Galaxy of Terror (1981)
There’s no horror here we don’t create ourselves
Galaxy of Terror is an Alien (1979) inspired film shall we say from Roger Corman with all the goodness you can imagine that brings.
On a far away planet the last survivor of a crashed spaceship is killed. On yet another far away planet a game played by two is interrupted with news of this incident so one of them who has a red glowing head which obscures his face orders a ship to be sent to investigate.
So here we meet our motley crew and it isn’t a stretch to suggest that sending Mötley Crüe would have been a far better idea.
The captain immediately endears herself to the crew through multiple pointlessly reckless actions that result in the ship crash landing. It does land on the planet it is supposed to so that is something.
Now the crew are not any better than their captain. These are the standard misfits from any similar B-movie but amongst the actors are Sid Haig, Robert Englund, Ray Walston and Erin Moran who played Joanie Cunningham from The Happy Days who all give great performances even if they don’t have much to do.
So during a disastrous initial search of the ship they were sent to investigate the most irritating member of the crew is murdered.
Not so disastrous all things considered…
The crew start to come apart and decide they need to find the source of whatever is keeping them marooned on the planet.
They find a massive pyramid-like structure and reluctantly investigate. Things don’t go well with tempers flaring and the fact they who they are which means if they were tasked with stock taking in a corner-shop they would probably find a way to fuck that up.
As incompetent as they largely seem to be could there be something manipulating them on an emotional level?
This was such a fun watch. Classic 80s space-fare Alien rip-off with excellent sets that were designed by Aliens (1986) director James Cameron and built by Aliens (1986) actor Bill Paxton.
Its true, AltaVista that. You might need to google what AltaVista is first.
Lovely practical effects with the classic man-in-a-suit monster and make-up effects lead to some very nice and gory deaths.
Not something I expected seeing Joanie Cunningham in.
This does walk the line of exploitation at times but that isn’t bad so if these 80s B-movies are your sort of thing then this is for you.
