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John Allman

If you’ve ever wandered the aisles at the video store or surfed the DVR pay-per-view options and seen a bunch of movies that you’ve never heard of, chances are John has watched them. Why? He loves movies. All kinds of movies. Good, bad, so-bad-they’re good, even the truly unwatchable ones. He mostly loves horror and science-fiction and drive-in exploitation movies that most upstanding model citizens wouldn’t dare watch. Then he writes up his thoughts so you can decide - watch, don’t watch or avoid at all costs. Sometimes he even gets to talk to the cool folks who make some of your favorite films.

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Roger Corman’s Cult Classics: Forbidden World

Posted Aug 30, 2010 by John Allman

Updated Aug 30, 2010 at 06:39 AM

Forbidden World
Genre: Horror
Directed by: Allan Holzman
Run time: 82 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: “Forbidden World,” the 1982 horror/sci-fi schlockfest, also released as “Mutant,” proves several points early and often in its brief 82 minute runtime:

A good, Goblin-esque synth-heavy score can overcome anything, even scenes that repetitively use the same hallway for characters to run screaming through. Fun fact: According to IMDB, composer Susan Justin was director Allan Holzman’s girlfriend.

If you can’t afford an entire monster, just focus on the head, and make sure it is a pitch black head and has plenty of giant dagger-like teeth. The creature effects in “Forbidden” are pretty laughable. Subject 20, the mutant hybrid between alien spore and human flesh, is never shown in much light, and its facial features are covered with gooky slime and shadows for much of the flick, minimizing the possibility that viewers can point out its flaws. Fun Fact: Special effects maestro John Carl Buechler actually provides some solid, icky effects for decomposing bodies and mutant pod pools of viscous slime. He would go on to provide gory goodness for such great B-classics as “Troll,” “Ghoulies,” “From Beyond” and both the “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Friday the 13th” franchises.

When in doubt, boobs. Proving that even in space, during a crisis, earth girls are easy, “Forbidden” has not one, but two ridiculously hot lead actresses, both of whom have no problem taking off their clothes at completely inopportune times. There’s Dr. Barbara Glaser (June Chadwick), a skankilicious blonde astrophysicist, or something equally as improbable, who immediately comes on to intergalactic bounty hunter/soldier of fortune Mike Colby (the so-wooden-that-termites-are-a-threat Jesse Vint), beds him, lets him go get busy with equally skanktastic research assistant Tracy (Dawn Dunlap) so they can share some full frontal love in a space shower just before the monster attacks, and then Dr. Boobs, er Barbara, and Tracy both get naked in the shower together before putting on terrycloth robes and stripper heels (no joke) and go try to communicate with the monster and its tentacles.

Can’t come up with an original robot character? Just take bits and pieces from other movies and TV shows and cobble them together. SAM-104, the robotic companion of space stud Mike, is like a mash-up of Twiki from “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” and a Cylon from “Battlestar Galactica.”

Overall, “Forbidden World” is a hoot and a half. It was played seriously enough that you can’t tell if the cast and crew thought they were making a good movie. But given that it’s one of Shout! Factory’s awesomely awesome Roger Corman’s Cult Classics, and it was released by New Line Cinema, you know that somewhere, off-camera, a tongue was planted firmly in cheek.

The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – June Chadwick and Dawn Dunlap, who says you can’t wear stripper heels in space?
Nudity – Gratuitous
Gore – Yes
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – Subject 20.
Buy/Rent – Buy it.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – Collectible 12-page color booklet with production photos, a discussion on the film and an essay “How to Make an Alien in 20 Days”; Reversible cover art featuring the original, alternate title “Mutant”; the half-hour documentary, “The Making of Forbidden World”; an interview with Roger Corman; interview with John Carl Buechler; drawings, conception art and posters for the film; trailers for three other Roger Corman Cult Classics; a second disc with the director’s cut of “Mutant” and an audio commentary from director Allan Holzman.
Release Date – July 20, 2010