The Creature Wasn't Nice

Lore & Background

Bruce Kimmel conceived the film in 1979 and pitched it to Cindy Williams, with whom he had worked on The First Nudie Musical. Kimmel based the film on his love of 1950s B-movie sci-fi films such as Target Earth, Tobor the Great and The Angry Red Planet, as well as his distaste for more extreme horror films like Friday the 13th and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which he called 'evil' and 'despicable'. Al Schwartz of World Northal Corp optioned the project as his first in-house production, having previously specialized in distributing European films such as Bread and Chocolate and Cousin Cousine. The film's special effects were handled by Magic Lantern Organization, which had also worked on History of the World, Part I and Flicks.

Reader's Guide

The Creature Wasn't Nice is a minor entry in the parody film genre, notable primarily for its multiple re-titlings and re-edits by producers seeking to capitalize on Leslie Nielsen's fame from Airplane! and the Naked Gun series. The original cut was only seen at two public previews; the version released on home video as Spaceship and Naked Space was completely re-edited by the producers. The film received mixed reviews: TV Guide gave it one out of four stars, calling it a 'misguided attempt at horror comedy', while Variety reviewed the original cut at a sneak preview and called it 'a likeably silly send-up of outer-space horror pix like Alien'. Its legacy is largely as a curiosity for fans of Nielsen's comedic work and for its unusual musical numbers, including the alien's lounge-style 'I Want to Eat Your Face'.

Did You Know?

• The film was released on VHS in 1984 under the title Spaceship, and on DVD in 1999 under the title Naked Space.
• The alien creature performs a lounge-style musical number called 'I Want to Eat Your Face'.
• Broderick Crawford provided the voice of Max the Computer, but his voice was replaced in the Spaceship/Naked Space versions.
• The film's actual running time is approximately 76 minutes, though home video releases mislabel it as 88 or 91 minutes.

Creative Origins & Production

Bruce Kimmel first conceived the project in 1979, drawing on a deep affection for 1950s low-budget science-fiction pictures like Target Earth, Tobor the Great, and The Angry Red Planet. At the same time, he harbored a strong aversion to the wave of extreme horror films that had surged in popularity during that era—titles such as Friday the 13th and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which he dismissed as "evil" and "despicable." He pitched the idea to Cindy Williams, a collaborator from their 1976 work on The First Nudie Musical, and the two set out to build a comedy that would satirize the genre rather than replicate its scares. Al Schwartz of World Northal Corporation, a distributor previously known for European titles like Bread and Chocolate and Cousin Cousine, optioned the project as his studio's first in-house production. Special effects were entrusted to the Magic Lantern Organization, a team that had also contributed to History of the World, Part I and the cult film Flicks. The picture was filmed and completed in 1981, well before its eventual public release.

The Re-editing & Release Saga

Despite being finished in 1981, the film did not reach audiences in the form Kimmel intended. Producers essentially wrested control from the director, re-editing the material and rebranding it as Spaceship for a single-week theatrical run in June 1983. The new title was a deliberate marketing ploy to associate Leslie Nielsen with the hit Airplane! that had just landed. After that brief engagement, the picture moved quickly to pay cable television and then to a home video release distributed by Vestron Video. In 1994, independent distributor Palm Beach Entertainment reissued it on VHS under yet another name—Naked Space—this time banking on Nielsen's popular Naked Gun franchise, and followed with a DVD in 1999. Since then, the title has appeared on numerous low-budget DVD editions of notably poor quality. Compounding the confusion, virtually every home video release has mislabeled the running time: Vestron's VHS and Beta suggest 88 minutes, Palm Beach's versions claim 91, yet the film actually runs approximately 76 minutes. Kimmel's own Director's Cut stretches to 85.

Cast & Musical Numbers

The film's ensemble blends well-known character actors with the two leads at its center. Cindy Williams plays Annie McHugh, while Kimmel himself appears as John. Leslie Nielsen takes the role of Captain Jamieson, a part that echoed his farcical work in Airplane! and the later Naked Gun series. Gerrit Graham is Rodzinski, Patrick Macnee plays Dr. Stark, and Paul Brinegar makes a cameo as a character styled after Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry. Cheri Eichen appears as a TV host, Ron Kurowski performs as the creature itself, and Broderick Crawford lends his voice to Max the Computer—though Crawford's vocal track was replaced entirely in the re-cut versions. Structurally, the picture is a low-budget comedy built around simple sets and dialogue, but it is punctuated by several musical numbers. The red, slimy, one-eyed alien delivers a lounge-style soft-shoe routine to a song called "I Want to Eat Your Face." Williams performs two numbers of her own, one as a solo and one shared with Kimmel, a callback to their earlier collaboration on The First Nudie Musical.

Reception & the Director's Cut Revival

Critical response to the re-cut version was largely unkind. TV Guide awarded the film a single star out of four, describing it as a "misguided attempt at horror comedy." Cavett Binion of AllMovie called the picture "painfully dull," though he conceded that Patrick Macnee's hammy turn and the creature's soft-shoe number provided the film's only genuine laughs. In a more favorable note, Variety—reviewing the original cut at a Westwood sneak preview—praised it as "a likeably silly send-up of outer-space horror pix like 'Alien.'" For years, Kimmel's original vision remained locked away, having been screened at only two public previews. That changed in 2019, when it was announced that both versions would finally be released to home video under the original title, The Creature Wasn't Nice. Kimmel also issued an Original Director's Cut DVD sold exclusively through Kritzerland.com, sourced from his personal U-matic videotape of the original answer print—a tangible artifact of the film as he first shaped it.