MovieChat Forums > The Deadly Spawn (1983) Discussion > Whoever edited this movie should be fire...

Whoever edited this movie should be fired and beat with a stick!

posted 19 years ago by KryptoniteCornCob
12 replies | jump to latest

The editing is horrible and half-a$$ed. There's tons of shots thoughout that should be cut. The takes are too long and are simply there for runtime padding. There's shots of the actors looking right into the camera before they actually start acting. There's so much unnecessary footage padded out in this movie it's ridiculous. It made the movie super boring! It seems to me as if the movie started out and probably was a short film, but the makers put in crappy unneeded padding footage so they could sell their movie as 'full-length'. Don't get me wrong, the monster stuff is great, and the movie could have some exciting moments going for it, but all of the unnecessary padding footage throughout renders the entire movie horrible. Aside from that, the movie simply isn't edited properly. There's all kinds of things that could be shortened dramatically. Poor, poor editing. The editor should be fired. There's no excuse for laziness when it comes to editing. Editing can make or break a movie, and whoever edited this broke it big time. This movie deserves better. Because somewhere in it, is an exciting monster movie.

Konnichiwa!

[–] Megn1 19 years ago

I agree with you. I saw it for the first time last night and the editing was atrocious. However, I'm rather forgiving considering its budget and age.

[–] amboager 18 years ago

"The takes are too long and are simply there for runtime padding. There's shots of the actors looking right into the camera before they actually start acting. There's so much unnecessary footage padded out in this movie it's ridiculous."

It's typical of Z-Movies. But precisely in this movie those problems are smaller than in the majority of the movies of its style. It was my appreciation ...
In any case (for me) one of the best gory horror movies of the 80's. GREAT FUN!!!

[–] mattgrant0405 18 years ago

You are an idiot. I would like to see what you would be able to do with ten thou and one location. Why don't you grow a set of testicles and put up some cash for a horror film....... and get it distributed world wide. I hate when losers with no original ideas and hack at low budget classics. You are probably some scumbag from a bottom of the food chain film school.

[–] mattgrant0405 18 years ago

You are an idiot. I would like to see what you would be able to do with ten thou and one location. Why don't you grow a set of testicles and put up some cash for a horror film....... and get it distributed world wide. I hate when losers with no original ideas come on here and hack at low budget classics. You sound like the type of pond-scum that fouls the air in most Art Colleges. Go watch Darkness Falls ya pussy.

[–] KryptoniteCornCob 18 years ago

Reject, the location isn't the problem. It's the EDITING. I've co-made movies with one location for $45 that has better flow than this! Come on! When you don't edit a movie to it's full potential, the flaws will show through! It's important to make the most of what's available, and the editor of this movie didn't do that! He or they were LAZY and SLOPPY! And about the cash and distributed worldwide thing - if you don't have the money or can't make the most of it, then wait until you can so you don't release a piece of crap! You're calling THIS movie an original idea? LOL! With the atrocious editing that this movie has, the only thing classic about it is how bad it is. Art colleges? LOL you wouldn't catch me in one of those. And Darkness falls sucks. You seriously need to rethink about editing, because you obviously don't understand it's importance. The only loser here is you. All i said was this movie deserved better treatment and you're angry about that...why? Whatever, doesn't really matter. At least others here were civilized, whether they agreed with me or not. I also wouldn't be surprised at all if you are the the actual editor of this film. That would explain why you overly-flipped out like you did.

"All my life i've wanted the truth....now i AM THE TRUTH!!!"

[–] raggeddruid 18 years ago

This is a *beep* Z-movie. It's not going to be a masterpiece in any way except possibly gore.

[–] mattgrant0405 18 years ago

Thanks for the response. You made my day....no go back and read "Film Editing for Dummies" -and then watch the film again. Did I hurt your feelings Muffin?

[–] soulscour7 16 years ago

I think the editing errors are actually part of it's charm. There are plenty of continuity errors as well, but neither are distracting enough to ruin the film. No one on this film worked in the movies. Give credit to an enthusiastic bunch who wanted to make a film. The fact we're talking about it 25 years later speaks volumes.

mattgrant0405, can you please teach the studios that you don't need to pad an action film with an extra hour of junk 'story'? Seriously, Pirates and Transformers were awful, in part, because of length.

[–] mazinz 16 years ago

actually this had to do with two people trying to make the film and one leaving during this process and then taken over by the other. Both had their own versions in mind with scenes. There is a full story about this and the film in the book "Nightmare USA".

[–] hexrei 16 years ago

wow are you the director's girlfriend or something

[–] Megavader 15 years ago

Damn TC your long post is padded. While yes I do agree with what you are saying, you don't have to repeat it over and over making a one or two sentence post into a full blown paragraph...of padding.

"No business born ,insecure,rat soup eatin' mutha@#$&a!!!!"

[–] filmbuff1974 14 years ago

I agree. But it's not just the editor that make this a snore fest, it was the writing. Those long minutes of dialogue that didn't move the story forward one single inch should have been pared down. There was plenty that could have been written that would have made this a more compelling feature and not have added one penny to the production costs.

It's astonishing that this was released in theaters, the teenagers who shelled out there hard earned dollars to enjoy a night of horrific chills must have been bitterly disappointed after sitting through this cheesy fodder!

If you love and support Michael Jackson 100%, copy & paste this into your signature. We love MJ!