Galaxy of Terror

Early eighties Roger Corman sci-fi flick featuring a cast of b-grade actors on a mission to a distant planet to investigate a dying signal from a doomed space vessel. Once they arrive on the planet they soon discover that the crew is no more and that a black pyramid draws them in mysteriously. The cast's worst nightmares are manifested into reality as they are picked off one by one. But by whom exactly? If you were stumped as to who it was might I interest you in some low-property tax swamp land.

I have never been much of a Corman fan but this is one of his most ambitious and entertaining films. The fact that this is considered one of the 50 worst films of all time is not only silly but calls into question the bad movie credentials of whomever listed Galaxy of Terror. Have you even seen War of the Robots? Any movie that dispatches Erin Moran by crushing her skull and features the Hentai-like mutant worm raping to death a very buxom Taaffe O'Connell deserves cult status damn you! This is my third Zalman King film reviewed on this sitethrough no fault of my own mind youand his limited range as an actor leaves little wonder why he made the move to directing light porn. Edward Albert is not very engaging as the male lead Cabren while I hope Sid Haig was paid by his screen time rather his amount of dialogue. Robert EnglundRay "I've been old for 1000 years" Walston and Grace Zabriskiewho was great in Twin Peaksround out the cast. If you happen upon this movie give it a watch. It's sure to entertain.

As is the case with a slew of Roger Corman-produced filmsthis flick underwent several title changes -- Mindwarp: An Infinity in TerrorPlanet of HorrorsQuest - before settling on the worst choice. When I picked it upI actually thought it was an old '60s filmas the tape-cover aped some old-school EC sci-fi comics with the names `Ray Walston' and `Edward Albert.' I immediately assumed it was Eddie Albert of `Green Acres' famenot his sonalong with Walstonfighting space invaders in their plundering youth. I was wrong. very wrong. InsteadI got a rip-off of Alien (1979) with a heaping portion of David Hewitt's 1965 snooze-a-thon Wizard of Mars (aka Horrors of the Red Planet)though Walston is no John Carradine! LikewiseGalaxy of Terror is peppered with the `guard duty' slant from The Sentinel (1976) and the Jedi theme of the Star Wars films (seen here as `The Master')as there's some sub-plot about a long line of guardians or protectors that make a rite-of-passage through the planet's funhouse. There may have even been a narrative of some sort surrounding 'symbolic salvation' at one point before all the gratuitous violence was jostled in! As is the case with Wizard of Marsour astronauts land the Goodship Quest only to discover the remains of an ancient civilization replete with an ancient pyramid-like structure and horriblehorrible aliens (a giant sexually-charged mealworman arachnidsome self-propelling leechesand an extra-terrestrial that looks like the masked assailant in George Romero's Season of the Witch). The cast is a mishmash of TV personalitiesactors past their primea few Corman/New World regularsand a few up-and-coming stars (a trend that arguably began with disaster films like Earthquake and Airport). Erin Moran of Happy Days is fairly good here as a telepathic `biosensor' (and fairly sexy too)as is pre-Freddy Krueger Robert Englund (perhaps the highlight of the film). Neverthelessour cast is picked off one-by-one by an unknown force that preys on fear (personified in physical form). Most of the kills are pretty lameand Taaffe O'Connell's big scene with the mealworm is ineffectual as well. Stillthe crew is every bit as good as the one in Alienthough there's no Sigourney Weaver here (big difference). Unbelievablythis film helped launch the careers of Englund (who would have become a great actor had he not lapsed into Elm Street limbo) and James Cameron who was the production designer here (perhaps prepping him for Piranha II: The Spawning). Perhaps to Cameron's credit (I guess)the Martian landscape is convincing and the sets and visual effects are greateven if it steals sets from other films (Corman's Forbidden World). Plusit has a few scenes of cool stop-motion photography (now a thing of the past) courtesy Brian Chin. On the bad sideit's too dimly lit (though the water-slide caverns and Tron-like wall of lights are well captured) and has inappropriate music (which you didn't get in Alien). Lastlythe characters have great names like CabrenAllumaKoreIlvarBaelonQuuhod. It's too bad this film didn't take off and spawn licensing dealsas this crew would have made great space-soldier action-figuresas their back-packs already look like Cobra Commander accessories! All in alla operative filmalbeit not the best I've ever seen.

I can't believe that people keep comparing this film to Alien. First of allthe original Alien had a budget of 11 million dollars. Galaxy of Terror was made for around 5 million. SecondAlien was "inspired" by many horror/scifi films that went before it. If it wasn't a crime for Alien why then is it a crime that this film used a currently popular genre title as inspiration? ThirdGalaxy of Terror has more in commonat least story wisewith Forbidden Planet than Alien.

This has the look of a much more expensive production and it takes full advantage of it's exploitation roots. It has a fun castsome minor gore (much less than you would expect in a film like this)and some gratuitous nudity especially during a rather nasty scene.

It's a fun diversion for fans of these types of films and can be recommended for many reasons. You get to see Robert Englund before he donned the gloveRay Walston after he was everybody's Favorite Martian and Erin Moran after her years as Joanie. You also get to see some early effects work by James Cameron.

Sureit gets a little confusing in spots and there's some continuity problems and more than it's share plot holesbut it's still a terrific movie to look atgreat set designs and some of the monster effects are decent (and some are bad). It's all that I expect from Roger Corman with more than enough to keep me interested.

Make sure to catch the uncut print if you can!!!

I recently came across the Robert Englund and Sid Haig cult classic Galaxy of Terror (1981) on MAX. The story follows a spaceship crew that stumbles upon a vessel with a missing crew. As they investigatehoping to find survivorsthey instead encounter alien creatures that begin picking off the members of their own ship one by one.

The film also stars Erin Moran (Happy Days)Ray Walston (The Stand)and Edward Albert (Power Rangers)and is directed by Bruce Clark (Ski Bum and The Hammer).

It's clear that Galaxy of Terror was aiming to capitalize on the success of Alienwhich had been released two years earlier. Howeverthe special effects and action sequences here are far from the quality of Alienand often come off as a bit cheesy. Despite being released in 1981the film has more of a '70s sci-fi feel. Overallit's an average to below-average entry in the sci-fi genre that might only appeal to diehard fans of Englund or Haig. I'd rate it a 5/10.

I can still remember watching this film in the wee hours of the morning at about 13 yrs old; I wanted decadentlate night cable programmingand this one delivered. Twenty years laterI still remember it for one scene: a giant maggot raping a woman. It was a completely grossbizarreyuckysurreal moment in cinemabut unlike anything I had ever seen. I still can't get over how weird it is and how something like that made it into a film. The rest of the film contains a few other bizarre scenes but beyond thisthe film is really just a waste of time. Howeverthe production design (James Cameron) for this film was actually pretty original and well done for the time/budget (the planet the crew is trapped on has a kind of strangely dim lighting and claustrophobic feeling).