''Alien Dead'' is an American
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apo ...
directed by
Fred Olen Ray. Ray co-wrote the script with Martin Nicholas. The film involves a meteor hitting a houseboat, which causes the people on board to become zombies who eat alligators and eventually people.
The film was one of the last films featuring actor
Buster Crabbe
Clarence Linden Crabbe II (; February 7, 1908 – April 23, 1983), known professionally as Buster Crabbe, was an American two-time Olympic swimmer and film and television actor. He won the 1932 Olympic gold medal for 400-meter freestyle swimmi ...
among a cast of unknowns. It was filmed in 1980 and released to home video in 1985. Reviews from ''
Variety'',
Kim Newman
Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's '' Dracula'' ...
and other retrospective horror guides have been negative, noting low budget and bad acting.
Plot
A meteor strikes a houseboat in the swamps near a southern town populated by Yankees with fake accents. The people on the houseboat become zombies who feed on the alligators in the swamp. Once they run out of alligators, they start going for the citizens. A local scientist tries to figure out what's happening to people once they start disappearing.
Cast
*
Buster Crabbe
Clarence Linden Crabbe II (; February 7, 1908 – April 23, 1983), known professionally as Buster Crabbe, was an American two-time Olympic swimmer and film and television actor. He won the 1932 Olympic gold medal for 400-meter freestyle swimmi ...
as Sheriff Kowalski
* Raymond Roberts as Tom Corman (billed as Ray Roberts)
* Linda Lewis as Shawn Michaels
* George Kelsey as Emmet Michaels
* Mike Bonavia as Miller Haze
* Dennis Underwood as Deputy Campbell
* John Leinier as Paisley
* Rich Vogan as Krelboin
* Martin Nicholas as Doc Ellerbee (as Martin Alan Nicholas)
* Norman Riggins as Mr. Griffith
*
Nancy Kranz as Mrs. Griffith
* Shelley Youngren as the Angry Wife
Production
''Alien Dead'' was made in Florida in 1980 for $12,000.
Buster Crabbe
Clarence Linden Crabbe II (; February 7, 1908 – April 23, 1983), known professionally as Buster Crabbe, was an American two-time Olympic swimmer and film and television actor. He won the 1932 Olympic gold medal for 400-meter freestyle swimmi ...
was paid $2,000 for his role in the film,one-third less than his salary for the 1945 Western ''Prairie Rustlers''. The film was initially being filmed as ''It Fell from the Sky'' based on a script written by Marin Nicholas and the director, which was originally titled ''Swamp of the Blood Leeches''. When the writers realized they couldn't afford leech costumes, they re-wrote the script into being about human zombies.
Release
According to director Fred Olen Ray, "everything about this no-budget movie was awful." and that the film had "languished about, unsold until 1982" and that by 1991 the film had "released in the United States on no less than five different video labels." The film was released on home video in the United Kingdom by 1983.
The film went
direct-to-video
Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy wa ...
in 1985. The film has been released on VHS by both Academy Home Entertainment and Genesis Home Video with an 87-minute running time
Reception
''
Variety'' reviewed the VHS release of the film, declaring it "an amateurish monster film.".
Steven Puchalski describes the film a "third rate ''
Night of the Living Dead
''Night of the Living Dead'' is a 1968 American independent horror film directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, with a screenplay by John Russo and Romero, and starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea. The story follows seven p ...
''" with laughable effects, though he calls it "eminently watchable for schlock fanatics". In a negative review, David Johnson of
DVD Verdict
DVD Verdict was a judicial-themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. The editor-in-chief was Michael Stailey, who owned the website between 2004 and 2016, and the site employed a large editorial staff of critics, whose revi ...
states that the gore is sparse and the story boring.
Kim Newman
Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's '' Dracula'' ...
referred to the film as "cheap" and "unwatchable" and described it as part of a trend of "films made by rabid fans of ''
Famous Monsters of Filmland''" who "wind up choking on their own in-references and third-hand plots" and were stuck on "cutesy ideas like giving all the characters the names of
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...
1950s repertory company".
Footnotes
References
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External links
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{{Fred Olen Ray
American science fiction horror films
1980s horror films
American zombie films
Films directed by Fred Olen Ray
1980s English-language films
1980s American films