And this thing is edited within an inch of its life but that may have to do more with Corman going back in and removing the humor that Holzman and screenwriter Tim Curnen ( Ghost Warrior) had put in. But he started as a cutter for Corman, editing the likes of Candy Stripe Nurses (’74), Crazy Mama (’75), and Battle Beyond the Stars (’80) before he was thrown some money for this and given a ridiculous turnaround to shoot and edit a feature with preexisting sets. It gets messy, is what I’m saying.ĭirector Allan Holzman has long since left the soda-caked marquee of Corman Town behind, carving himself a nice career as a documentary filmmaker and editor, even snagging a couple of Emmys in the process. The other prevalent feature is of course the splatter, and Buechler and company’s work is indeed exemplary for here there be crotch impalements, lab slab meltdowns, and other sundry delights. Not that the King of the B’s doesn’t like women it’s just that in his films he prefers most of them naked, or at least partially so. It’s the Cliff Notes version of Alien without female empowerment and corporate paranoia. Yes, the shadow of Alien looms large over the sets of Forbidden World, as did its precursor Galaxy of Terror except unlike Galaxy and its heady trips into weird ville and dime store philosophizing, Forbidden has no pretense towards being about anything. Like I said, it’s 77 minutes – what do you want, a dining room scene? (Er, actually it has one of those too.) Glaser, and a literal steam between our female characters. Sure there’s lots of chat about chromosomes and morph this and morph that, but it’s really just shoddy plywood in between the gooey creature effects supplied by a young John Carl Buechler ( Hatchet), a steamy sex scene for Mike and Dr. That’s it, that’s the tweet, as the kids say. (I mean, if you’re trying to whip up a solution for galactic hunger you should expect some ironic blowback, right?) It’s up to Mike and Sam to help thwart Audrey 3.0 before the whole cast is turned into extraterrestrial trail mix…Ĭoming in at a brisk 77 minutes, Forbidden World has no time for such silly motifs as character development and plot Mike and Sam arrive, people start dying. The problem with Xarbia is their little lab creation, Subject 20, has gotten too big for its britches and has started killing off the crew. Cal Timbergen (Fox Harris – Repo Man), and a few other people placed as alien fodder/red shirts, if you will. Gordon Hauser (Linden Chiles – Eye of the Cat), Tracy Baxter (Dawn Dunlap – Barbarian Queen), gratuitous crazy scientist Dr. Barbara Glaser (June Chadwick – This is Spinal Tap), Dr. After Mike and Sam evade footage from Battle Beyond the Stars, they land on Xarbia and check in with the crew: Dr. He’s awoken by his android sidekick (Corman loved these) Sam (Don Olivera) as a) their ship is under attack, and b) they’ve received a distress signal from the planet Xarbia, a research center. Our film opens in outer space (duh), as corporate fixer/loverboy/Han Solo proxy Mike Colby (Jesse Vint – Bug) is dreaming in his hyper sleep of events that haven’t yet happened in the film quick cuts show death, mayhem, and nakedness like a coke-fueled New World trailer. Made for around a million dollars and released in early May, Forbidden World (AKA Mutant), received mostly poor notices as it made the rounds of the drive-in circuit, but became a staple on home video for those looking for cheap thrills as only Corman could provide which is to say, with confidence, competence, and a twisted sensibility. His follow up to that last one, Forbidden World (1982), carries on the low-minded tradition of boobs and bloodshed in glorious, goofy fashion. At the turn of the ‘80s he decided to cash in on the Star Wars and Alien craze with Battle Beyond the Stars (’80) and Galaxy of Terror (’81). As much as I dig his takes and tales of Poe from the ‘60s, my favorite era of Roger Corman is the New World years: you know, pulpy pictures like Death Race 2000 (1975) and Humanoids from the Deep (1980).
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