Galaxy of Terror

Following a failed voyage to the planet Morganthus, the spaceship Quest is dispatched from the Planet Xerxes for a rescue mission. Once there, the crew discovers the remains of the crew of the doomed voyage as well as a strange pyramid containing unspeakable horrors.

Galaxy of Terror is a 1981 sci-fi/horror film from producer Roger Corman. The film saw him attempt to cash in on the success of Alien much in the same way Battle Beyond the Stars was his answer to Star Wars. Once again using the talents of James Cameron who provided the impressively improvised effects, with Cameron hired as an art director and effects supervisor alongside Robert Skotak. The movie has carved quite a legacy for itself (one of infamy as well as curiosity) and while I can't say much for quality of its writing, from an atmospheric and technical perspective it's undeniably memorable.

Starting off, the writing of Galaxy of Terror is often very confused and muddled with the nature of elements such as Xerxes' "Master" or the borderline Darwin Award behavior of the some of the crewmembers making it pretty obvious plot is not this movie's strong suit. Rather than creating a streamlined narrative Galaxy of Horror is mostly a showcase of impressive effects work in both creature design and gore work and both the curiosity factor of seeing James Cameron's humble beginnings as well as the grotesque nature of the kills and creatures has given the film a lasting legacy (such as the forceful nonconsensual sexual escapades of a certain giant worm).

As far as Alien rip-offs go Galaxy of Terror is certainly memorable in its exploitation and nastiness value even though with its thin characters and borderline nonexistent story that's the only real selling point. Depending on what you're looking for Galaxy of Terror might satisfy those trashy cravings we all deny having in spite of our knowledge to the contrary.

As is the case with a slew of Roger Corman-produced films, this flick underwent several title changes -- Mindwarp: An Infinity in Terror, Planet of Horrors, Quest - before settling on the worst choice. When I picked it up, I actually thought it was an old '60s film, as 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' fame, not his son, along with Walston, fighting space invaders in their plundering youth. I was wrong. very wrong. Instead, I 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! Likewise, Galaxy 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 Mars, our astronauts land the Goodship Quest only to discover the remains of an ancient civilization replete with an ancient pyramid-like structure and horrible, horrible aliens (a giant sexually-charged mealworm, an arachnid, some self-propelling leeches, and an extra-terrestrial that looks like the masked assailant in George Romero's Season of the Witch). The cast is a mishmash of TV personalities, actors past their prime, a few Corman/New World regulars, and 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). Nevertheless, our 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 lame, and Taaffe O'Connell's big scene with the mealworm is ineffectual as well. Still, the crew is every bit as good as the one in Alien, though there's no Sigourney Weaver here (big difference). Unbelievably, this 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 great, even if it steals sets from other films (Corman's Forbidden World). Plus, it has a few scenes of cool stop-motion photography (now a thing of the past) courtesy Brian Chin. On the bad side, it'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). Lastly, the characters have great names like Cabren, Alluma, Kore, Ilvar, Baelon, Quuhod. It's too bad this film didn't take off and spawn licensing deals, as this crew would have made great space-soldier action-figures, as their back-packs already look like Cobra Commander accessories! All in all, a operative film, albeit not the best I've ever seen.

The film concerns about a team of astronauts assigned to save the outer space starship crew from a far planet . The astronauts become threatened by a weird , vicious life force as well as indiscreet , slimy aliens that embark upon a killing spree in the base and spaceship . They are unexpectedly devoured by hungry , vicious aliens intent on picking off the astronauts one by one . And an ominous monster in the form of a giant worm ; it is , in fact , a carnivorous , ominous maggot and is enormously spooky when the large slug eats a beautiful nude scream girl or when another young woman explodes . The picture contains an interesting twist at the ending.

It's a formula terror space film with tension , shocks , grisly horror , including some decent scares , graphic gore abounds and results to be quite entertaining . A lot of the special effects shots involving live actors combined with matte paintings and miniatures were done in camera . At the movie appears known actors with a future long career : The recently deceased Edward Albert (Butterflies are free) , Robert Englund (Freddie Kruger) , Zalman King (a notorious director of erotic films) , Ray Walston (famed comedy actor) and Grace Zabriskie (famous secondary actress) and Sid Haig (usual as baddie and blaxploitation genre) , the latter asked Roger Corman if he could play Quuhod as a near mute instead Corman agreed and let Haig portray Quuhod with almost no dialogue as Haig only says a single line in the whole movie . The visual production design by subsequently successful James Cameron creates a vivid sense of claustrophobic doom , enhanced further by the eerie musical score .

This disturbing and dark film was produced by Roger Corman with his New Word Pictures and tensely directed by B.Clark who managed to create shocks , generous violence and exciting horror sequences . According to Roger Corman , the film was budgeted at approximately $700,000 . The film went into production in the spring of 1981 at the Hammond Lumber Co. lot in Venice, CA, where New World's studio facilities were located. Additional sets , including the surface of the planet and the exterior of the pyramid , were built at a soon-to-be demolished Bekins Storage facility . David DeCoteau got his first Hollywood movie job working as a production assistant on this film , he was only 18 years old at the time. And followed by ¨Forbidden world¨ by Allan Holzman with Jesse Vint and Scott Paulin . It's a standard terror graphically gory, giving a paranoid dimension and turns out to be an ¨Alien¨ exploitation film , being a sloppy attempt to cash on this hit smash.

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 site, through no fault of my own mind you, and 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 Englund, Ray "I've been old for 1000 years" Walston and Grace Zabriskie, who was great in Twin Peaks, round out the cast. If you happen upon this movie give it a watch. It's sure to entertain.

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 investigate, hoping to find survivors, they 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 Alien, which had been released two years earlier. However, the special effects and action sequences here are far from the quality of Alien, and often come off as a bit cheesy. Despite being released in 1981, the film has more of a '70s sci-fi feel. Overall, it'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.