Forbidden World (1982)

Director Allan Holzman (Emmy winning director/editor of Steven Spielberg's Survivors of the Holocaust) wanted a chance to direct, so he took to the sets of Galaxy, using equipment that still had a rental day left and filmed a seven-minute test footage sequence that not only convinced Corman to give him a chance, but became the opening of this film. According to the book that comes with the Shout Factory release of the film, Holzman shot 94 camera set-ups in one day to achieve the frenetic editing style of this sequence.In the Wikipedia setup for this film, they report that this film was panned by critics as a "cheap, exploitive imitation Alien with sex, nudity, uneven editing, cheap special effects and an audio track that some found unpleasant." This sounds like a beacon for me screaming, "SEE THIS FILM NOW." I wouldn't say the music is bad…it's just a strange bit of electronic music that often feels like it doesn't fit the film. And as for the choppy editing style, it's as is this whole film as a battle between two movies. One, an art film packed with intriguing shots, quick cuts and oddly placed humor. Another a sleazy monster movie featuring plenty of sex scenes, women showering together and a toothy Giger-esque little buddy killing scientists.Read more at bandsaboutmovies.com/2017/06/30/forbidden-world-1982/

In the distant future, a federation marshal arrives at a research lab on a remote planet where a genetic experiment has gotten lose and begins feeding on the dwindling scientific group.So, what do you get when you have an "Alien" ripoff written by Jim Wynorski, produced by Roger Corman, and with effects from John Carl Buechler? If you expected excessive boobs from Wynorski, you would be right. And if you expected a low budget from Corman, you would be right. A great monster from Buechler? Sure thing! Seriously, this is not a bad movie. Is an A-level science fiction film? Maybe not. It should not be thought on on the same level as "Alien". But that is not the point, if you know what you are getting yourself into when you sit down for a Corman flick. It is is gonna be fun, cheesy and entertaining -- just like movies should be.

Corman is a neat guy. He's all about putting something together, engineer work. And he's quite clever, most of the time at least, to know just which parts go together, what to recycle. This is from the brief time he was rehashing popular sci-fi of the day, chiefly Star Wars and Alien. And because Alien in particular is already the product of collaborative , assembled vision, I am interested in which parts Corman reassembled.Galaxy of Terror seems more special to me, I have written quite a bit on that elsewhere. There, he retained the environment of desert planet and 'alien' compound. In a peculiar way, it was a smart annotation and reading of Scott's Alien: it was the place granting visions of horror, with visions shifting according to characters.For this one, they latched onto the creature aspect of Alien: it is the human instead of alien environment that is carried over, an extraterrestrial station carrying out bacterial research, and instead of different visions of horror, we have one shape-shifting creature.Taken together, the two films are revealing of what he thought worked in Alien. Metamorphosing evil and environment, this is what Corman zeroed on. Situations. Not Scott's approach of different fabrics of camera, something beyond his ambitions. Not organic fleshing-out of characters and space life. This model which is the way they were doing sci-fi in the 50's and 60's, dies with this film, and Cameron takes over - a Corman student on Galaxy.And something else. Alien was about the fabric of logic being torn apart - a near-metaphysical presence was onboard that defied anything reasonable.In both Corman films, the 'nature' of evil is over-explained with the usual nonsense. The overabundance of 'reason' is counterpointed with that bizarre irrationality of good exploitation: in Galaxy, you had cosmonauts going bonkers in space, and the craziness exceeded the explanation. The rape by giant worms was sleaze for the audience, it had no film-logic.Here, you have a leading scientist in bacteriological research who is basically a slutty bimbo. It makes no sense for the world of science and space exploration. It's entirely tailored for us to have a steamy sex scene. You have all sorts of amateurish decisions that are just so much fun to poke.One of the spare parts used here is a cocky space cowboy with his robot - Star Wars.

Subject Twenty, a metamorphic mutant(whose metabolism is rising at an astonishing rate) accidentally created through genetic engineering(what else?)while scientists were attempting to develop a new food source in a laboratory isolated on a planet, gets loose and goes on a violent rampage in a space station. In its saliva is Proto B which goes to work on the cells of humans when it invades their bodies, reducing them to protein to suit its nutritious needs. Its also intelligent and gains control of the station, leaving the remain humans alive until they are chosen as the next meal. This metamorph creature was a product of a Proto B cell and human being, fused through accidental means while conducting experiments for the food source. Jesse Vint is Space Commander Mike Colby, sent to the station to help kill the damned monster, black, slimy, with slobbery teeth, continuously growing. Dr. Cal Timbergen(Fox Harris)is trying to find a way to kill it and believes its through his cancerous cells wherein lies the answer. Meanwhile, Colby has to find a way to keep the rest of the crew safe from the hideous metamorph. Dawn Dunlap is Tracy and June Chadwick is Dr. Barbara Glaser, the female eye candy of this particular Roger Corman production, obviously hired because they are both beautiful and will get naked at the drop of a hat(including one hot scene where they are bathing in a "steam" room). Linden Chiles is Dr. Gordon Hauser, the scientist whose bright idea was the fusion resulting in the mess they find themselves; of course, he also wants to keep the creature alive as to study it. Scott Paulin is Earl Richards, who operates the camera monitors and Raymond Oliver is Brian, the engineer. Besides the babes of the film, and Vint's heroics, the star of the film, in my mind, is the icky special effects of infected humans deteriorating into a mush of skeletal and mutated remains. There's a reliance once again on special effects from BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS(you just can not let such footage go to waste as we have grown accustomed to time and again)during Vint's intergalactic combat with fighter ships on his tail(Colby's assistant is a miniature robot with a kid's voice)at the beginning of the film. I wonder if these same sets were used in one of Corman's other movies, such as ANDROID or GALAXY OF TERROR, because they seem familiar to me. Anyway, if you are a fan of these kinds of B-movies influenced by ALIEN or other science fiction classics from the 50s, with heavy emphasis on boobs and gore, I suggest checking out FORBIDDEN WORLD..preferably as a Midnite Movie on a late Friday. The plot of this movie seems directly lifted for a future film with Marc Singer stepping into Vint's role called DEAD SPACE.