Deep Space (1991)

 Yeah, these late 80s and early 90s no-budget B-movies wear their inspirations/influences and very much reveal in every frame what little money is there in the production. Today's generation can find so much on Netflix, incredible, big-budget, high caliber science fiction, among other streaming sites. So why would I bother with a 72 minute Marc Singer Alien rip-off from 1991? I grew up with this junk. I watched it all the time. There were a lot of them, too. Admittedly, Singer is an old favorite from the days of Beastmaster and V. So I have a soft spot for him. And I have a soft spot for robot sidekicks. Bryan Cranston as a dying scientist hoping to find a cure for a deadly virus, unfortunately and tragically creating a creature out of another virus, has an early credit in this film. I'm sure this is a good giggle or embarrassment for Cranston. Singer braves bad atmospheric conditions outside the installation without a helmet which was odd. And his suit is even damaged. Probably not enough time to worry about a tighter script. The Big Bad is shown in a lab all webbed with this giant lobster claws...yeah, the smoke and mirrors before this were incorporated for the very reason of not revealing just how poor the creature effects were. There just wasn't enough money. Even when it was clear the films were beneath him, Singer had that *something* similar to Jan-Michael Vincent. It's hard to put a finger on it. A presence, some charisma. 2/5

The film was available on Tubi so I was like, what the heck?

Delta 5 is a disease which has no cure and kills whoever has contracted it, with spaceman("freelance controller") Marc Singer landing on a research station containing scientists attempting to find a cure. A cultured creature(a "metamorphic mutant") breaks loose ala ALIEN and starts attacking crew members. The creature infects those it slashes with a flesh-eating virus that ravages the body relatively quickly and so avoiding it's mandible claws are a must. Singer's guns seem to have little to no effect on the creature so another method will have to be discovered pronto or else no one will be able to survive.

DEAD SPACE is umpteenth movie to use BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS footage of battles in space(Singer encounters some "resistance" while answering the distress signal which lands him in hot water)and probably features Roger Corman sets. You have the chest bursting scene where the mutant breaks from it's human shell(the creature, in it's initial infantile form, invaded a victim through the nostril of her nose!) and continues to grow at an alarming rate(examples which mirror ALIEN, also). The uniqueness of this sci-fi horror's creature is that it is a virus which needs to kill because that's what it is designed to do. A virus kills cells and humans, as you know, have plenty of them. It travels through the science installation's vent system and becomes such a nuisance that anyone who has the misfortune of ending up in the same room with it normally doesn't last very long. As other like-minded individuals, I seek after low budget 80's sci-fi creature features, which rip off hits like ALIEN, producing clones on a smaller scale with B-movie casts. DEAD SPACE operates in this fashion which is why I enjoyed it more than the mainstream crowd who would probably find this laughable junk not worthy of their time. Director Fred Gallo shoots around the rubber creature as much a possible, attempting to make it scary, even though the grand reveal(and this is often this case) turns out to be a bit underwhelming. It does allow Singer to play hero, and he gets to show off his muscular physique for the ladies. Singer has a partner in a robot who operates under his command(basically a man with props glued to a uniform)he calls "tinpan". - September 2010