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.

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.

Falling into the sub-genre of the "space horror" film – so popular in the wake of ALIEN – this cheap but cheerful offering is something of a neglected gem, often dismissed by fans and thrown in the scrapheap with the likes of FORBIDDEN WORLD, TITAN FIND, and STAR CRYSTAL. Instead the film deserves another chance; in fact there is much to recommend, from the eerily effective set design (courtesy of a then-unknown James Cameron) to the recognisable cast. But where this film succeeds most is in the string of ultra-gory, often disgusting deaths which befall the unwitting crew members of the rescue ship. Producer Roger Corman is happy to go overboard with explicitness and the resulting film is packed with gobs of gooey gristle and gore. You won't have seen anything quite like it.The film starts off straightforward enough, complete with a guy with a glowing red head who seems to have come from STAR WARS. The story then proceeds at an astonishing clip – at twenty minutes the crew members are already exploring the crashed vessel and looking for signs of life. The ruthless regime means that they must burn any bodies they discover – due to possible contamination – so if fiery action is your thing then this might just be the film for you. Despite the cheap budget, the various special effects are fairly impressive, and even when they're not so great not they still manage to be fun. The alien world is well designed and gives off an air of foreboding, complemented by subdued lighting and eerie sound effects.Things get interesting with some briefly-seen alien menaces (courtesy of some nice stop-motion effects); then the lower cast members begin getting bumped off one by one by unseen tentacled lurking things. Heads are bloodied, guts are torn open, and the film's shocking highlight involves a buxom blonde crew member getting raped by a huge space worm (maybe she shouldn't have shouted "I hate worms!" on this particular planet). Bad taste for sure, but you won't see it elsewhere and the effects are damned decent. My favourite death is the excruciating moment where a guy gets a blade of crystal in his arm, which then begins to slide up – under the skin – towards his body. He chops off the affected limb, but is then horrified when it moves to attack him! Great stuff indeed.The final death in the film is perhaps the most over-the-top, which is fitting in a way. It involves a body being crushed to death by animated tubing, which rips through limbs and stomach with ease. The final shot is of an exploding head which is very much in-your-face and designed to push the boundaries of taste and decency even further. The cast members seem to be having fun with admittedly undeveloped roles and there are plenty of familiar faces, mostly used to being in US TV shows which makes things rather amusing.We get to see Erin Moran from HAPPY DAYS, Zalman King, and the dashing Edward Albert face his destiny come the climax. Plus supporting roles for exploitation players such as Robert Englund who suddenly disappears at the end, and the ever-great Sid Haig as one of his brooding silent types. Although the "cosmic game" explanation of the climax will have you scratching your head, for the most part this is fast-paced, gruesome, and highly effective viewing. A B-movie as it should be!

On a desolate, storm-lashed planet called Morganthus, survivors of a crashed spaceship are attacked by their fears.Director Bruce D. Clark offers a choppy edited and scripted affair. Nevertheless, there are some interesting kill scenes including a man fighting his doppelgänger, a woman being consumed by a giant maggot (Taaffe O'Connell's notorious death scene), another man being killed by a throwing star by his own severed arm. As with most Roger Corman productions there's plenty of imagination but low budget production values. The cast are an assortment of familiar TV and film actors from Happy Days to V and a Nightmare on Elm St. who do their best with the script and ill-fitting costumes. There's Sid Haig, Robert Englund to name a few. There's some nice effects on display, along with mat paintings and sound effects. Interestingly as a precursor to bigger things, James Cameron serves as production designer and second unit director, there are reminiscent smidgens of The Terminator and Aliens visuals on display, even though not as we lit or executed.Galaxy of Terror is unashamedly a series of kills strung together with gore moments and effects. But so were the majority of films of its genre at time. Worth viewing if only out of interest for the practical effects work.