TOMB OF NOSTALGIA: NIGHTFLYERS (1987)

NIGHTFLYERS (1987)

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Despite some outward pretensions and artsy direction, this 80s sci-fi/thriller is basically an old fashioned haunted house flick wrapped in Star Trek-ish sets and 80s style hairdos. The story, based on a novella by George R.R. Martin, tells of an eclectic group of explorers brought together to search for a mythological sentient being said to be traveling through space on an eternal voyage. The team commission the space freighter Nightflyer to take them to a point where they believe they can rendezvous with this being. The ship’s captain, Royd (Michael Praed) appears only by hologram and is a trans-sex clone of the ship’s former captain who he refers to as his ‘mother’. When Royd, whose lived on the ship all his life, falls for hot mission coordinator Miranda Dorlac (Catherine Mary Stewart) he decides he wants to leave the Nightflyer and that infuriates dear old ‘mom’, whose consciousness runs the ship’s computer. Now the vengeful spirit decides to eliminate the bad influences upon her ship by possession, accident and any means necessary to keep Royd with her.

Despite being a very mixed bag, I kinda like Nightflyers. It has a lot of flaws, but there is a lot to like, too, especially all the 80s nostalgia and familiar faces. On the downside, the film does start out with an interesting sci-fi premise, which it totally jettisons for a routine ‘smothering deceased mother’ haunted house story. Director Robert Collector helms Robert Jaffe’s screenplay with a serious and sometimes arty hand which is fine for starters, but makes it all the more obvious when the film starts to get silly. The very dire tone is betrayed when the film delves into character possession, jabbering headless corpses and the notion that mom is jealous over a son who is also her transgendered clone. Though, it adds to the fun that the cast recites some ridiculous dialog with completely straight faces. On the positive side the film is a bit different and since it came out at a more superfluous time in 80s filmmaking, I give them credit for trying to do something on a more serious sci-fi level. All the more curious as to why they let it degenerate into such a goofy ghost story in it’s second act. There is some nice model work from Fantasy II…who did the FX for The Terminator…the abundant model work may seem quaint by today’s CGI heavy standards, but I find it very charming. There is some surprising gore throughout the film, too and there are a lot of 80s familiar faces like Stewart, Praed, Lisa (Prince Of Darkness) Blount and Michael Des Barres as the team’s psychic. While the rest of the cast play things very poker-faced, Des Barres gives his Jon Winderman some delightfully refreshing over-the-top. Glad someone got the tone of the material.

Overall, I like this flick, but it could have been a lot better in two ways. Either stick to it’s more serious premise of the quest to find space entities and do something along the lines of a low budget 2001: A Space Odyssey, or recognize that it’s a story about a spaceship haunted by the spirit of a jealous dead mother and run with it. Nightflyers wants it both ways and it doesn’t quite work. Despite it’s flaws though, some heavy 80s nostalgia comes to save the day and there is still plenty to like, despite how goofball things get in it’s second half. The film was a bomb back in 1987 and is a bit hard to find these days, but still deserves a decent blu-ray release at some point. A curiosity worth looking at and not without it’s intentional, and unintentional, entertainment value.

3 (out of 4) delightfully 80s hairdos.

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TOMB OF NOSTALGIA: CREATURE (1985)

CREATURE (1985)

Creature is an entertaining enough B-movie inspired by Alien and co-written and directed by William Malone, who helmed the House On Haunted Hill remake and the recent Parasomnia. This was another flick I was fortunate enough to catch in a theater…where movies like this should be seen…when it came out. It was at the long gone Loews Harmon Cove in Seacaucus NJ, if memory serves and I remember my friends and I having a fun time with it. A recent re-visit shows it’s still fun and has some nice added 80s nostalgia now too.

The film takes place in a future where two rival corporations are heading into space to plunder the resources of other planets. As it opens, a ship from the NTI company has found a structure on the Saturn moon of Titan and in it, specimens of alien life…and find out the hard way that freeing one of those specimens, even by accident, is a fatally bad idea. Enter the crew of the NTI corporation ship Shenandoah, who are on their way to investigate the ruins found by the previous ill-fated crew. On Titan, the Shenandoah lands on weak ground and crashes through beneath the surface, stranding the crew on the inhospitable moon. Upon investigating the site, they find an abandoned Richter Dynamics ship, a rival German company, and they find not only a ship filled with corpses, but a very nasty creature with the ability to manipulate it’s victims with small symbiotic creatures. Now the crew must battle not only this vicious and intelligent space monster, but their own dead as well. Worse still, the German ship is their only hope of escape and their fierce and seemingly impervious adversary has made the craft it’s lair.

Malone directs Creature very competently and with a moderate pace. He has a nice visual style and while the film could have used a bit more intensity and suspense, it still entertains. The cast are all fine, no awards, but they try to give their thinly written characters a little life and it helps. Soap actor Stan Ivar plays ship captain and story hero Mike Davidson. Adorable Wendy Schaal makes a feisty heroine as crewman Beth Sladen, who is also Davidson’s girlfriend. Lyman Ward is the mission commander and corporate douche, but contrary to the stereotype, turns out to not be such a bad guy when the chips are down. Diane Salinger plays her security office Bryce as a woman of few words and a big gun, but gives her a bit of charm when the character’s guard is down. Also adequate are supporting players Robert Jaffe, Marie Laurin and Annette McCarthy, who try to give their characters some personality in limited roles. There is also an extended cameo by Klaus Kinski, as an eccentric survivor of the ill-fated German ship. While Malone guides his cast through what is an attempt at a somewhat serious sci-fi/ horror, there is plenty of gore and a splash of nudity, courtesy of Miss Laurin, that keeps this movie well within it’s B-movie status. Speaking of the gore, the make-up FX are quite good and as this is a pre-CGI era film, our slimy villain is delightfully a man in a rubber suit that is equal parts Giger’s Alien and raptor (and almost 10 years before Jurassic Park). The creature is kept in shadow and fog most of the time though, as are most of the sci-fi show level sets, thus hiding their inadequacies and adding atmosphere. For a low budget flick the visual FX are pretty good and the fact that the production’s heart is in the right place helps make this a very likable monster movie, despite it’s derivative story and creature.

Sure, it has it’s shortcomings, could be a bit more energetic and the pace could be a bit quicker, but it’s a charming little movie with some nice gory action and some cute heroines with nostalgic 80s hairdos. I’d rather watch a B-movie with a director who really tries, like this one, than a bloated mega-million CGI epic by a director on autopilot…*cough* Avatar *cough*. A charming and fun little movie for fans of 80s B-movies and horror/sci-fi before CGI.

Rated 3 (out of 4) Giger-esque space creatures!

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