Mutant

Well I've known and loved this one, since I was a tyke, and now own this video. It's your basic Alien ripoff, with a bunch of scientists hiding out in a remote space station on Xarba, where a troubleshooter Jesse Vint comes to save the day. However, the problem is an experiment, which turns out to be an alien, that escapes and goes on a rampage. However, the best thing about this film is the element of pure cheese; if you like how Corman used to put cheese in his films, you'll love this. Anyhow, the best is probably where they forcefeed the alien a lump of cancer and make 'em puke. That's great. However, the acting's pretty amateurish, the directing is about awful, the set and FX are about average for mid80s, the one thing though is the change of lights throughout the film, which can be found in Event Horizon and a dozen other films. It's a great cheesy flick for drivein and/or Corman fans, but those expecting a contender to ALien well you've been warned.

Look. Don't expect top notch quality here. This is your typical straight to VHS shlock. I used to eat this kind of film up as a kid on Cinemax. To be honest, this type of filmmaking is hard to come by these days. The VHS/Rental store era was a special time. Shame that this isn't a thing anymore, and streaming sites are more concerned with ensuring top quality (or close to it) film fare. Do yourself a favor. If you come across these old Roger Corman productions, watch it. It may be tough sometimes, but the payoff is worth it.

Yet another cheap 'n cheesy early 80's "Alien" rip-off produced by Roger "King of the B's" Corman! This given alone is more than enough reason to proceed with caution and keep your expectations to a minimum. Then, during the opening credits sequence, your first impressions are most likely to seep to an even deeper level, as the first five minutes are a headache-inducing and utterly pointless compilation of confusing and hectic images that make no sense at all. But please do your best to struggle yourself through this crappy opening, because "Forbidden World" does eventually get interesting and worthwhile. Well, in all honesty … it's crap from start to finish! But hey, at least it's tremendously entertaining crap! We're in the darkest regions of outer space, somewhere in a distant future, but there's no menace of aliens this time. The cool-looking monster on the VHS cover is mankind's own little mistake-creation, spawned on a spaceship where the crew was actually trying to discover new types of food sources. Now they're up against a continuously growing monster that somehow understands English, yet dramatically misinterprets the meaning of the verb "co-exist". Lone space ranger Mike Colby (Jesse Vint) is called to the rescue, but he doesn't really contribute anything, except having sex with the female crew members on board. What a guy! Another scientist member of the expedition eventually comes up with an admittedly creative (but totally ludicrous) plan to destroy the monster. Naturally, I can't reveal anything about the denouement, but rest assured it's 100% original and hilarious. The cinematography is dreadfully dark and unclear, presumably to camouflage the ultra-cheap and tacky set pieces and make-up effects. The monster is very cool, though, and the killings are amusingly gross and bloody. The aforementioned "co-exist" scene truly priceless and any horror fan with a slight sense of humor will LOVE that moment. Alan Holzman didn't have any experience directing movies back in 1982, but he does a fairly adequate job and admirably prevents his cast from going over the top. Following good old Roger Corman traditions, there's some great sleaze and nudity to enjoy and also the dialogs are imbecilic but fun. Highly recommended in case you can tolerate B-movie cheapness.

Forbidden World isn't exactly a stellar film, but it sure is an entertaining one! This shameless Alien rip-off is packed to the brim with gore and nudity and never pretends to be more than just an hour and seventeen minutes of pure escapism.

For a low-budget movie, the research station set doesn't look bad at all. There might not be much more than a few corridors, some sleeping quarters, a sauna (yes, a sauna, guess why) and a laboratory, but it's quite an atmospheric place. Also, the practical effects are rather good, with bloody corpses that ooze slime from every pore and a shape-shifting monster (bearing more than a passing resemblance to Alien's Xenomorph) to admire. The catchy synth soundtrack is also worth mentioning.

If you're looking for a serious sci-fi horror movie, steer well clear of this film, but if you're in the mood for a bit of trashy fun, you could do a lot worse than Forbidden World!

I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs.

Revisited it recently on a fast forward mode.

The movie has a lousy sex scene mixed with a lousy 'cannot make out wots going on' kill scene.

Dawn Dunlap's nudity is the only saving grace. She looks more like a younger Denise Richards.

The fight towards the end with the alien looks as if the guy is fighting a bull or something but that too is ruined with shaky cam n reddish flickering lights.

Were the end flashback scenes required?