Is 1985’s ‘Creature’ an ‘Alien’ Knock-Off or Something More?

In Space, No One Can Hear You Imitate 

At what point does wearing inspiration on your sleeve cross into rip-off territory? When my co-host on the “Midnight Terrors Podcast,” Kevin, chose the 1980s cult classic “Creature” to cover on the latest episode, the first info we saw on it was that it was an “Alien” knock-off. So, was it? Or does this film offer something more?

The Story 

A deep space research team comes across a distress signal from a wrecked spacecraft on Saturn’s moon, Titan. When they arrive to help, they encounter an alien… creature that not only kills its victims but also possesses their corpses. The crew must find a way to defeat the monster and escape before they become part of its space zombie horde. 

Honey’s Cut

The similarities to “Alien” are obvious right from the start. We get a text block explaining this future world we find ourselves in, complete with rival deep space corporations and such. The interior of the spaceship is also reminiscent of “Alien” with its bright white, sterile interior. Although, “Star Wars” had these too, so it might just be a 70s sci-fi look. It also follows similar story beats: the small crew landing on a planet, discovering an alien creature, then having to fight to escape. 

Where “Creature” veers into its own lane is when the action picks up. As I said, when this alien kills someone, it then turns them into zombies to do its bidding. It does this via parasites, like the Facehuggers in “Alien” yet still different enough, I’d say. 

There are times when the crew isn’t fighting the creature, but their former crewmates, with their bodies under the control of the alien. 

Let’s talk about the design of the creature. It looks awesome when we first see it in the shadows. All you can see is its glowing eyes staring out from the darkness, and it looks massive! It leaves a lot to the imagination as to what this thing might be. 

Eventually, when we see it in full lighting, it is clearly a guy in a rubber suit. But it’s not just a one-man-act. It took a crew of several puppeteers to make this thing move around. So it was no small task. Overall, it’s pretty cool looking, almost like a “Godzilla” villain reject, with its serpent-like appearance and rubber costume. 

Honey’s Final Thought

Seeing this movie so heavily compared to “Alien” made me ask myself a larger scale question. When does something go from ‘being inspired by’ to ‘straight-up rip-off.’ It was a tough question for me to answer. 

I think that any space-horror movie will immediately be compared to “Alien.” Maybe it wasn’t the first to do it, but it was certainly the most popular. You could say the same for slasher movies. Most of them are derivative from “Halloween” or “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” 

The closest comparison I can make to horror movies would be rock music. You can basically play any rock song using power chords and a couple scales. You can only come up with so many combinations before things start sounding similar. 

So, is “Creature” an “Alien” rip-off? Yeah, it kind of is.