As a B-movie, this one deserves more credit because of the creative amd narrative elements it likely inspired. Fans of "Aliens" and "Event Horizon" should dig into "Galaxy of Terror" -- with James Cameron as production designer and a plot that relies on visceral horror, the film can be viewed as a predecessor to more developed and influential films that would follow. It's also interesting to see Robert Englund show some of the sneering menace he would develop as Freddy Kreuger just a few years later. The gore effects hold up well and the matte paintings are a reminder of how far Cameron would evolve his creation of sci-fi worlds.

It's difficult for me to recommend this film to anyone as GALAXY OF TERROR is certainly not a "good" movie. However, among the other ALIEN clones I would say it fares the best in really recreating the "feeling" of the original. So much so, in fact, that I think it certainly helped the case for 2nd unit director James Cameron to find work directing the official sequel ALIENS.Actually, the concept for this feel feels much more in line with, say, SPHERE or EVENT HORIZON with an ensemble cast on some dark mission in the dark corners of space battling their worst nightmares on a harsh and unforgiving environment.As far as environment goes, this film captures it in spades. Considering it's a Roger Corman production with an even smaller budget than its predecessor (the previous year's BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS), GOT boasts surprisingly credible production design and special effects. The costume design reminds one of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and the sound reminiscent of "Star Trek" (complete with the same photon torpedo effects), though all given a unique gloomy atmosphere of dread thanks to its special effects department and much of Barry Shrader's resourceful, low-tech, but effective score. Jacques Haitkin's nightmarish cinematography helps a lot too, often going monochromatic blue and red further heightening the shocks.Structured like a horror movie at a slim, fast-paced 81 minutes, the film puts a lot more creative energy into staging some quality kills than setting up its characters. In fact, the gritty tone is nearly destroyed early on with some comparatively bright and cheery scenes of the human home-world (not Earth?) and its pathetic attempt to set up the universe and characters. We only get via a brief voice-over that the home planet "Xerxes" is run by some kind of omnipotent "Master" who exercises unquestioned control over space missions but we never see him do anything powerful. As one-dimensional as he is, none of the other characters come off as even slightly more interesting than The Master and we never really get to know or care about any of them, other than that they're played by an assortment of colorful recognizable B- movie and TV stars.A better script would have propelled this into the major leagues, but as it stands, GALAXY OF TERROR remains an effective cult classic with enough gore, shocks, scares, and atmosphere to provide enjoyment for less-discriminating B-movie fans.

I love watching bad 80s science-fiction and this fits the bill. The special effects are shoddy, even for the time; the actors all take turns at chewing the scenery, apart from Robert Englund who has a natural charm throughout the film.The story is that a ship with a crew entirely chosen by the Master (whose head glows bright red for no accountable reason), have been sent to rescue the crew from another ship that has crashed on a remote planet. Each one is introduced with a sketchy characterisation which is pretty much all the background you get; there's the weirdly manic, driven captain (with terrible ageing make-up), the commander who is obviously "too old for this s**t", the sullen leader who hates the jovial moustache man, the pretty psychic the moustache loves, the buxom blonde, the cook with secrets, the semi-mute who carries some plastic throwing stars, the coward, the cheery tech guy.The moment they land and investigate the crashed ship, things start to go wrong. They also do odd things, like incinerating the bodies in the crashed ship or splitting up for no good reason which leads to the death of the coward. The ones left behind in the ship fare no better; the Captain begins to hallucinate she is facing an old enemy from a previous disaster where she was the only survivor. After firing the ships weaponry, she picks up an enormous gun and dies in a completely unexplained way.At this point, the plot and the character motivations go out of the window and everybody turns their acting up to 11; the mute is killed by his own plastic stars and the poor blonde is raped to death by a giant slimy maggot, in a scene that is as uncomfortable to watch as it must have been to act.After killing almost everyone else, the plot then takes a metaphysical left turn which would have been a masterstroke had it not been setup so badly at the beginning and rushed at the end.Try this film as a basis for a drinking game (a shot every time someone does something really stupid or a character dies or the dialogue makes you cringe) and you'll have a great, if rather drunk, time.

OK he was the Production Designer... but his name was top of the credits at the end of the film. This is a low budget Roger Corman film who brought us a lot of other cheesy movies that I personally like to watch. To no surprise many of the actors who get started in Roger Corman films go on to bigger and better parts. For example; Jack Nicholson in his 1963 production of "The Raven". In Galaxy of Terror we have a cast of virtual unknowns like; Robert Englund and Zalman King. There are some other familiar faces in this movie such as; Ray Walston, Erin Moran, and Sid Haig. The acting is crap, it is a poorly done remake of several sci-fi plots, and the special effects are mediocre. But that is what this movie has going for it, from the perspective that it is something to laugh at and poke fun. I laughed at Cos, "panicky guy role" played by Jack Blessing. For a bunch of tough space rescue team, they all seemed to scream a lot. All the movie monsters in this one are laughable, but just because this is a inferior and shoddy sci-fi/horror movie doesn't mean it should be viewed by children. Dameia played by Taaffe O'Connell, by far, had the best tasteless death scene in the whole movie. Just as bad as Ellen Sandweiss death scene in "The Evil Dead", when she was raped by the woods... not in the woods, by the woods.Good for a MST3K party, get some friends over and rent or view it on Netflix this month.