From the Roger Corman factory comes this extremely forgettable remake of his 1982 production "Forbidden World". The Beastmaster himself, Marc Singer, stars as Commander Steve Krieger. Exactly what he's a commander of, I don't know, but he picks up a distress signal from the scientists on the planet Phaebon. These morons have been monkeying around with genetics and viruses and they've managed to create a mutating, evolving life form. It's up to Steve to save the day, with some occasional assistance from the doofuses around him.
If people seek out "Dead Space" for any reason, it's likely because they learned that it was a very early credit for the Emmy winning actor Bryan Cranston. Because of him, the acting is a hair better than you'd usually be subject to in a LOW rent production like this one. Directed (not so well) by Fred Gallo, it's routine through and through, and highly uninspired. The makeup and creature effects are actually not that bad, thanks to the efforts of Gabe Bartalos, an old pro at this sort of thing. If one is already familiar with "Forbidden World", they'll experience a fair bit of deja vu, as this version sticks pretty close to the original plot.
Singer is passable as the hero, and the ladies (Laura Mae Tate, Judith Chapman, Lori Lively) are pretty. Randy Reinholz delivers a useless performance as an equally useless character named Tim. Cranston does his best given the circumstances.
"Forbidden World" wasn't exactly a movie crying out to be redone, and "Dead Space" itself isn't a movie crying out to be watched very often - if indeed one watches it more than once.
Four out of 10.
