Doug McKeown – Rest in Peace

Not a lot of filmmakers made a huge impact with really only one movie, but Doug McKeown did for me with his film The Deadly Spawn (1983). According to the posting from John Dodds on Facebook, it seems that McKeown has passed away. Dodds worked with McKeown on Spawn, creating the title monster. I couldn’t find any other notices about his death besides that, but since McKeown wasn’t a household name, maybe that’s why. But none the less, the horror genre has lost a man partially responsible for bringing that famous monster full of teeth alive on the screen.

Movie Review: The Deadly Spawn

(1983)
Directed by Douglas McKeown
Starring Michael Robert Coleman, Charles George Hildebrandt, James Brewster, Elissa Neil,
Karen Tighe, Tom DeFranco, John Schmerling, Ethel Michelson

Back in the era of video stores, the first time you walked through the horror section and saw the big box video of Return of the Aliens Deadly Spawn, you knew you had to see that movie immediately! How could it be bad when you have this huge monster with three huge tooth-filled mouths, and blood and body parts everywhere? Granted, it was actually just The Deadly Spawn, but was changed slightly to key into the success of Alien. No matter what the title was, it was hard to walk away from that first viewing with a little slack in your jaw. For a low budget film from some guys in New Jersey, it became a very memorable ’80s monster flick for most fans.