Alien Dead | |
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Directed by | Fred Olen Ray |
Screenplay by |
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Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Fred Olen Ray [1] |
Edited by | Mark Barrett [2] |
Music by | |
Production company | Firebird Pictures Production [2] |
Running time | 87 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Alien Dead is an American horror film 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 among a cast of unknowns. It was filmed in 1980 and released to home video in 1985. Reviews from Variety , Kim Newman and other retrospective horror guides have been negative, noting low budget and bad acting.
This article needs an improved plot summary.(December 2015) |
A meteor strikes a houseboat in the swamps near a southern town. 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 is happening to people once they start disappearing.
Alien Dead was made in Florida in 1980 for $12,000. [3] [4] Buster Crabbe was paid $2,000 for his role in the film, [4] one-third less than his salary for the 1945 Western Prairie Rustlers . [4] 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. [5]
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." [6] The film was released on home video in the United Kingdom by 1983. [7]
The film went direct-to-video in 1985. [2] [4] The film has been released on VHS by both Academy Home Entertainment and Genesis Home Video with an 87-minute running time [1]
Variety reviewed the VHS release of the film, declaring it "an amateurish monster film.". [4]
Steven Puchalski describes the film a "third rate Night of the Living Dead " with laughable effects, though he calls it "eminently watchable for schlock fanatics". [8] In a negative review, David Johnson of DVD Verdict states that the gore is sparse and the story boring. [9] Kim Newman 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 1950s repertory company". [10]
Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe II was an American two-time Olympic swimmer and film and television actor. He won the 1932 Olympic gold medal for 400-meter freestyle swimming event, which launched his career on the silver screen and later television. He starred in a variety of popular feature films and movie serials released between 1933 and the 1950s, portraying the top three syndicated comic-strip heroes of the 1930s: Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers. In 1983 Crabbe died of a heart attack in Arizona.
Attack of the Giant Leeches is an independently made, 1959 black-and-white science fiction-horror film, produced by Gene Corman and directed by Bernard L. Kowalski. It stars Ken Clark, Yvette Vickers, Bruno VeSota and Jan Shepard. The screenplay was written by Leo Gordon. The film was released by American International Pictures on a double bill with A Bucket of Blood, and was retitled Demons of the Swamp for its UK release. Later, in some areas in 1960, Leeches played on a double bill with the Roger Corman film House of Usher.
Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers is a 1988 American black comedy horror film directed by Fred Olen Ray, and starring Gunnar Hansen, Linnea Quigley, Jay Richardson and Michelle Bauer. It is known as a B-movie.
Fred Olen Ray is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter of more than 200 low-to-medium-quality feature films in many genres, including horror, science fiction, action/adventure, erotic thrillers, crime dramas, and holiday films.
Dementia 13, known in the United Kingdom as The Haunted and the Hunted, is a 1963 independently made black-and-white horror-thriller film produced by Roger Corman, and written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola in his feature film directorial debut. The film stars William Campbell and Luana Anders with Bart Patton, Mary Mitchell, and Patrick Magee. It was released in the United States by American International Pictures during the fall of 1963 as the bottom half of a double feature with Corman's X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes.
Invasion of the Blood Farmers is a 1972 horror film directed by Ed Adlum and written by Adlum and Ed Kelleher.
Jerry Warren was an American film director, producer, editor, screenwriter, cinematographer, and actor. Warren grew up wanting to get into the film business in Los Angeles, California. He appeared in small parts in a few 1940s films such as Ghost Catchers, Anchors Aweigh, and Unconquered.
Atlas is a 1961 peplum film directed by Roger Corman and starring Michael Forest and Frank Wolff. It was filmed in Greece. Corman called it "my last attempt to do a big picture on a low budget." Writer Charles B. Griffith said "Atlas was a mess. It was a doomed project. "
Deep Space is a 1988 sci-fi horror film directed by Fred Olen Ray, starring Charles Napier, Ann Turkel and Bo Svenson. Napier stars a cop trying to stop the murderous rampage of an escaped creature engineered by the government.
The Brain Leeches is a 1978 American low-budget science fiction exploitation film directed by Fred Olen Ray and starring Paul Jones, Marcia Scott, and Ray Starr. It has a running time of 55 minutes, and was completed on a budget of $298.00. The film was shown publicly only once, although it has since become available through distributors. The project proved to be a turning point in the careers of two of the principals.
Forever Evil is a 1987 American horror film directed by Roger Evans, who also co-edited the film. It stars Red Mitchell, Tracey Huffman, and Charles L. Trotter.
Prison Ship, also known as Star Slammer, Adventures of Taura, Part 1 , Starslammer: The Escape and Prison Ship Star Slammer, is a 1986 American science fiction film directed by Fred Olen Ray.
Steve Latshaw is an American screenwriter, producer and director. He has written a number of films for Jim Wynorski and Fred Olen Ray.