Bloodtype Online

    The folks over at Severin Films have really outdone themselves this time around with their release of "The Beast in Space".  Severin does a really great job when it comes to the titles that release, considering all of the care they put into remastering and restoring some really oddball sexploitation films.  This one though might be the most out there film that I've ever seen them put out though.  "The Beast in Space" is very not only completely different from the things that they've put out in the past, but they really deserve a lot of credit for putting something like this out simply because it's so odd.  Plus, it's a must see for fans of Sci-fi films because I'd be willing to bet that there haven't been a lot of films made that are like this one.  Even if they are, I certainly haven't ran into or even heard that much about them.

    "The Beast in Space" starts off just about right off the bat with it's hilariousness.  It begins with a man walking into a space bar and you can tell within about 10 seconds that he's there for two reasons.  The initial one seems to be that he wants to get drunk.  Secondly, he's trying to get laid and immediately fixes his eye on a space fox sitting in the corner all by herself.  Of course not only do we get that in the mix almost immediately, but we get to see the mustached man in action.  Quickly he's managed to get himself into a situation at the bar where several of the patrons want to engage in simple fisticuffs.  Little did they realized that the man could kick some serious ass.  Now you're probably asking yourself so far, what the hell does this have to do with the movie?  Well outside of the fact that it all happens in the film, it honestly has very little to do with the story.  The mustached man is actually Captain Larry Madison, a space ship captain that travels into space looking for a rare metal called Antalium.  Not only that but he's completely obsessed with hooking up with as many women as he can.  Nothing wrong with that when you're a Space Captain right?   Well Captain Madison actually gets a new mission to go to another planet to find more Antalium, but when they get there it's much different than they were expecting.

    This movie really had me from about the first 10 minutes filled with bad space outfits and fight fights.  I really had a great time watching the majority of this because it's honestly a totally nonsensical film that doesn't follow any type of convention.  It's like director Alfonso Brescia (credited as Al Bradley) had a checklist of things that he wanted to get into the film and just wrote them into the script.  Regardless of that, this one has to honestly be seen to be believed as it's incredibly bizarre from the first scene in the movie and it only keeps getting weirder and weirder.  Just some of the strange things that you can look forward to seeing in this is a half man, half beast, a giant angry ass robot, women who get turned on by seeing horses doing each other, and much more can be expected in this zany oddity.

    I've read that this movie is considered an "unofficial" sequel of sorts to the Walerian Borowczyk film "The Beast" from 1975, and even though I haven't seen that movie I am aware of it and I have no idea how this could be a sequel at all.  I'm sure it's just in the name of the film that it relates to, but as far as story and structure I'm guessing that it's completely different.

    The main issue that I had with this movie though is that the beginning and end are excellent but the pacing in the middle of the movie is a bit off.  It doesn't totally kill the movie or anything, but I think it would have been better if the running time was trimmed down as well. 

    Also just for reference sake this is a review of the "unrated" version that Severin Films is releasing.  There is also a XXX version of the movie available directly from Severin Films as well for those who were interested.  I've never seen it and I have no idea if it would positively or negatively affect this film.  Although I do have to say that after seeing the "unrated" cut of the movie that I wouldn't imagine that I'd have to see the XXX cut, since this one was enjoyable on it's own. 

    Overall I would recommend "The Beast in Space" as one hell of a fun Sci-Fi/Sexploitation hybrid.  I haven't seen much like it and although it is certainly cheesy at times it's still a pretty fun flick.  Recommended.

Rating - ***

-Ed Demko