Forbidden World (1982)

 

 

OK, horror anthology: check.  Family friendly “horror” movie: check.  What’s missing?  Oh yeah, how about a Roger Corman (RIP) film?  I ain’t did that yet so let’s do a little something here to rectify that.  Well, sort of anyway.  Forbidden World is labeled as a science fiction erotic horror.  Yes please!  Starring as Officer Mike Colby, a military investigator, is Jesse Vint who has also appeared in Silent Running and Daddy’s Deadly Darling.  Colby, along with his robot partner SAM-104 are assigned to investigate a problem at a research station on a planet named Xarbia.  Forbidden World takes place in a far distant future and the issue Colby is to investigate is good one.  At the research station Colby meets several characters including the head of research Gordon Hauser played by Linden Chiles (Eye of the Cat and The Forbidden Dance), June Chadwick (This is Spinal Tap and Headhunter) who plays assistant Dr. Barbara Glaser, Dawn Dunlap (Barbarian Queen and Laura) is Tracy Baxter a lab tech, Fox Harris (Repo Man and Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers) who plays Dr. Cal Timbergen, and Scott Paulin (Teen Wolf and The Right Stuff) who is the head of the stations security Earl Richard.

 

What is going on at the station is the scientists have created a new life form they have designated Subject 20.  The intent was to try and solve a universal food shortage.  The life form was made using a DNA strain named Proto B.  So far so good but Subject 20 quickly mutates and kills all of the test animals at the lab.  Afterwards, it covers itself in a giant cocoon. Soon after Colby arrives, Subject 20 begins to emerge from it’s cocoon and once fully emerged it goes on a killing spree.  The creature is quite a sight to behold.  I found myself enjoying Forbidden World in spite of myself.  It’s a trip for sure.  Forbidden World was made without a script, and all Roger Corman (who served as the producer of the film, see that’s where he comes into it) said he wanted was Lawrence of Arabia in space.  He hired Allan Holzman (Programmed to Kill and Intimate Stranger) to direct.  The film that was released was Holzman’s second edit of the film as the first version he made was a scifi/horror/comedy and Corman hated it.  So it was reedited it with the comedy parts taken out.  A DVD release back in 2010 included the comedy version of the film marking the first time that version of the film was made available. 

 

The erotic parts of the film are basically calmed down versions of the soft core porn that used to be available on Cinemax back in the 80’s and 90’s.  I mean, the girls are easy on the eyes so I’m not going to complain but those scenes didn’t add anything to the story and even with that extra padding the film is still less than 80 minutes, so it races by.  Forbidden World is over before you know it and is interesting for nearly the entire run time.  Something else I want to mention is the music that pretty much kicks ass and was composed by Susan Justin, which by the way was her first swing at doing music for movies.  Forbidden World is also sometimes referred to with the title Mutant.  I don’t know if this is Lawrence of Arabia in outer space or not, but I’ll tell you what it is and that is three and a half steam baths out of five.  Is it a cheap rip-off of Alien?  Maybe, but it’s a decent rip off at least!