''The Creature Wasn't Nice'' (also known as ''Naked Space'' and ''Spaceship'') is a 1983 American

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

written and directed by Bruce Kimmel. A

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

of '' Alien'', it stars

Leslie Nielsen Leslie William Nielsen (February 11, 1926November 28, 2010) was a Canadian actor and comedian. With a career spanning 60 years, he appeared in more than 100 films and 150 television programs, portraying more than 220 characters. He made his a ...

in a role similar to those in the farcical comedies ''

Airplane! ''Airplane!'' (alternatively titled ''Flying High!'') is a 1980 American disaster film, disaster comedy film written and directed by Jim Abrahams and brothers David Zucker, David and Jerry Zucker in their List of directorial debuts, directoria ...

'' and '' Naked Gun'', alongside co-stars

Cindy Williams Cynthia Jane Williams (August 22, 1947 – January 25, 2023) was an American actress. She is best known for her role as Shirley Feeney on the television sitcoms ''Happy Days'' (1975–1979), and ''Laverne & Shirley'' (1976–1982). She a ...

Gerrit Graham Gerrit Graham (born November 27, 1949) is an American stage, television, and film actor as well as a scriptwriter and songwriter. He is best known for his appearances in multiple films by Brian De Palma as well as appearances in two ''Star Trek'' ...

and

Patrick Macnee Daniel Patrick Macnee (6 February 1922 – 25 June 2015) was a British-American actor best known for his breakthrough role as secret agent John Steed in the television series ''The Avengers (TV series), The Avengers'' (1961–1969). Starting out ...

. It was released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

in 1983 under the title ''Spaceship'', to emphasize Nielsen's connection to ''Airplane!'', and on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

in 1999 under the title ''Naked Space'', to play up the connection to Nielsen's ''Naked Gun'' films. 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-style musical number called "I Want to Eat Your Face." Williams performs two musical numbers, one solo and one with Kimmel, who in 1976 had appeared with and directed her in '' The First Nudie Musical''. The film was completely re-edited by the producers, creating the version released as ''Spaceship'' and ''Naked Space'' on home video. The original cut, ''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.

Plot

Crew members of the spaceship ''Vertigo'' have a confrontation with a man-eating alien creature.

Cast

- Captain Jamieson *

- Annie McHugh * Bruce Kimmel - John *

- Rodzinski *

- Dr Stark * Ron Kurowski - The Creature *

Paul Brinegar Paul Alden Brinegar Jr. (December 19, 1917 – March 27, 1995) was an American character actor best known for his roles in three Western (genre), Western series: ''The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp'', ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', and '' ...

- Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry *

Broderick Crawford William Broderick Crawford (December 9, 1911 – April 26, 1986) was an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Willie Stark in the film ''All the King's Men'' (1949), which earned him an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Of ...

- voice of Max the Computer (uncredited) (Crawford's voice doesn't feature in ''Spaceship''/''Naked Space'' - it was replaced.)

Production

Bruce Kimmel came up with the idea for the film in 1979 and successfully pitched it to

, with whom he'd worked on '' The First Nudie Musical''. Kimmel based the film on his love of 1950s B-movie sci-fi films such as '' Target Earth'', '' Tobor the Great'' and ''

The Angry Red Planet ''The Angry Red Planet'' (also called ''Invasion of Mars'' and ''Journey to Planet Four'') is a 1959 American science-fiction film directed by Ib Melchior and starring Gerald Mohr. Melchior reportedly had an initial production budget of only $ ...

'', as well as his distaste for the more extreme horror films that had risen in popularity, such as '' Friday the 13th'' and ''

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' is a 1974 American independent horror film produced, co-composed, and directed by Tobe Hooper, who co-wrote it with Kim Henkel. The film stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, ...

'', calling them "evil" and "despicable" films. Al Schwartz of World Northal Corp (who'd released ''The First Nudie Musical'') optioned the project as his first in-house production, previously having specialized in distributing European films such as ''

Bread and Chocolate Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. It is a staple food across the world, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cu ...

'' and ''

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''. The film's special effects were handled by Magic Lantern Organization, which had also worked on '' History of the World, Part I'' and ''Flicks''.

Reception

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

gave the film one out of four stars, calling it a "misguided attempt at

horror comedy Comedy horror (also called horror comedy) is a literary, television and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as having three types: "black comedy, parody and spoof." Comedy horror can a ...

". Cavett Binion, writing for

AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...

, also reviewing the re-cut version, called the film "painfully dull .. atrick Macnee'shammy performance provides one of the film's few real laughs ..the lovely soft-shoe number "I Want to Eat Your Face" rovidesthe film's other real laugh." ''Variety'' reviewed the film under its original title at a public sneak preview in Westwood, calling it "a likeably silly send-up of outer-space horror pix like 'Alien'".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Creature Wasn't Nice 1980s science fiction comedy films 1983 comedy horror films 1980s science fiction horror films 1980s parody films American comedy horror films American science fiction comedy films 1980s English-language films American parody films American space adventure films 1983 films 1980s American films Alien (franchise) Musical horror films 1983 science fiction films English-language comedy horror films English-language science fiction horror films English-language science fiction comedy films Films about extraterrestrial life Films set on spacecraft