My review was written in June 1991 after watching the movie on video cassette.
An okay clone of "Alien", "Dead Space" has been in regional release since January but is mainly for sci-fi fans who haunt video stores.
Debuting helmer Fred Gallo has carefully watched the Ridley Scott 1979 monster hit and has smoky sets, chest-bursting monsters and the other ingredients. Film was shot as "Biohazard", a moniker used in 1983 by Fred Olen Ray.
Marc Singer toplines as a space jockey investigating a distress call from a research lab on the planet Phabon. Beautiful genetic researcher Laura Tate is worried after a research assistant died working on creting a new virus to combat the deadly Delta 5 virus. The other scientists, led by Judith Chapman and Bryan Cranston, want to hush up the incident and continue their research.
It turns out that the new virus is a "metamorphic mutant", changing its own genetic structure as it grows. Soon it gets loose, keeps changing form and starts killing people. Gabe Bartalos' makeup effects are okay in the gore department, but the little puppets representing the monster aren't scary. Full-grown monster resembles a huge praying mantis.
Leads Singer and Tate make an attractive team. Outer space scenes look like stock footage from "Battle Beyond the Stars", a 1980 production from Roger Corman who backed this one as well.
