The Creature Wasn’t Nice – also known as Spaceship and Naked Space - is a 1981 (released 1983) U.S. film written and directed by Bruce Kimmel. It purports to be a comedy that satirises extraterrestrial sci-fi horror monster movies such as Alien and includes clips from American and Japanese science fiction movies.
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 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.
Plot teaser:
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 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.” Richard Scheib, 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!” John Stanley, 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’. Aside from that, which a surprising amount of people recall even if they don’t remember the film around it, it was all too mild to make an impression otherwise with an effects budget which would make an old episode of Star Trek look lavish and performances more appropriate to vaudeville.” Graeme Clark, 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:
- 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 (uncredited)
