In addition to the usual reviews and comments you would find on a horror movie blog, this is also a document of the wonderfully vast horror movie section of the video store I worked at in my youth.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Charles In Charge.

A few days ago, I rolled out the trailer for one of my recent acquisitions, Fred Olen Ray's Deep Space.


I've got stacks and stacks of unwatched VHS in my collection, so I've recently been making an effort to go through some of them.

Wow, Deep Space has got some personality to it. I mean, like I said, it's definitely an Alien rip-off with a low-rent version of James Cameron's Queen front and center, but it still looks pretty darn cool. There's even plenty of reverse-camera tentacle action to boot. I also sensed some Night of the Creeps in the plot too, but that might have just been a coincidence.


Charles Napier pretty much carries the movie as Det. McLemore, your typical loose cannon cop. He's tough as nails, if only because he gets shot in the first scene and barely acknowledges it for the rest of the movie, save for a teeny tiny bandage. Veterans Julie Newmar & James Booth show up for scenes that don't have any real relevance to the plot. Bo Svenson at least gets to play the Sergeant who spews out the obligatory stuff to McLemore like, “I want your gun and your badge!” and “you gotta real bad attitude, McLemore!”

Deep Space gives new meaning to the term “smoking gun”

Speaking of which, the dialogue is priceless. It's stuff like this that really makes me miss the eighties. For instance;

In response to seeing the meteor crash nearby;

Guy: “Let's check it out!”
Girl: “Are you kidding? I don't wanna get raped by some martian.”
Guy: “You should be so lucky!”

Later, after McLemore has bedded Carla, one of his co-workers (played by Ann Turkel) - who he, I shit you not, managed to seduce by dressing in a kilt and playing the bagpipes - there is some of the best pillow talk I've ever heard.

Carla: “Can I ask you a question? How close are you to solving these murders?”
McLemore: “I thought you were going to ask me if it was my first time?”
Carla: “Come on, you can level with me. We both work for the same boss.”
McLemore: “Boss? My boss is the street. Who's yours?”
Carla: “Why, you're a hard guy, aren't you?”
McLemore: (motioning to his penis) “You oughta know.”

Yes, this movie has a bit of everything. It might be lesser than some other creature features of the time, but at least it kept me entertained enough not to care. A Fred Olen Ray specialty, wouldn't you say?

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