1985’s Creature takes place in the future!

A spaceship that has just recently visited one of Saturn’s moons has crashed into a space station that is orbiting Earth’s moon.  An American corporation sends another crew up to investigate the wreck but, when they arrive, they discover that a German corporation has beat them to it.  They also discover that all of the Germans are dead, with the exception of Hans Hofner (Klaus Kinski).  Hofner claims that an alien creature killed all of the other Germans and now, the creature will be coming after the Americans as well.

Would you allow Klaus Kinski on your spaceship?  That was one of the main things that I found myself wondering as I watched Creature.  Kinski was a German actor who was widely acknowledged as being one of the best actors in the world.  For instance, Doctor Zhivago is a beautiful but very slow film that suddenly comes to life during Klaus Kinski’s fifteen minutes of screentime.  He was also widely acknowledged as being incredibly difficult to work with, prone to paranoia and wild rages.  His frequent collaborator, director Werner Herzog, has frequently talked about being tempted to kill Kinski while working with him and Kinski reportedly threatened to kill Herzog as well but the two of them still worked together because Kinski’s talent made the pain worth it.  (At least, for a while….)  It’s probably open to debate just how much of Kinski’s bad behavior was performative and how much of it was actually due to Kinski being mentally unstable but it’s also true that any experienced filmgoer knows better than to trust any character played by Klaus Kinski.

Now, it should be noted that, while Kinski was a great actor, that doesn’t always mean that he gave performances that were appropriate for the film in which he was appearing.  If Kinski got bored during shooting, he would pretty much just do whatever he wanted.  That’s the feeling that one gets while watching him in Creature.  Kinski alternates between being overly twitchy and being obviously disinterested.  When he makes his first appearance, he randomly gropes an actress, a move that was apparently not scripted.  Later, Kinski eats a sandwich and talks with his mouth full.  From the disgusted looks of the other cast members, it’s hard not to suspect that this was another improvisation on Kinski’s part.  Kinski is always watchable but his performance is still one of the weaker elements of Creature.

That’s a shame because the rest of the cast — Lyman Ward, Stan Ivar, Wendy Schaal, Robert Jaffe, Diane Salinger — all do a pretty good job of bringing their characters to life.  That Creature is essentially a rip-off of Alien is no great secret.  But the film itself still works, due to some memorably grotesque effects work, William Malone’s quickly paced direction, and the performances of the majority of the cast.  It’s an enjoyable B-movie, obviously made by people with a deep appreciation for the science fiction genre.  Usually, Kinski is the element the redeems a B-movie.  In this case, he’s almost superfluous.  The film would have worked just as well — perhaps even better — if he hadn’t shown up.

Would I let Klaus Kinski on my spaceship?

In this case, I’d tell him to wait for the next shuttle.  He’s not needed.