Dead Space Reviews

A weak derivative in the man-versus-monster genre, DEAD SPACE is the equivalent of the grade-B programmers churned out by American International Pictures during the 1950s. A botched experiment in viral research at a high-security laboratory on the distant planet Phabton (which strangely resembles the American Southwest) produces a quickly mutating creature that is a lot harder to kill than create. In the opening sequence, a lab technician cuts his finger; the next time we see him, he's out on the floor with a disfigured face, while the guilty virus throbs away. The next sequence takes place aboard a delta-winged spacecraft piloted by Tinpan (Rod Hall), a robot, while Commander Steve Krieger (Marc Singer) enjoys an on-board sauna. They receive the lab's distress call, but on the way they are attacked by three unidentified craft for no discernable reason. The attackers are dispatched easily, but our heroes' craft is slightly damaged. On Phabton, there is obvious disagreement over the lab's plight. Marissa Salinger (Laura Tate), who issued the emergency signal, is dismissed by Dr. Frank Darden (Bryan Cranston) and Director Stote (Judith Chapman), who feel they have a containable problem, not a state of emergency. They explain to Krieger that they think they've produced a virus that will fight an existing virus, Delta-Five. But when they all troop into the laboratory to examine their find, it breaks out of its glass box and attacks one of the female technicians. In the very mid-20th-century operating room to which they move the latest victim, the growing viral beast emerges from the brain-dead woman and enters the ventilation system. During the effort to seal off that system, the growing monster attacks yet another human. Oddly, given the use of lasers during the dogfight in space, Krieger and Tinpan are armed with rifles and handguns that appear to fire old-fashioned bullets that deter, but don't wound, the fugitive creature. The inefficacy of their weapons is obvious when Krieger and Tinpan venture out of the laboratory onto the planet's surface after the fanged, walking virus crashes through the building wall. In their battle with the creature, a steadfast and brave Tinpan is literally torn artificial limb from cybernetic joint, and the nasty opponent dives back into the lab's vent system, taking one of the scientists, Jill (Lori Lively), with it. Then Dr. Darden discovers a weak point in the creature's viral armor. Although the artificial entity carries any number of diseases, and to be wounded by it is a death warrant, the critter is susceptible to Delta-Five which just happens to plague the good doctor himself. He and Stote prepare darts that use his infected blood as a lethal weapon. And just in time, because the dragon-like monster with its crabby claws seems to be breeding. Darden and Stote join Krieger and Salinger in the final battle with the evil virus; the pair of proud researchers paying the ultimate price for their scientific egotism. Despite a large debt to ALIEN and STAR WARS, Fred Gallo and Michael Elliot's DEAD SPACE does not measure up to the criteria of good science fiction. The brief dogfight at the opening is purely gratuitous and inexplicable. There is the curious antique technology, and when Krieger ventures out onto the planet's surface, he wears a simple Tyvek suit without respirator or helmet, despite the supposed danger of narcosis within twenty minutes. Even the search for a means to stop the creature is halfhearted and weak, despite some dialogue that evokes thoughts of AIDS and HIV. Darden notes that while Delta-Five makes people liable to disease, the fostered virus is disease itself. This kind of pseudo-science, even as a metaphor, is doubly cheap, since it is silly as dialogue and loaded with innuendo. Underlining the derivative nature of DEAD SPACE is the characterization of Tinpan along the classic fussy lines of Edward Everett Horton, who himself served as the inspiration for C3PO in STAR WARS.