Evil Spawn

March 25, 2005

Rated: NR Runtime: 70 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Evil Spawn is a great horror/sci-fi DVD to add to your collection. A quick glance at the Vital Stats to the right of this review will reveal that, with the exception of car chases, this movie is chock full of B-Movie goodness.

Evil Spawn The movie starts with an introduction by filmmaker Fred Olen Ray (who distributes this film) and the cheesy “Night Owl Theater”. It features Fred hamming it up for the camera in a few skits with several topless women. It’s really not that funny, but did I mention the topless women?

The feature presentation begins, and a spaceship flies through outer space. Get a good look, because you won’t see it or hear it mentioned again. The next ten minutes is not very clear, as a mutant bug is released and some people die, and John Carradine is onscreen for about a minute before dying. Strangely, Carradine gets top-billing on the DVD sleeve.

Finally, the movie begins, and it has a surprisingly decent story for this type a movie. An aging starlet is discovering that Hollywood no longer wants her for leading lady roles. Then she receives an offer to be a spokesperson for a medical company that has discovered how to slow down the aging process. All she has to do is inject the hypodermic needle full of “medicine” into her arm and her wrinkles will go away. The wrinkles start to disappear, but something inside her has changed. She has become… EVIL SPAWN!!!

If I say too much more, I’ll give the story away. And at 70 minutes, the story moves along quickly. The T&A even includes full frontal, so don’t go to the fridge for another beer when the pool scene begins. There’s also plenty of gore and gunshots. In fact, I think the editor purposely spread out the T&A and blood so the viewer wouldn’t notice how poorly the sound was dubbed.

“Hey George, when them girls are talkin’, there lips are movin’ kinda funny-like.”

“Yep, Fred, I think they… Dang, look at them hooters!!”

Yes, the audio looping is awful. And the color correction is atrocious. And everything else more or less sucks, too. But it’s a consistent kind of suck, and that’s important when it comes to B-Movies. You can’t have one scene be really good, with quality lighting and sound and believable acting, and then follow it with a totally crappy scene where everything is terrible. That makes for an uneven viewing experience. As long as everything is at the same level of mediocrity, I’m happy.

The Extra Features include some behind-the-scenes footage, as well as some bloopers from “Night Owl Theater” (that feature even more T&A). The best extras of all are the bonus trailers from other B-Movies. My favorites were Invasion of the Blood Farmers and Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers. I know what you’re thinking. The producers spent all their money on drugs so they could come up with a great title and they had no money left over for the movie itself. Wrong! Judging by the trailers, these movies look to be as awesome as their titles.

Evil Spawn is a solidly entertaining piece of fluff, but “Night Owl Theater” and the bonus trailers are what make this DVD a worthy addition to your B-Movie shelf.

Posted by Chris Terranova | Filed Under 3 Stars, Bobbie Bresee, DVD, Horror, Jerry Fox, John Carradine, NR, Pamela Gilbert, Richard Harrison, SciFi