Although we were inundated with hockey masks, knives, and axes in the early ‘80s, there were some horror filmmakers looking to do something against the grain; people like Sam Raimi conjuring undead demons in The Evil Dead (1981), or in the case of Douglas McKeown’s The Deadly Spawn (1983), giddily updating Monsters from Space to include voracious face ripping and gallons of the red stuff.
Upon release in April, Vincent Canby of the New York Times called The Deadly Spawn an “amateurish, resolutely unscary, low-budget horror film”, and while points one and three are objective statements, the middle depends on the viewer; if one has a fear of flesh-eating, three-headed, multi-fanged space visitors, this will do the trick.
Amateurish and low-budget go hand in hand; made for a little under $20,000 and filmed on weekends over the course of a year, The Deadly Spawn falters in some regards where others of its ilk normally do.
Upon release in April, Vincent Canby of the New York Times called The Deadly Spawn an “amateurish, resolutely unscary, low-budget horror film”, and while points one and three are objective statements, the middle depends on the viewer; if one has a fear of flesh-eating, three-headed, multi-fanged space visitors, this will do the trick.
Amateurish and low-budget go hand in hand; made for a little under $20,000 and filmed on weekends over the course of a year, The Deadly Spawn falters in some regards where others of its ilk normally do.
- 9/7/2019
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
Initially released in 1983, Douglas McKeown's The Deadly Spawn has never had an officially licensed toy... until now. Justin Ishmael has teamed up with producer Ted Bohus to enlist the talents of artist James Groman (Madballs) to sculpt a screen accurate recreation of the toothy creature from The Deadly Spawn, and a Kickstarter campaign is now underway to fund the figure, which is accompanied by a seven-inch Larvae toy:
Press Release: "Justin Ishmael / Ish Presents the Officially Licensed Vinyl figure for the 1983 Horror Classic The Deadly Spawn. At 12:01am on Tuesday, August 28th, Ish launches a 30-day Kickstarter to help create the first ever vinyl figure for one of his favorite low budget monster movies!
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/864775491/1178653957?ref=3awhd6&token=4d36f74f
Ish, under license from producer Ted Bohus, utilized the talents of toy legend James Groman to sculpt both the full grown...
Press Release: "Justin Ishmael / Ish Presents the Officially Licensed Vinyl figure for the 1983 Horror Classic The Deadly Spawn. At 12:01am on Tuesday, August 28th, Ish launches a 30-day Kickstarter to help create the first ever vinyl figure for one of his favorite low budget monster movies!
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/864775491/1178653957?ref=3awhd6&token=4d36f74f
Ish, under license from producer Ted Bohus, utilized the talents of toy legend James Groman to sculpt both the full grown...
- 8/30/2018
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Featuring stellar, should-be-framed artwork by one of Mondo's best oft-collaborators, Phantom City Creative, the Vinyl release of Michael Perilstein's score to Douglas McKeown's creature feature is set to go on sale this Friday, January 4 at—you guessed it—a random time. Having already taken great care with their releases of Fabio Frizzi's score for The Beyond and Jay Chattaway's work on Maniac, Mondo's announcement came with the promise of even more exciting activity in the near future.
You can get a glimpse of the cover below. For more, including on sale info, follow @MondoNews on Twitter.
You can get a glimpse of the cover below. For more, including on sale info, follow @MondoNews on Twitter.
- 1/2/2013
- by samueldzimmerman@gmail.com (Samuel Zimmerman)
- Fangoria
Featuring stellar, should-be-framed artwork by one of Mondo's best oft-collaborators, Phantom City Creative, the Vinyl release of Michael Perilstein's score to Douglas McKeown's creature feature is set to go on sale this Friday, January 4 at—you guessed it—a random time. Having already taken great care with their releases of Fabio Frizzi's score for The Beyond and Jay Chattaway's work on Maniac, Mondo's announcement came with the promise of even more exciting activity in the near future.
You can get a glimpse of the cover below. For more, including on sale info, follow @MondoNews on Twitter.
You can get a glimpse of the cover below. For more, including on sale info, follow @MondoNews on Twitter.
- 1/2/2013
- by samueldzimmerman@gmail.com (Samuel Zimmerman)
- Fangoria
A toothy alien horror goes on the rampage.
A creature feature from the depths of the Eighties bargain bin, The Deadly Spawn is, by any measure of quality, really quite ridiculous. But for horror aficionados, and B-movie die-hards, director Douglas McKeown's relentless squeezing of the $25,000 budget to produce some actually quite impressive special effects, make it worthy of some note.
One dark, murky night in the woods, something falls from the sky and lands near a pair of young campers. Soon enough they, of course, are mercilessly slaughtered. Murders begin happening all...
A creature feature from the depths of the Eighties bargain bin, The Deadly Spawn is, by any measure of quality, really quite ridiculous. But for horror aficionados, and B-movie die-hards, director Douglas McKeown's relentless squeezing of the $25,000 budget to produce some actually quite impressive special effects, make it worthy of some note.
One dark, murky night in the woods, something falls from the sky and lands near a pair of young campers. Soon enough they, of course, are mercilessly slaughtered. Murders begin happening all...
- 3/27/2012
- by James Benefield
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Deadly Spawn
Stars: Charles George Hildebrandt, Tom DeFranco, Richard Lee Porter | Written by Douglas McKweon, Ted A. Bohus | Directed by Douglas McKeown
Something awful is coming, hurtling through the void in a meteor that’s on a collision course with earth. When two foolish campers witness the meteor crash and investigate they become the first, of many, victims of the Deadly Spawn. Soon the spawn descend upon the basement of a house belonging to science-geek Pete (DeFranco), his movie obsessed younger brother Charles (Hildebrandt). As the spawn grow in size, and in appetite they eat their way through Pete and Charles’ family and friends, including Aunt Millie (Ethel Michelson) and Uncle Herb (John Schmerling), along with their invited guests and a handful of Pete’s study buddy’s…
Shot in 1982, The Deadly Spawn was the brainchild of producer Ted A. Bohus who, along with writer/director Douglas McKeown crafted a film that has,...
Stars: Charles George Hildebrandt, Tom DeFranco, Richard Lee Porter | Written by Douglas McKweon, Ted A. Bohus | Directed by Douglas McKeown
Something awful is coming, hurtling through the void in a meteor that’s on a collision course with earth. When two foolish campers witness the meteor crash and investigate they become the first, of many, victims of the Deadly Spawn. Soon the spawn descend upon the basement of a house belonging to science-geek Pete (DeFranco), his movie obsessed younger brother Charles (Hildebrandt). As the spawn grow in size, and in appetite they eat their way through Pete and Charles’ family and friends, including Aunt Millie (Ethel Michelson) and Uncle Herb (John Schmerling), along with their invited guests and a handful of Pete’s study buddy’s…
Shot in 1982, The Deadly Spawn was the brainchild of producer Ted A. Bohus who, along with writer/director Douglas McKeown crafted a film that has,...
- 3/21/2012
- by Phil
- Nerdly
Douglas McKeown made one movie, and it was 1983′s Deadly Spawn, a film that tells the story of alien parasites devouring the population of a small town in Jersey. Interestingly, Tim Sullivan, a mere production assistant on Spawn, would go on to direct Detroit Rock City, as well as last year’s genre smash Chillerama. Rumor has it that Sullivan kept a prop head from Spawn, eventually giving it to Gene Simmons as a gift. Anyway…
Elite Entertainment, the remaster/reissue house responsible for the still-best-looking transfer of Night Of The Living Dead on DVD back in 1997, as well as last year’s stellar Intruder Blu, is really going all out on the Deadly Spawn “Mellinnium Edition” Blu-ray coming out January 24th. In addition to the expected picture and audio remastering, here are some highlights (take a look at the sales sheet below for more):
- Commentary track with...
Elite Entertainment, the remaster/reissue house responsible for the still-best-looking transfer of Night Of The Living Dead on DVD back in 1997, as well as last year’s stellar Intruder Blu, is really going all out on the Deadly Spawn “Mellinnium Edition” Blu-ray coming out January 24th. In addition to the expected picture and audio remastering, here are some highlights (take a look at the sales sheet below for more):
- Commentary track with...
- 1/11/2012
- by Justin
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
This one goes out to all of you old-school Fango Fiends out there...
Fangoria Entertainment and Mondo Tees are giving away 8 T-shirts featuring the awesome creature from Douglas McKeown's 1983 splatterpiece, The Deadly Spawn (as featured in Fangoria #17).
Mondo makes some of the most badass film-inspired apparel available, so your chance to win one of these is a chance to wear something truly special.
For a chance to Win, send an email to deadlyspawn@fangoria.com
Be sure to include:
Your Name Phone Number Email Address Mailing Address Age You may only enter once, and incomplete and/or duplicate entries will be discarded. Winners will be selected at random next week!
Good Luck!
Fangoria Entertainment and Mondo Tees are giving away 8 T-shirts featuring the awesome creature from Douglas McKeown's 1983 splatterpiece, The Deadly Spawn (as featured in Fangoria #17).
Mondo makes some of the most badass film-inspired apparel available, so your chance to win one of these is a chance to wear something truly special.
For a chance to Win, send an email to deadlyspawn@fangoria.com
Be sure to include:
Your Name Phone Number Email Address Mailing Address Age You may only enter once, and incomplete and/or duplicate entries will be discarded. Winners will be selected at random next week!
Good Luck!
- 5/19/2009
- by no-reply@fangoria.com (James Zahn)
- Fangoria
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