MrDreknowsbest Movie Gallery: Galaxy of Terror (1981)

" Hell Has Just Been Relocated"

PLOT:

A lone spaceship proceeds on its long voyage across space, the crew are surprised to encounter a strange pyramid form. Surprise turns to horror as one by one, they discover that their darkest nightmares are all starting to become real. The pyramid has to behind it all somehow.but how can they save themselves from its influence?

MY THOUGHTS

I've always heard about this movie over the years mostly because its a Roger Corman produced film, also its one of the first movies that James Cameron worked on before he hit it big, but mainly heard how bad it was also.

Galaxy of Terror is an early 80s sci-fi horror flick kinda in the same vein as Alien with a space crew that finds themselves crash landed on a alien planet because of a rescue mission gone wrong. The movie begins with a older woman and mysterious figure known only as The Master playing some kind of game, Via video comlink The Master tells Commander Ilvar(Bernard Behrens) that he wants him to lead a expedition to another world, Ilvar is first hesitate to do so but he agrees too.

On board the ship we meet the motley crew of experienced crew members and a few not so experienced ones, Captain Trantor (Grace Zabriske) is known as being the only survivor of another mission gone wrong and the crew is very weary of her being on board and for good reason she takes off without most of the crew being safely seated.

As they get into outer space we're introduced to the crew Cabren (Edward Albert), Alluma (Erin Moran), Kore (Ray Walston), Baelon(Zalman King), Ranger (Robert Englund), Dameia(Taaffe O'Connell), Quuhod (Sid Haig), Cos (Jack Blessing) as the ship nears the planet where they are going, it is pulled down to the surface where Captain Trantor guides the ship down to a safe crash landing.

Cabren leads some of the crew members to the missing ship and they discover that all crew member on board are dead, but at the same time Cos is killed by some kind of creature, back on board their ship they try to figure out what else might be out there, they decide to go back out and explore the pyramid that Alluma feels uneasy about since she is a empath.

As the crew explore the pyramid they all come across strange horrors that aren't fully explained, and things get weirder as they go further inside the pyramid until the finale.

I was some what impressed with Galaxy of Terror, its not the greatest movie made but some of the special effects are noteworthy and one scene in particular stands out as a lasting one where one crew member is raped by a giant worm(I can't fully explain it, its one of those scenes where you have to see it to believe it).

Some of the acting is a bit over the top mainly Jack Blessing who screams more then any of the female characters combined which got annoying but he's the first kill so you don't have to deal with that and when he is killed I was pleased that I didn't have to hear his high pitched screams any longer.

Sid Haig was interesting to see in this movie because up until this point in his career he was known as the heavy in alot of exploration movies but here he shows range as an actor since he only has one line of dialogue in the entire movie, but his facial expression tell more of his story then whatever lines his character was supposed to have since he didn't feel that the character and his lines matched, which was a good touch on his side.

Its always interesting to see Robert Englund in playing characters that aren't Freddy Krueger especially during the time before he did the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, because he was probably best known for playing on V. and his character on the that isn't anything like what he would become known for now, but I will say he does give a little bit of Freddy in one scene here and when you see it you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

The only real problem I had with the movie was the finale where everything is explained about what is going on and but we never truly get a reason as to why, I mean the plot is a bit thin but I felt like when watching the ending and the explanation that was giving is like REALLY!!! this is why this is all happening, but ok its a Roger Corman movie, they guy did make a movie about freaky sea creatures that raped woman so this shouldn't be that much of a stretch.

I kinda don't understand why Galaxy of Terror is considered one of the worst sci fi flick or is it so bad its good thing because when watching it I noticed alot of other sci fi/horror films that owes alot to this movie (Event Horizon, Supernova, Sunshine to name a few).

All in all don't go into this movie expecting some great sci fi/horror Odyssey because if you don't you'll be highly disappointed, their are some good special effects scenes and creature effects as well, not the greatest acted nor is it the worst, where else could you get to see a movie that stars Robert Englund(Pre Freddy Krueger), Sid Haig, Erin Moran, Ray Walston other then in a Roger Corman flick. I say sit back and enjoy it or not for what it is, some times its good to shut off the brain and watch a film like this from time to time.

CAST

Edward Albert-Cabren