Evil Spawn

Now, I knew about the movie from its title, but I have never actually had the opportunity to sit down and watch it. So when the opportunity presented itself here in 2024, of course I opted to check out the movie. Maybe I had been missing out on some late 1980s gold.

Turns out that I had indeed not been missing out on gold here. The movie was semi-watchable at best.

I am sure that writers Kenneth J. Hall and Ted Newsom put together what they deemed was a good script. But the transition from script to screen just wasn't successful. It was a rather mundane movie to sit through. And I have to admit that I didn't care one bit about any of the characters, much less did I actually remember their names.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie. But it should be said that the acting performances were fair. Nothing grand or memorable here, but it was fair enough given the material they had to work with.

Visually then "Evil Spawn" wasn't a good movie. The effects were cheesy. But not among the worst of effects I've seen in movies, and that is even in movies newer that "Evil Spawn".

The intro sequence with Fred Olen Ray and his wife was seriously some of the worst garbage I've ever seen. I don't understand why that rubbish even made it to the movie. It was so cringeworthy and painful to witness.

"Evil Spawn" is not a movie that I would recommend to horror sci-fi fans, nor to fans of the cheesy 1980s movies for that matter. And it certainly isn't a movie that I will return to watch a second time.

My rating of "Evil Spawn", from directors Kenneth J. Hall, Ted Newsom and Fred Olen Ray, lands on a three out of ten stars.

EVIL SPAWN (1987) *1/2 (Out of 4*'s) Director: Kenneth J. Hall. Bobbie Bresee, Drew Godderis, John Terrence, Donna Shock, John Carradine.

An underground woman scientist offers a has-been actress a drug that promises to restore her youth. After second guessing the idea and finally taking it, she gets sick and turns into a beast at night and begins killing whoever is nearby!

Shamelessly makes you feel sorry for the lead character. The acting is shy and somewhat overdone. The neat special effects look much better on the back of the video box than they do during the movie.

Not oscar material, but all movies like these are great for parties!

My review was written in September 1987 after watching the movie on Camp video cassette.

"Evil Spawn", previously titled "Alive by Night" and "Deadly Sting", is a tolerable, poverty row variation on Roger Corman's 1959 Susan Cabot-starrer "The Wasp Woman". Topliner Bobbie Bresee provides enough flesh and ham acting to please camp followers (pic appropriately is released by Camp Video, from Fred Olen Ray's new AIP production banner.

In a script far too overloaded with in-jokes on the world of low-budget filmmaking, Bresee toplines as Lynn Roman, a fading superstar actress who jumps at the chance to look younger via a formula given her by unscrupulous scientist Evelyn Avery (played by Donna Shock, a pseudonym for Dawn Wildsmith). Side effects turn her, werewolf-style, into an insect-like monster.

Though some of the monsters on view are rubbery, pic's gore is impressive and combines with enough nudity to keep the hardcore horror fans alert, however, pic's jokes are unfunny and storyline is a drag. Besides Bresee, a cult figure from "Mausoleum", Wildsmith, from "Surf Nazis Must Die", is an elegant villainess. John Carradine appears in one scene of "generic footage", a lengthy dialog opposite Wildsmith in which both thesps speak entirely in euphemisms, suitable for splicing into any thriller film.

A scientist is locked in the laboratory by his assistant Evelyn Avery (Dawn Wildsmith) and a mutating creature attacks him. He turns into a monster and then he attacks a young man outside the building, but is killed by his girlfriend that crashes her car on him. Meanwhile, the aging actress Lynn Roman (Bobbie Bresee), who is a former famous star, is fighting for a lead role in a movie directed by Mark Randall (Mark Anthony). However, Mark wants a younger actress between twenty and twenty-five years old for the role. Out of the blue, Evelyn meets Lynn and tells that her secretary Elaine (Pamela Gilbert) allowed her to meet Lynn to show an injection with a serum developed by Dr. Emil Zeitman (John Carradine) that would make her younger again. Lynn uses the experiment and turns into a monster, becoming a threat to her friends.

"Evil Spawn" is a 1987 B-movie that recalls a sci-fi from the 50's with gore and boobs. Sort of an encounter of "The Wasp Woman" with Playboy and blood. The screenplay is confused and the only thing really not good is the cameo of John Carradine that neither deserves his name in the credit not this film in his filmography. Pamela Gilbert in the swimming-pool is maybe one of the best parts of this forgettable film, released only on VHS in Brazil. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): 'Evil Spawn - A Semente do Mal" ("Evil Spawn - The Seed of Evil")

The original EVIL SPAWN was completed and released in the halcyon days of video, when just about anything that was made could find its way onto product hungry rental shelves and turn a profit for all involved. It is an okay low budget horror item. The revised and revamped ALIEN WITHIN inserts new footage with venerable genre stalwarts Richard Harrison and Gordon Mitchell, and twists the storyline in a different direction. The revised ALIEN WITHIN will be of interest to fans of these veteran actors and Fred Olen Ray. I believe Ray was involved with the original film, and ended up with the rights after some litigation, and elected to make the revisions with new footage. ALIEN WITHIN showed on TV and came out on video from a small outfit, MNTX, which also released Brett McCormick's MACON COUNTY WAR (with Dan Haggerty). I prefer the new version, but that's just my opinion.