Galaxy of Terror (1981)


Alien provided some ripe material for low-budget film studios to rip off, as copying the Star Wars formula was beginning to wear thin.  Roger Corman's New World Pictures was, to no one's surprise, doing both.  Battle Beyond the Stars was a latecomer in the latter, but it was campy and made a decent amount of money off of people wanting more sci-fi fantasy.  For those who wanted a bit more horror mixed in with their space opera there was Galaxy of Terror.  

A spaceship called Remus crashes on the planet Organthus.  Another ship called Quest is sent to rescue them by the mysterious Master, a mystical being that controls the galaxy.  Among the crew is Captain Trantor (Grace Zabriskie), the sole survivor of a massacre, the psychic Alluma (Erin Moran), warrior Quuhod (Sid Haig) and regular soldiers Baelon (Zalman King) and Cabren (Edward Albert), who are constantly at each other's throats.  

The Quest also crash lands and, while exploring the wreckage of Remus, crew member Cos (Jack Blessing) is killed by an insectoid creature, despite the fact that no life is detected on the planet by either scans or Alluma's powers.  She does, however, sense something before the attack, and that something appears to be associated with an alien structure that is also responsible for bringing ships to the planet.  After an initial exploration results in the loss of their commander (Bernard Behrens) and other members of the crew, the remainder return to face creatures from their deepest fears.

The one thing Galaxy of Terror is known for is the rape of Dameia, the character played by Taaffe O'Connell, by a giant worm.  It points out an elephant in the room when it comes to Roger Corman films that rape was often used for titillation, and that is so in this as well.  Corman was rather progressive in his views, but whenever asked by investors to throw in a sex scene he was more than willing to go the rape route, and in this case having the victim die of extreme orgasm.  It's both repulsive and creative.

The rest of the kills are creative as well, as are the sets.  Besides the scene with the worm this is also known as the movie that began to break James Cameron through in the industry.  The matte paintings and set dressing, as well as some additional directing, is him.  It got him his first directing role on Piranha II: The Spawning, even though he ultimately was fired barely into filming on that one.  Most of the success of Galaxy of Terror and Battle Beyond the Stars can be attributed to Cameron being able to make McDonalds cartons look like million dollar sets. 

Robert Englund is in this, shortly before his role in V, and Erin Moran was pretty much the stunt casting as she was still popular for her role on Happy Days.  For those hoping to see her naked, she pretty much decided against that and opted for one of the better deaths.  Sid Haig doesn't have much dialog and that was because he thought the script was ridiculous and opted to not speak for most of the film.  The result is he is one of the more memorable characters. 

While nominally an Alien ripoff director and writer Bruce D. Clark tried to add some mystical elements to it, making the introduction and final 10 to 15 minutes of the film a bit on the jumbled and confusing side.  It's a situation in which the attempt to make some sort of intellectual statement was unneeded as the atmospheric sets and slimy gore scenes pretty much delivered what Corman wanted.  

Galaxy of Terror (1981)
Time: 81 minutes
Starring: Edward Albert, Erin Moran, Zalman King, Bernard Behrens, Taafe O'Connell, Ray Walston, Robert Englund, Sid Haig
Director: Bruce D. Clark 

 

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