The Creature Wasn’t Nice is a 1981 (released 1983) American science fiction comedy film written and directed by Bruce Kimmel. It attempts to satirise extraterrestrial monster movies such as Alien and includes clips from American and Japanese science fiction movies. Also known as Spaceship and Naked Space
The film stars Leslie Nielsen (Forbidden Planet; Repossessed) in a role similar to his in the farcical comedy Airplane! (1980). It co-stars Cindy Williams, Gerrit Graham, and Patrick Macnee (The Howling).
It was released on VHS in 1983 under the title Spaceship to cash in Nielsen’s connection to Airplane! and released on DVD in 1999 as Naked Space to play up the connection to his Naked Gun comedies.
The movie is a low-budget comedy with simple sets and dialog wrapped around several musical numbers. In one of the scenes, the red slimy one-eyed alien monster performs a lounge-act style musical number called “I Want to Eat Your Face.”
Williams performs two musical numbers, one solo and one with Kimmel, who had previously appeared with and directed her in 1976 in The First Nudie Musical. Bizarrely, a soundtrack CD of the score by David Spear, plus Kimmel’s camp songs, was released on CD in 2007.
2012: The spaceship Vertigo and its crew encounter “an unknown and undiscovered” planet where they discover a small red jelly-like organism. Taking it on board their spaceship, they are appalled to discover the alien life form is intent on eating the crew, whilst singing lounge numbers…
Reviews:
Half the film’s raison d’etre appears to have been to indulge director/star Bruce Kimmel’s apparent liking for song-and-dance numbers …The rest of the film is crass lowbrow humour. There is a plethora of bad taste gags, some of which are astonishingly awful in their loudness and its vulgarity.” Moria
“Whatever charm this might have had is obliterated by overacting (including Ron Kurowski as the monster), flat direction and utterly dumb writing. The major blame can be put on Bruce Kimmel, who wrote, directed and plays one of the crew. Eject it through the airlock, quick!” Creature Features
“Though some would be content with a spoof of Alien with obvious gags, and there was nothing here ever less than doggedly likeable, almost all of it fell flat with everyone else, that in spite of at least one moment of inspiration when the now-grown monster is hooked up to a translator and croons the memorable ballad ‘I Want to Eat Your Face’.” The Spinning Image
“One of the worst movies ever made had three redeeming scenes which made the whole thing worth it. Because of these hilarious scenes as well as the overall ridiculous story with no attempt at making it believable, it has become a cult classic.” Someone Once Said…
Cast and characters:
Leslie Nielsen – Captain Jamieson
Cindy Williams – Annie McHugh
Bruce Kimmel – John
Gerrit Graham – Rodzinski
Patrick Macnee – Dr Stark
Ron Kurowski – The Creature
Paul Brinegar – Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry
Broderick Crawford – Voice of Max the Computer
