Director – Fred Olen Ray, Screenplay – T.L. Lankford & Fred Olen Ray, Producer – Alan Amiel, Photography – Gary Graver, Music – Alan Oldfield & Robert O. Ragland, Special Effects – Kevin McCarthy, Makeup Effects – Steve Niell [Neill], Creature Effects – Sho-Glass Effects (Supervisor – Steve Patino). Production Company – Trans World Entertainment.
Cast
Charles Napier (Detective Ian McLemore), Ann Turkel (Officer Carla Sanbourn), Bo Svenson (Captain Robertson), Ron Glass (Detective Jerry Merris), Julie Newmar (Elaine Wentworth), James Booth (Dr Forsythe), Norman Burton (General Randolph), Michael Forest (Hawkins), Fox Harris (Professor Whately), Anthony Eisley (Dr Rogers), Peter Palmer (Detective Pike), William Fair (Michaelson), Jesse Dabson (Jason Ridley), Sandy Brooke (Woman in House), Susan Stokey (Susan), Elisabeth Brooks (Mrs Ridley)
Plot
A NASA probe comes down in Los Angeles and an experimental creature escapes. LAPD detective Ian McLemore is sent to the crash scene and puzzles over findings. McLemore takes two pods they find at the scene. One of these hatches into an alien creature that proceeds to kill all it comes across. Teaming up with rookie officer Carla Sanbourn, McLemore sets out to track down and eliminate the creatures.
Fred Olen Ray is one of the most prolific directors of all time with some 140 plus films to his credit between 1978 and the present. Olen Ray has almost always worked in exploitation – he started making films for the drive-in circuit, moved on into the video revolution and later cable and streaming markets. All of his films are either B-budget science-fiction, horror, action or works of softcore erotica, sometimes all of the above, although in the 2010s he has branched out into making Lifetime thrillers and family-friendly Christmas tv movies. Olen Ray was the most well-known proponent of the Scream Queens fad of the 1980s featuring minimally talented girls who would whip their tops off at the drop of a hat. One of the virtues of Olen Ray’s films are his employing a cast of former name actors, lots of genre in-jokes and sometimes an appealingly cynical sense of humour. (A full list of Fred Olen Ray’s genre films is at the bottom of the page).
Deep Space offers the not unamusing idea of the basics of Alien brought down to Earth and relocated to Los Angeles and environs and with the cast of interstellar blue collar workers replaced by cops on the LAPD trying to deal with a series of bizarre deaths. As the lead detective, Charles Napier, a regular A and B movie actor of the day in similar roles, is perfectly cast. Napier effortlessly nails the tough, grizzled, individualistic cop role and plays the part to perfection. He’s so tough and cranky he throws darts at a dartboard on his apartment wall that has a picture from Charles and Diana’s wedding pinned to the centre of it!!!
Charles Napier and alien monster
Deep Space works fairly solidly as the monster movie it is intended to be. Fred Olen Ray has an okay budget – reportedly the biggest he ever worked with – meaning that Steve Neill (albeit ignominiously credited as Steve Niell) is able to deliver some decent creature effects.
The only quibble with the monster is the changing nature of what it is – it is initially referred to as something experimental placed on a probe in orbit that comes crashing down, while later scenes keep referring to it as an alien. Part of this would appear to be that the producers insisted on the shooting of additional scenes to add a military cover-up angle whereas Olen Ray had originally conceived the monster as just an alien nasty
Fred Olen Ray has made a lengthy list of genre films. These include:- The Brain Leeches (1977), The Alien Dead/It Fell from the Sky (1980), Scalps (1983), Biohazard (1984), The Tomb (1985), The Adventures of Taura: Prison Ship Star Slammer (1985), The Phantom Empire (1986), Cyclone (1987), Beverly Hills Vamp (1988), Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988), Warlords (1988), Alienator (1990), Bad Girls from Mars (1990), Spirits (1990), Haunting Fear (1991), Scream Queen Hot Tub Party (1991), Wizards of the Demon Sword (1991), Evil Toons (1992), Little Devils (1993), Dinosaur Island (1994), Mind Twister (1994), Possessed By the Night (1994), Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfolds (1995), Cyber Zone/Droid Gunner (1995), Invisible Mom (1995), Star Hunter (1995), Night Shade (1996), Passionate Revenge/Friend of the Family II/Hell Hath No Fury (1996), Hybrid (1997), Little Miss Magic/Kidwitch (1997), Billy Frankenstein (1998), Dear Santa/My Dad Santa (1998), Illicit Dreams 2 (1998), Invisible Dad (1998), Active Stealth (1999), Fugitive Mind (1999), Invisible Mom 2 (1999), The Kid with X-Ray Eyes (1999), Prophet (1999), Critical Mass (2000), Sideshow (2000), Kept (2001), Stranded (2001), Venomous (2001), Thirteen Erotic Ghosts (2002), Final Examination (2003), Bikini-a-Go-Go/Curse of the Erotic Tiki (2004), Genie in a String Bikini (2004), Haunting Desire (2004), Teenage Cavegirl (2004), Glass Trap (2005), Tomb of the Werewolf (2005), Bikini Girls from a Lost Planet (2006), Bikini Pirates (2006), Ghost in a Teeny Bikini (2006), Bewitched Housewives (2007), The Girl With Sex-Ray Eyes (2007), Nuclear Hurricane (2007), Super Ninja Bikini Babes (2007), Polar Opposites (2008), Solar Flare (2008), Tarzeena, Queen of Kong Island (2008), Voodoo Dollz (2008), Dire Wolf (2009), Silent Venom (2009), Bikini Frankenstein (2010), Bikini Jones and the Temple of Eros (2010), Housewives from Another World (2010), Turbulent Skies (2010), Twilight Vamps (2010), Lady Chatterly’s Ghost (2011), Little Witches (2011), Rewind Time Machine (2011), Super Shark (2011), Dirty Blondes from Beyond (2012), Abner the Invisible Dog (2013), After Midnight (2014), Unwanted Guest (2016), Stage Fright (2017), The Twin (2017) and Piranha Women (2022).
