Customer Reviews

Forbidden World (Roger Corman's Cult Classics)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Corman's Galaxy of Terror is usually referred to as a rip-off/cash-in on Alien, but that film has very few similarities with Alien. Corman's low budget schlocker, Forbidden World definitely fits the Alien rip-off bill much more accurately..
The film involves an intergalactic buttkicker named Colby(Jesse Vint) who's summoned to a science lab on a distant planet to check out an experiment that "got loose". And I'm assuming, to kick it's butt. Colby arrives at the station to find that "Subject 20" as it's called, has escaped, killed all the lab animals and locked itself away in the incubator for a little R&R before it goes on a killing spree. Colby spends a good amount of his time giving the two, horny and attractive scientist chicks something to study in the after hours. Meanwhile, Subject 20 finally makes up his mind to leave the incubator on account of some flunky who decides to open the incubator door to get a better look at it when he noticed it started moving. Now it more or less becomes Alien-Roger Corman's Alien, that is! That is to say, shameless and cheesy(it ought to be with a character named Colby), with a bunch-O gore and T&A.
Once again, Corman really stretches his dollar. This film had a smaller budget than Galaxy of Terror, though in some parts it actually looks a bit more slick than Galaxy. The Making Of.. documentary on the disc provides some interesting insight on how the film was made. The second disc is the director's cut titled Mutant(a much better title considering the title "Forbidden World" doesn't make a lot of sense in the context of the movie). It's worth a look, though the film didn't get the same slick remastering as the first disc, so it's a bit rough.
All in all, another great Corman disc from Shout Factory. Makes a good double feature with Galaxy of Terror(especially at about 3 AM).

I can not believe it has been 28 years!!!!! I was maybe 13 years old when my friends and I bootlegged this movie when one could still record off the main movie tracks!!!! I fell in love with this "Alien" knock-off movie for two simple reasons:

1. It kept me wanting to see what happened next.
and
2. The shower scene...need I say more???!!!

This movie was ahead of it's time with its play on the bio-engineering scenario. I loved the erotic intensity of the characters and spent many of long evenings with fantasies of the shower scene, the voyeur scene and the sauna scene. I loved the build-up of the creature roaming about making it a hunt for more then just a blood thirsty, brainless monster. It was a powerful play on men and women playing "God" with this creation that turns out to be a bit more then they thought it would be. I loved the B-movie play on it because it had more bite then many of these so called A-movies out today. It did not have CGI, it did not have your casual stand-ins for hard to do scenes, and it did not fall into the jittery home-made movie feel. It stood alone on a small budget, a cult following, and some of the most intense erotic sci-fi interactions between both humans and the creation. I am definitely pre-ordering this so it will be on my doorstep for me to expose my own children to something I could never put into words here but left me with lasting impressions for many years. As a writer of paranormal fiction this movie was one of the few to influence my build up on erotic vs. horror intensity. Give it a try, I can saw for the most part it will leave you panting for more, in more ways then one!!

In an isolated lab on a barren planet, a group of scientists are experimenting with gene splicing to solve a food shortage. An experimental life form kills a bunch of lab animals and is contained in the lab where it spins a cocoon, and begins a transformation. When a bounty hunter is called in to contain the rapidly evolving genetic experiment, things get bloody.

I don't want to go into the story too much and spoil things for those who haven't seen this gem, so I'll mainly focus on the Blu-Ray quality / extras.

Long out of print on video, and previously available on a crappy (and ridiculously expensive)import DVD, Forbidden World finally gets the re-release it deserves on Blu-Ray!
A perfect mix of horror, sci-fi, gratuitous nudity, monsters and gore -Pure entertainment!

I have wanted to see this movie again for years, and had almost resigned myself to forking out the cash for the import DVD. When I saw that this was finally getting an American Blu-Ray release, I pre-ordered it immediately.

I was shocked at how good this blu ray transfer looked for a film this old! Extremely sharp pictures and vivid colors - I haven't seen this movie for over 25 years, but I don't remember it looking this good. A couple of the darker scenes are a little grainy, but overall a very impressive transfer.

A list of contents:

Disc 1 Blu-Ray: Widescreen Theatrical Cut, Roger Corman interview, Cast and Crew interviews, special effects featurette, poster and stills gallery,theatrical trailer, several other New World trailers.

Disc 2 DVD : 'Unrated Director's Cut' (full frame) with commentary by the director.

Picture on the DVD is still pretty great, and it was interesting to see how the additional footage changed the tone of the movie - The restored footage doesn't appear to be more graphic, it mostly adds a bit of comedy to the film.

Shout Factory did a great job on this one - they seem to have put a lot of time and effort into what is arguably an obscure title. With the recent glut of barely upscaled DVD prints being shoveled onto Blu Ray, it's nice to know that some studios are trying to give the fans a worthwhile product - Thanks for giving us something we thought we'd never see.

If you are at all considering a purchase, I highly recommend the 2 disc Blu-Ray set.

Dawn Dunlap gets naked in frontal nudity twice in the movie. Worth the purchase right there. The whole movie is standard B-Movie drive in fare, which means nudity, violence, cheap plot, cheap acting, bad effects, laughable monster, and you'll need a couple of beers. Good Saturday night blow off movie.

FORBIDDEN WORLD, 1982, Color, 82 Minutes long.
Starring : Jessie Vint, Fox Harris, Dawn Dunlap, June Chadwick, 4 more.
Produced by Roger Corman
Directed by Jim Wynorski
FORBIDDEN WORLD Is Also Known As MUTANT, but do not confuse it with the movie MUTANT (1984) starring Wings Hauser and Marc Clement.

FORBIDDEN WORLD is a very rare Sci-Fi movie not available on DVD(in region 1) and hard to find on VHS. (It does exist on DVD in region 2 under the title MUTANT.) It has a great cast of little known but very competent actors. It is a typical Roger Corman/Jim Wynorski film - low budget but very well done. And naturally there are several scenes of nudity.

On planet Xarbia, an elite group of researchers is threatened by "Subject 20", a man-eating organism which they accidentily created. Space Marshall Mike Colby (Jessie Vint), the best trouble shooter in the Galaxy, is called in to investigate. During his investigation, he manages to get in a steam bath with naked teenager (19) Dawn Dunlap. Later, Dawn and June Chadwick have a shower scene together. After this, the monster (Subject 20)has gotten so big and ferocious that it starts feeding on the researchers. Time for Mike and his robot sidekick to earn their keep.

Not as slickly made as ALIEN, but if you like Roger Corman movies, this is one of his best. Make no mistake about it, this is definitely a B movie,but it's one of the best. (Fox Harris is a hoot !)
I've seen movies that cost a jillion dollars to make that weren't
nearly as good as this one is.

I watched Forbidden World before knowing anything about Roger Corman, his reputation or the kind of movies he's known for making. I was looking for something campy and old school sci-fi, attributes communicated by the cheesy illustration on this DVD's cover. So I grabbed it....

Man, did this title deliver. It felt like I was watching a movie that couldn't really decide whether it wanted to be a soft-core porn flick or a simple sci-fi exploitation flick. Either way, it never asks to be taken seriously, which oddly enough, is what makes it immensely enjoyable. Everything is just that much over-the-top, but never so far as to ruin the the fun. Gore, nudity, dialogue, it's all gratuitous and often silly. The plot rips pages from sci-fi films left and right, most notably "Alien". Then there's that robot that looks just like a stormtrooper and doesn't really play much of an important role....generous nod to star wars or another blatant knock off? Does it really matter?

The rating is for the level of entertainment rather than quality. This is a exercise in silliness done on a shoe string budget, and it makes no bones about it. Bottom line: the cast seems to be having a good time, and unless you demand a serious story, so will you!

Forbidden World was one of Roger Corman's New World Pictures efforts to cash in on the success of Ridley Scott's film Alien.But since it's a New World film you know that it'll be done in low budget cost saving way.The fine folks at Shout Factory have done an awesome job restoring the film and adding a 2nd disc with the original uncut version of the film.The wide screen cut of Forbidden World is pristine and the 2nd disc Mutant cut is not as high quality but is 5 minutes longer .All the bases are covered here studly hero(Jesse Vint)check ,mad scientist (Fox Harris) check,sexy female assistants (June Chadwick and Dawn Dunlap) check,Greedy head of research (Linden Childs) check.robot sidekick SAM-104(Don Olivera) check and lastly Mutant space monster aka Subject 20 check.Vint who by the way was great in Macon County Line clearly enjoys himself here.The women are super duper hot and show us the goods so to speak.Dunlap also is an awesome screamer and she has to scream a lot in the film.The Mutant is much better looking than the minute budget should have allowed for.The special effects team lead by John Carl Buechler did and awesome job with no money to play with.First time director Allan Holzman kept the film going and the editing and music are top notch as well.Any fan of low budget cinema like myself will eat up Forbidden World much like Subject 20 was eating up the crew.The ending while utterly stupid is at least cleverly so.If you have 20 day's to shoot and have to recycle sets from other New World films like Galaxy of Terror and use fast food boxes for set pieces I guess we can allow for a silly ending? Make sure to read the booklet that comes with the dvd and listen to interviews with the director,cast and crew.You will be amazed(maybe not) at what they had to go through to make the film work.

Although a relatively obscure film (even for Corman standards), it is a fun film in the process gaining so resurgence among fans of Corman and cheasy 80's Sci-fi. If you disliked it it for its just-above-mediocre-acting, and cheap special effects, you cannot denying this was fun to watch.

Things that make this film awesome

1: Jesse Vint plays a Han Solo like-character who is an expert at scoring girls and killing aliens
2: SAM, a robot that is Vint's sidekick who for a robot sucks at shooting
3: HOT NAKED CHICKS
4: The weird soundtrack
5: (SPOILER ALERT) A mutant that barfs to death after eating a cancerous liver

Just make sure you watch this late at night with mountain dew, an HDTV, friends, and loud speakers and you will enjoy this film.

Forbidden World was Roger Corman's second Alien ripoff (the first being Galaxy of Terror). As I said in my Galaxy of Terror I bought it with Forbidden World and liked Galaxy a bit more. The problem with Forbidden World was that it looked too much like a low-budget movie which it was (F.Y.I. most of the sets were previously used in Galaxy of Terror and Battle Beyond the Stars and were made from McDonalds hamburger boxes) but other than that I liked it. One thing I did like that before I didn't was the odd electronic themed music. Some highlights of the film include a scene in which the monster (in small blob form fresh out of the cocoon) attacks lab tech Jimmy, a slime-covered Gorden grabbing Tracy's robe with Tracy tugging at her robe until finally yanking it away with the his hand (pulled from his socket) still holding on, a shower scene with Tracy and Dr. Barbara, and the end which I will not spoil for all those who have not seen this film. Special Features include the Director's Cut, which isn't that different from the theatrical version, a commentary with director Alan Holzman on the Director's Cut, a booklet, and a making of... documentary. Completing the DVD is reversible cover art featuring the Forbidden World poster with a giant monster that has nothing to do with the actual film hovering over a scantly clad woman and the Mutant poster with just a photo of the monster with painted McDonalds burger boxes in the backround. 4 stars.

When a new life form cultivated by scientists for food gets loose on planet Xarbia and starts eating the researchers for dinner, intergalactic troubleshooter Mike Colby and his trusty android pal arrive to stop the beast.

But as bodies continue to pile up, Colby must confront the shocking secret behind the monster's savage power in this gleefully exploitative horror flick directed by Allan Holzman.