Galaxy of Terror [DVD] [1981] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

A crew of nuerotic astroheads get sent on a mission to find out what they can at the far flung reaches of deep space after a distress message is received by The Master (their boss). When they get there, they realise that something is wrong, so with true cheapo script victim mentality, the rather unprofessional crew wander off down corridors alone, only to meet the things from their worst nightmares..
Yep, you guessed it, not a film about an evil bar of chocolate, but instead, a cheap (obviously, its by Corman), psychological, by the numbers, slasher horror, set in outer space, that bares more than one or two resemblences to Alien and predates Aliens by bringing Cameron in to direct some of the production. The acting is so so, given its cheapness and a lot of inventive effort clearly went into ship and planet design, which given that the ships corridors are lined with BigMac boxes (really!), doesn't leave this looking as bad as it should. There's a couple of characters that don't work and you have to wonder at times how much re~editing the script suffered coz it rarely makes sense. The actors assembled seem game enough and the shoddy creature effects and occaisional gore work quite well. The stand out of course, being the infamous 'raped to death by giant maggot' sequence. Though i have to say, i kinda revelled in watching Moran's (Joannie Cunningham from Happy Days) head explode! Ultimately it looks and plays like an episode of Red Dwarf but without any humour and only a few cheap gore effects (most of which i presume were cut for the UK pre~cert i watched years ago!) and unless you're a real Corman fan or indeed a real fan of low budget sci fi horror, if you pay more than say £5 for this you're gonna be a bit disappointed, as the artwork on the cover alone is generally more exciting than the completed film. That said, although not as good as Aliens, it was better than Avatar!
The Region 1 dvd is adequate and comes with a 1hr making of, which is probably more interesting than the film itself. For similar space flotsam try Deep Space, Titan Find, Forbidden World etc.

I first saw this title in 1983 on VHS. I was a lot younger and it blew my mind, I thought it was great.
Having seen it again since it has lost it little of its lustre and it looks very dated.
The effects are mid-range the acting is mid-ranged, and the story is mid-ranged too.
However, it has that B movie charm and can be a little gory. So lie back and laugh and enjoy this lovely piece of sci-fi hokum.

I first saw this on VHS back in the 80's and thought it was rubbish but fun. So, has it improved with age or got worse?

Despite it being a cheap Roger Corman produced quickie, there's a strong cast including Erin Moran, Ray Walston, Sid Haig, and Robert Englund (who has been appearing in horror movies for longer than I thought including two once upon a time video nasties Dead & Buried, and Eaten Alive, both worth a watch). The behind the scenes people are pretty good too with an experienced director and writer, plus the then up and coming James Cameron in charge of production design. According to the making of, Cameron already displayed the easy charm and people-handling skills for which he was to become so well known. Given its budget, the film does look good. It's certainly better, in every way, to its companion piece Forbidden World.

The story, as you'd expect, is completely stupid. When the Mystic Master of the Universe (or something like that -his head is shrouded in a glow which is how you know he's the Mystic Master) learns that a ship has crashed on a certain planet, he sends a rescue/recovery team immediately and it's obvious he knows something they don't. Like he doesn't expect them to come back. So they set off, argue a bit, one of them is obviously a spy (or something) for the MM, and generally fill in some of the screen time. Then they land, find a few bodies in the ship and set off for this massive building to check for survivors. Inside the massive building they are confronted by things which reveal their deepest fears which include a giant beetle, an alien-looking thingy, in Robert Englund's case -he suffers from low self-esteem- himself, and a giant phallic maggot which rapes one of the women to death. Corman insisted on the rapist maggot against the wishes of the writer and director but when the film came out the scene made sure it got talked about and it is quite well done in a manner which manages to be horrifying and yet not quite tastless. Anyway, there's a lot of suspense and a fair bit of gore before the totally stupid confrontation between our surviving hero and- Well, you may want to watch this yourself, and I wouldn't blame you if you did.

There is an interesting bunch of extras including interviews with cast and crew and behind the scenes shots which is worth watching. Englund is always entertaining and we get to find out how the actress who raped by the maggot felt about it all.

As I said at the beginning, I thought at the time that it was rubbish but fun.

Still do.