Creature (also known as The Titan Find and Titan Find) is a 1985 American science fiction horror film directed by William Malone and starring Stan Ivar, Wendy Schaal, Lyman Ward and Klaus Kinski. It was the first feature produced by Moshe Diamant and his company Trans World Entertainment.Malone 2012, Event occurs at 1:04 and 1:18:00
Reviews were largely negative, though Kinski's performance received some praise as did the special effects and set design. Creature has often been compared to Alien, although the gothic atmosphere and possession angle have also been likened to one of Alien forebears, Planet of the Vampires.
Plot Two geological researchers for the American multinational corporation NTI find an ancient alien laboratory on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. In the lab is an egg-like container which is keeping an alien creature alive. The creature emerges and kills the researchers. Two months later, the geologists' spaceship crashes into the space station Concorde in orbit around Earth's Moon, its pilot having died in his seat.
NTI dispatches a new ship, the Shenandoah, to Titan. Its crew, consisting of Captain Mike Davison, Susan Delambre, Jon Fennel, Dr. Wendy H. Oliver, David Perkins and Beth Sladen, is accompanied by the taciturn security officer Melanie Bryce. While in orbit, the crew locate a signal coming from the moon—the distress call of a ship from the rival West German multinational Richter Dynamics. The ground collapses beneath their landing site, dropping the Shenandoah into a cavern and wrecking it. When radio communication fails, a search party is sent out to contact the Germans.
In the West German ship, they find the egg-like container and the dead bodies of the crew. The creature appears and kills Delambre when she lags behind the escaping group. Fennel goes into shock at the sight and Bryce sedates him. When they return to their own ship, the Americans find that one of the West Germans, Hans Rudy Hofner, has snuck aboard. He tells them his crew was slain by the creature, which was buried with other organisms as part of a galactic menagerie. He proposes returning to his ship to get explosives, but the crew are unwilling to risk it.
The creature's undead victims are controlled by the creature through parasites. Unsupervised in the medbay, Fennel sees the undead Delambre through a porthole and follows her outside. She strips naked, and he stands transfixed while she removes his helmet. He asphyxiates, and then she attaches an alien parasite to his head. Now under alien control, Fennel sends a transmission to his crewmates, inviting them over to the German ship. Hofner and Bryce are sent to get some air tanks for the Shenandoah and stand guard over it, while the rest of the crew go over to the Richter ship. Hofner and Bryce stop over at the menagerie on their way, and are attacked by Delambre. The rest of the crew find Fennel with a bandage on his head to conceal his parasite. Davison insists that medical officer Oliver examine his head, so Fennel has her accompany him to the engineering quarters to feed her to the creature. Davison and Perkins notice Fennel does not sweat and go check on them. They find Oliver has been decapitated by the creature. Perkins blows up Fennel's head with his pistol.
Sladen runs into an infected Hofner. She escapes the ship, and in her haste, only puts on her helmet after exiting. Perkins spots her outside and opens the airlock. Now unconscious, Sladen is carried in by Hofner to lure the others. They fight, and Davison defeats Hofner by ripping off his parasite. The three survivors formulate a plan to electrocute the creature with the ship's fusion modules, which can only be accessed by going through the engineering quarters.
Alarms sound as a creature makes its way through the ship, committing sabotage. Sladen and Davison construct the electrocution trap, while Perkins goes to the computer room to monitor the creature. The creature arrives, and they apparently electrocute it to death. However, when Davison leaves, it captures Sladen.
Davison and Perkins follow her screaming and find her locked inside engineering. Studying the ship's blueprints, they find another entrance to engineering. Perkins lures away the creature while Davison retrieves Sladen. On the way, Perkins locates one of the bombs Hofner mentioned. The creature jumps him. Dying, Perkins attaches the bomb to the creature and sets a countdown so Davison can jettison it through the airlock. It climbs back aboard, however, so Davison tackles it, throwing himself out the airlock. When the bomb fails to explode, Bryce appears and shoots it, which sets it off and kills the creature. She recovers Davison and reunites with Sladen, who dresses Davison's wounds. The trio leaves Titan aboard the West German ship.
Cast Source: Stan Ivar as Mike Davison Wendy Schaal as Beth Sladen Lyman Ward as David Perkins Robert Jaffe as Jon Fennel Diane Salinger as Melanie Bryce Annette McCarthy as Dr. Wendy H. Oliver Klaus Kinski as Hans Rudy Hofner Marie Laurin as Susan Delambre
Production Development and writing Distributor William Dunn, a friend of director William Malone's, informed him that his colleague Moshe Diamant of Trans World Entertainment was looking to venture into production, and was willing to hear pitches. Although Trans World brass was interested in a creature feature in the mold of his first film Scared to Death, Malone pushed for a dystopian story akin to Blade Runner, called Murder in the 21st Century. The executives initially went along, but when he delivered his screenplay in January 1984, they rejected it due to limited commercial appeal, and asked him to come up with a new pitch at a single night's notice. Malone unearthed the first couple of pages of an unfinished screenplay from his personal archive, which his backers immediately greenlit. The original script, had more of a gothic, space vampire theme. The Titan Find was Malone's chosen title. His co-writer, under the pseudonym Alan Reed, was effects specialist Robert Short, who had already seconded Malone on Scared to Death. Dunn made his debut as a producer, while Harry Mathias made his feature debut as a cinematographer.Mathias 2016, p. 222
A collector of everything Forbidden Planet, Malone inserted easter eggs into Creature. The opening makes an allusion to a race of aliens that traveled the universe millennia ago and collected species across their travels, which mirrors the Krell's backstory in Forbidden Planet. In addition, the characters of Doctor Wendy H. Oliver (initials W.H.O.) and Beth Sladen (Elizabeth Sladen) are references to Doctor Who.Malone 2012, Event occurs at 33:00 Sladen suggests a way to kill the creature based on The Thing from Another World. One of the characters is also called Delambre, the name of the protagonist's family in The Fly.Malone 2012, Event occurs at 25:40 Originally, the demise of the German crew was not explored in much detail, but when Klaus Kinski was cast, Malone was asked to rewrite the script to accommodate a major German character.
Casting Due to the film's modest budget, most of the actors were relative unknowns. Patti Davis, daughter of U.S. president and former actor Ronald Reagan, auditioned for the film, but she came surrounded by Secret Service agents and, although she gave a good reading, Malone thought her entourage could disrupt the film's tight schedule and passed on her.Malone 2012, Event occurs at 54:15 About one and a half weeks before the shoot, the director was informed that the producers had splurged extra money to hire Klaus Kinski and add prestige to the production. Kinski was at first quite committed to his role, sitting down with the director to discuss the script and suggesting minor changes.Malone 2012, Event occurs at 40:15 The German took the role for his son Nanhoï, who was a fan of space adventure films.
Production and creature design The visual effects were overseen by Larry Benson's L.A. Effects Group, a fledgling shop featuring many of the same people who had worked on Jaws 3D with Private Stock Effects. Robert Skotak served as director of visual effects, while his brother Dennis was the visual effects director of photography. Earlier in their career, the two brothers had been pillars of New World Pictures' effects lab, and as such had experience working with James Cameron on the similar Galaxy of Terror. This would lead to L.A. Effects' hiring for Aliens shortly after Creature.
Robert Skotak doubled as the film's storyboard artist and production designer, and was responsible for most of the space architecture. The German ship was given an expressionist look with grey tones and protruding shapes to contrast with its American counterpart. The light board seen in the German ship's communication room is a replica of the one seen in The Invisible Boy and several other horror films. Specific elements were suggested by Malone, such as the American ship's exterior, which he based on a Krell powering device seen in Forbidden Planet.Malone 2012, Event occurs at 7:50 Malone also convinced Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to lend him original artifacts from that film to decorate the Titan lab, and imply that his creature was a specimen discovered by the Krell during their space travels.Malone 2012, Event occurs at 31:50 Other props, such as helmets, were made by Malone's own effect shop, The Dartford Company.Malone 2012, Event occurs at 21:40 The graphics seen on the film's computers were contributed by Robert Alvarez, a veteran animator at Hanna-Barbera.Malone 2012, Event occurs at 14:35 The budget reserved for set dressing was limited, with art director Michael Novotny pegging it at about $120,000.
The main monster was also designed by Robert Skotak. It was a lengthy process and Malone rejected a number of early concepts, some because they would have been impractical on the film's budget.Malone 2012, Event occurs at 55:10 One of these, which evokes an insect, can be glimpsed in Cinefantastique contemporary coverage of the film. The final creature is more saurian-like, with the Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas comparing it to Godzilla. The team building the suit and miniatures was led by Doug Beswick, who too would go on to work on Aliens. Bruce Zahlava, an employee of Malone's effects shop, designed the make-up effects, including the head parasite.Malone 2012, Event occurs at 50:00 Jill Rockow, who was recommended by her mentor Dick Smith for her skills in prosthetics application, was hired to assist him.
Filming and post-production Due to the project's late increase in scope, no dedicated film studio could be booked in time. It was therefore decided to erect the sets inside a disused industrial warehouse near Burbank Airport. No exteriors were used. A total of twenty-four sets were built.Malone 2012, Event occurs at 1:13:20 Malone's MGM connections once again came through with some used set panels.Malone 2012, Event occurs at 12:30 and 1:02:40 The shoot was delayed by thirteen days to allow some late tweaks to the creature, which was as much as the production could allow. Principal photography began on June 25, 1984, and lasted slightly more than eight weeks.Malone 2012, Event occurs at 6:11
While Malone found the cast more motivated in Kinski's presence, Kinski proved true to his reputation and was difficult to work with. He sometimes refused to show up for the lengthy make-up sessions, forcing Rockow to carry him to the make-up room. A make-up girl was groped, and when Kinski's agent was called about it, he appeared unsurprised.Mathias 2016, p. 223 The actor also groped co-star Diane Sallinger in a scene that remains in the final cut and, although this is not suggested by the camera coverage, is said to have been unscripted.Mathias 2016, p. 225 Furthermore, Kinski often refused to follow his marks, leaving part of his footage out of focus and unusable.