDITY CAW CAW

DECENT EFFECTS FOR A SMALL BUDGET, IF YOU LIKE LINGERIE MODELS THIS MOVIE IS FOR YOU CAW CAW

THE MOVIE'S ENDING IS FUNNY CAW CAW