Creature (1985)

Perhaps no other actor embodied the spirit and virtue of direct to video more than DTVC Hall of Famer Klaus Kinski. He chose his films based on how quickly he could shoot his scenes and get paid. He may have been one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, but because his films were seldom recognized by the Academy, he's often written off as an eccentric. When offered the role of the German villain in Raiders of the Lost Ark, he turned it down after reading the script, saying is was "as moronically shitty as so many other flicks of its ilk." ("Klaus Kinski Trivia" http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001428/bio)

It is with this framework in mind that I approach every Kinski film, including The Creature. My buddy picked this up at a used video store last summer. He's an even bigger Kinski guy than I am; he and his girlfriend even have a Kinski magnet on their fridge. (They also have a Joe Estevez).

The Creature is about a group of American scientists sent to the Jupiter moon Titan by a corporation to beat out their German competitors to its resources. The crew crash lands, finds most of the Germans dead, and tries to take control of their ship to get back home. Kinski awaits them there, and they find out the Germans were killed by some mysterious extraterrestrial creature. The crew is picked off one-by-one, until the ones left can finally kill the thing. We think.

Kinski's great in this. He's creepy and mysterious, and we know it's just a matter of time before he puts his slimy hands on the females in the crew. He describes the depth of every one's peril with disturbing precision while he eats a sandwich. It's vintage Kinski.

Unfortunately, he's barely in it. When he's gone, we're left with a bad cross between Alien and The Thing--with no Wilford Brimley. I guess Kinski would've taken this role because he was in it so little, but where does that leave us, his fans? Up shit's creek without a paddle, I guess.

Don't pay more than a buck or two for this. The only reason to buy it is for Kinski, and he's in it so little, it's barely worth more than that. You may want to rent it, but again, with such a low Kinski volume, it may not be worth wasting a rental on. I don't know what would happen if this was on TV, because it's pretty gory. It may be edited, so be warned if you're into bad horror/sci-fi.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088961/

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