Forbidden World (Roger Corman Cult Classics)

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4/5The Film

Mike arrives on Xarbia and wastes no time hoping into bed with foxy Dr. Barbara Glaser (June Chadwick) and, shortly after that tryst, fooling around in the sauna with the even foxier lab assistant, Tracy Baxter (Dawn Dunlap). Meanwhile, Dr. Gordon Hauser (Linden Chiles) and Dr. Cal Timbergen (Fox Harris) are trying to figure out how to best stop Subject 20 before it lays waste to all of them.

At seventy seven minutes, Forbidden World moves along at a great pace. It doesn't waste any time getting started and even if the opening space battle has nothing whatsoever to do with the rest of the film, it looks cool and gets your attention from the start. Vint makes for a decent enough hero, a man who is obviously battle hardened (he seems to enjoy showing off his scars to the two ladies he gets naked with in the film) and while you're never going to remember Mike Colby the same way you remember Han Solo, he does fine with the material. The supporting cast is interesting enough, with Chadwick recognizable from her role in This Is Spinal Tap and Dunlap later appearing in Night Shift and then New Concorde's Barbarian Queen a few years later retiring. Harris, best known for his appearance in Repo Man (among other Alex Cox films), also appeared in Evil Spawn and Alienator and as such is no stranger to sci-fi knock-offs. His screen presence is welcome, as is that of Linden Chiles, who is instantly familiar from his countless TV appearances over the years.

The real star of the show, however, is Subject 20 itself. As the film plays out we get to enjoy the creature's evolution from a facehugger-esque parasitical creature to a large toothed Alien knock off. There's no shortage of gooey gore effects as corpses disintegrate and basically melt and various characters are knocked off during the course of the film. Combine that with the gratuitous nudity and at times surprisingly artistic camerawork and creative set design and even if the film still borrows from Scott's classic, Forbidden World is worth seeing.

Shout! Factory's new two-disc release contains not only the theatrical cut of the film but also the director's preferred cut of the film, which contains some oddball comedy and which runs a few minutes longer. In this cut, you'll also notice that SAM-104 has a different voice as well as other differences though the plot is essentially the same.

3.5/5Video

The Mutant version of the film is presented in a 1.33.1 fullframe transfer that was obviously taken from a tape source. It doesn't look nearly as sharp or quite as colorful as the other version of the film as it's much softer and far less detailed but it's perfectly watchable even if there are periodic audio drop outs and some obvious interlacing issues.

3.5/5Audio

5/5Extras

Corman himself appears in a six minute interview in which he talks about how and why he bumped Holzman up in the ranks from editor to the film's director and about how he feels about the movie. John Carl Beuchler, who worked on the make-up effects work, is also interviewed in a separate segment where he spends fourteen minutes discussing his work wherein he was responsible for creating many of the notably gooey set pieces that make the film as fun as it is. He's fairly happy about his time spent on the picture even if he does note that he was under a lot of pressure in terms of schedule and budget.

Rounding out the extras on the first disc are The Skotak Gallery (a great collection of behind the scenes stills and preproduction artwork designed for the film), a gallery of promotional artwork, a trailer for the feature, trailers for a few other Corman/Shout! Factory releases, animated menus and chapter stops.

The second disc, in addition to the alternate Mutant version of the film, features a commentary with Allan Holzman moderated by Nathanial Thompson in which the director goes into quite a bit of detail about what he was trying to accomplish with the film not only in terms of gore and shock value and exploitative content but also in terms of legitimate artistic intent. It's an interesting talk and it moves at a good pace as Holzman talks about his working relationships with the various participants, what he feels works and doesn't work about the picture in hindsight and of course his conflict with Roger Corman over what was done to his preferred cut of the film. Overall this is a rock solid track that's well worth listening to.

Inside the keepcase is a full color booklet of liner notes by Dana MacMillan which serve as a primer to the film and do a fine job of putting it into context. The disc also comes with reversible cover art featuring the Forbidden World art on one side and the Mutant art on the other, which is a nice touch.

4/5Overall

For more information, check out the Shout! Factory website by clicking here!

Film Rating		DVD Rating
Director:	Allan Holzman	Film:
Writer:	Tim Curnen, Jim Wynorski	Video:
Released:	1982	Audio:
Cast:	Jesse Vint, Dawn Dunlap, June Chadwick, Fox Harris, Linden Chiles, Raymond Oliver	Extras:
		Overall: