Fred Olen Ray finds the strings that come with a bigger budget lacking in the Trans World creature feature DEEP SPACE, on Blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing.

When an unidentified flying object blazes into Earth's atmosphere and crashes near a Los Angeles make-out point and its tentacled occupant rips apart two teenagers, hard-bitten detectives Ian McLemore (Charles Napier, SUPERVIXENS) and Merris (BARNEY MILLER's Ron Glass) have a hard time believing that an alien is responsible even when government and military officials stonewall them; but they are right, as the brutal killer being is an organic bioweapon designed by the government scientist Forsythe (James Booth, PRAY FOR DEATH) for combat in space, and it is not out of their control. General Randolph (Norman Burton, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER's Felix Leitner) orders Forsythe to trigger the creature's self-destruct sequence but Forsythe is eager to salvage the project even as reports of more brutal deaths lead them to realize that the creature is lurking somewhere in the city. When their ball-busting captain Robertson (Bo Svenson, BEYOND THE DOOR III) cow toes to the military and suspends McLemore and Merris, they withhold evidence from the crash site in the form of smaller versions of the giant insect egg-like rock that hatched and tore apart medical examiner Rogers (Anthony Eisley, THE NAKED KISS). When the hatching of one of the junior space bug ruins McLemore's date with fellow officer Carla (Ann Turkel, who plaid midwife to a belly-bursting beast in HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP), they must dodge the boss and the government on their bug hunt through the mean streets of Los Angeles with only the psychic vibrations of kooky Elaine Wentworth (BATMAN's Julie Newmar) to guide them.

Filmed on director Fred Olen Ray's highest budget yet for an eighties creature feature through the auspices of Trans World Entertainment, DEEP SPACE is essentially a remake of his earlier BIOHAZARD with a killer creature on the loose in L.A., a psychic character guiding the hunters, warring interests over science and public safety, and some gory deaths. With the bigger budget comes a higher tier of minor celebrity with Svenson and Booth both playing second fiddle to Napier, Glass, and Turkel compared to the likes of Aldo Ray (HAUNTED) and Carol Borland (MARK OF THE VAMPIRE). THE HOWLING's Elizabeth Brooks, on the other hand, is wasted with little more of a guest appearance than some of Ray's regular players like SCALPS' Richard Hench and his then-wife Dawn Wildsmith (HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS), STARSLAMMER's Sandy Brooke, and BIOHAZARD's William Fair (Corman veteran Michael Forest is also on hand as a government heavy). The full-sized creature suit of Steve Patino (PUMPKINHEAD) is a superior effort to Kenneth Hall's BIOHAZARD creature, and the make-up effects of Steve Neill (FORBIDDEN WORLD) also impress within the bounds of an R-rating. The cinematography of Gary Graver (MOON IN SCORPIO) also benefits from the higher budget. While nothing about the film is particularly novel, Napier and Turkel are engaging, the mini-monster attacks provoke titters despite the gore, and the ALIENS-esque climax make this a late night favorite.

Released theatrically and on video by Trans World Entertainment with rather nondescript artwork, the film was a regular late night staple in the 1990s and later became part of MGM's library where it made the rounds on streaming services and revenue-sharing stations utilizing the existing video master. Scorpion Releasing's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen Blu-ray is derived from a new 2018 HD scan of MGM's materials and it is a major improvement over everything that has come before. The night scenes are now consistently readable – for once the murkiness of earlier transfers was not due to Graver's lack of adequate lighting equipment but the eighties use of backlighting – and the stylistically hazy interiors also look sharper while the resolution also calls attention to the use of an eye light on Turkel in her first close-up. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track boasts clear dialogue, creature growls, and gives the electronic score of genre regular Robert O. Ragland (THE SUPERNATURALS) a bit more umph. English SDH subtitles are included.