The Creature Wasn't Nice

The Creature Wasn't Nice (also known as Naked Space and Spaceship) is a 1983 American comedy film written and directed by Bruce Kimmel. The film is a parody of Alien. It stars Leslie Nielsen in a role similar to those in the farcical comedies Airplane and Naked Gun. It co-stars Cindy Williams, Gerrit Graham, and Patrick Macnee. It was released on VHS in 1983 under the title Spaceship to emphasize Nielsen's connection to Airplane!, and released on DVD in 1999 under the title Naked Space to play up the connection to Nielsen's Naked Gun films.

The Creature Wasn't Nice
Directed byBruce Kimmel
Written byBruce Kimmel
Produced byMark Haggard
Eilhys England
Michael S. Landes
Albert Schwartz
Alain Silver
Patrick Regan
StarringLeslie Nielsen
Bruce Kimmel
Cindy Williams
Gerrit Graham
Patrick Macnee
CinematographyDenny Lavil
Edited byDavid Blangsted
Music byDavid Spear
Distributed byAlmi Pictures (VHS)
Release date
  • July 1983 (1983-07)
Running time
88 min.
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2 million[1]

The film is a low-budget comedy with simple sets and dialogue 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 Williams in 1976 in The First Nudie Musical. The film was completely re-edited by the producers - that is what was released as Spaceship/Naked Space on home video. The original version, The Creature Wasn't Nice, was only seen at two public previews. In 2019, it was announced that both versions of the film would come to home video under its original title.

Cast

Production

Bruce Kimmel came up with the idea for the film in 1979 and successfully pitched it to Cindy Williams with whom he had previously worked on The First Nudie Musical[1] Kimmel based the film upon his love of 1950s B-movie sci-fil films such as Target Earth, Tobor the Great, and The Angry Red Planet as well as his distaste for more extreme forms of horror films that had risen in popularity such as Friday the 13th and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre calling them "evil" and "despicable" films.[1]

After being rejected by major studios, Al Schwartz of World Northal Corp. optioned the project as his first in-house production after previously having specialized in distributing European films such as Bread and Chocolate and Cousin Cousine [1] The film's special effects were handled by Magic Lantern Organization who had also worked on History of the World, Part I and Flicks.[1]

Reception

TV Guide reviewing the Spaceship version gave the film one out of four stars, calling it a "misguided attempt at horror comedy".[2] Cavett Binion, writing for Allmovie, also reviewing the re-cut version called the film "painfully dull [...] [Patrick Macnee's] hammy performance provides one of the film's few real laughs [...] the lovely soft-shoe number "I Want to Eat Your Face" [provided] the film's other real laugh."[3] Variety, reviewing the original version of the film under its original title at a public sneak preview in Westwood, called it "a likeably silly send-up of outer-space horror pix like 'Alien'".

References
  1. Counts, Kyle (December 1981). "The Creature Wasn't Nice". Cinemafantastique. Fourth Castle Micromedia. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  2. "Spaceship".
  3. "The Creature Wasn't Nice (1981) - Bruce Kimmel | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie".

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