Forbidden World is set sometime in the distant future as the galaxy is on the brink of starvation, on an isolated desert planet called Xarbia a team of genetic scientists have tried to create a new form of food that grows at an incredible rate. Unfortunately their tampering with the genetic code & splicing of DNA has resulted in a living experiment simply known as 'Subject 20' which has already wrecked a lab, killed various animals & has turned into a cocoon of some sort while it changes, the incident worries the top brass & company troubleshooter Commander Mike Colby (Jesse Vint) is sent in to 'clean up'. Once on Xarbia Colby meets head scientist Dr. Gordon Hauser (Linden Chiles) & his assistant Barbara Glaser (June Chadwick) who fill him in, Colby wants to destroy the static cocoon before it hatches while Hauser wants to save his research. Soon the decision becomes irrelevant as it hatches anyway & kills unsuspecting crew-member Jimmy (Michael Bowen), now with a slimy genetic mutant with lots of sharp teeth & powerful tentacles slithering around no one is safe as it sees us humans as a nice source of food...
Co-edited & directed by Allan Holzman Forbidden World is a decent enough Alien (1979) rip-off, the way the alien looks, the way it goes through different stages of appearance plus the overall look & feel of the film will remind you of Alien. The script by Tim Curnen doesn't set it's sights very high, basically it's nothing more than an excuse to have a slimy alien running around a space station feeding on the crew, that's it. The film takes itself 100% seriously which works fairly well although some of the static scientific dialogue is somewhat dull to listen too & becomes a little confusing. The alien creature is OK but doesn't really do much, the character's take great pains to point out how intelligent it is but it never really shows any, I mean it's not like it discovered a cure for the common cold was it? Now that would make it intelligent... The filmmakers obviously had exploitation on their minds as Forbidden World features a fair amount of nudity, slime & blood which is fine as far as I'm concerned. It's far from a masterpiece, it's a bit slow & dull at times but it doesn't try to be anything other than a 'slimy alien on the loose killing people' sci-fi horror film very much in the mould of Alien.
Director Holzman doesn't do anything special & the film has a number of flaws, first the alien creature is very static, fake looking & hardly moves. Now on to the single most annoying aspect of Forbidden World, the lighting or rather the complete lack of it. The film is so dark at times it's very difficult to see whats happening, other people have mentioned this as well & I really do think it's down to the original filmmakers rather than just a bad VHS/DVD print (although the stills on the back of my VHS box are crystal clear & slightly brighter than the corresponding scenes within the film itself). The film isn't as gory as some would have you believe, there's some cool melting people & plenty of gooey slime although not much violence, someone is impaled on a tentacle complete with a fountain of blood-spray & in the films most notorious moment a scientist has DIY surgery to remove a cancerous growth. There's a fair amount of nudity as well which I ain't complaining about.
Technically Forbidden World is alright, the production design has dated the film badly & the sets remind of Alien. The special effects on the creature are average at best although the gore effects are actually very good. The editing is a bit erratic at times as well as it tries to inject some life & menace into the creature. The acting was OK but nothing special.
Forbidden World is an Alien rip-off & nothing more, it's as simple & straight forward as that. For what it is it's OK but because of the fact you can hardly see anything & it's touch too basic, it has no ambition of it's own other than to cash in on the success of Alien by trying to copy it. Worth watching as long as you don't expect too much, it could have been better but it could have been worse. Produced by king of the cheapies Roger Corman who also produced another early 80's sci-fi horror Galaxy of Terror (1981) which is a better film than Forbidden World in my opinion...
Co-edited & directed by Allan Holzman Forbidden World is a decent enough Alien (1979) rip-off, the way the alien looks, the way it goes through different stages of appearance plus the overall look & feel of the film will remind you of Alien. The script by Tim Curnen doesn't set it's sights very high, basically it's nothing more than an excuse to have a slimy alien running around a space station feeding on the crew, that's it. The film takes itself 100% seriously which works fairly well although some of the static scientific dialogue is somewhat dull to listen too & becomes a little confusing. The alien creature is OK but doesn't really do much, the character's take great pains to point out how intelligent it is but it never really shows any, I mean it's not like it discovered a cure for the common cold was it? Now that would make it intelligent... The filmmakers obviously had exploitation on their minds as Forbidden World features a fair amount of nudity, slime & blood which is fine as far as I'm concerned. It's far from a masterpiece, it's a bit slow & dull at times but it doesn't try to be anything other than a 'slimy alien on the loose killing people' sci-fi horror film very much in the mould of Alien.
Director Holzman doesn't do anything special & the film has a number of flaws, first the alien creature is very static, fake looking & hardly moves. Now on to the single most annoying aspect of Forbidden World, the lighting or rather the complete lack of it. The film is so dark at times it's very difficult to see whats happening, other people have mentioned this as well & I really do think it's down to the original filmmakers rather than just a bad VHS/DVD print (although the stills on the back of my VHS box are crystal clear & slightly brighter than the corresponding scenes within the film itself). The film isn't as gory as some would have you believe, there's some cool melting people & plenty of gooey slime although not much violence, someone is impaled on a tentacle complete with a fountain of blood-spray & in the films most notorious moment a scientist has DIY surgery to remove a cancerous growth. There's a fair amount of nudity as well which I ain't complaining about.
Technically Forbidden World is alright, the production design has dated the film badly & the sets remind of Alien. The special effects on the creature are average at best although the gore effects are actually very good. The editing is a bit erratic at times as well as it tries to inject some life & menace into the creature. The acting was OK but nothing special.
Forbidden World is an Alien rip-off & nothing more, it's as simple & straight forward as that. For what it is it's OK but because of the fact you can hardly see anything & it's touch too basic, it has no ambition of it's own other than to cash in on the success of Alien by trying to copy it. Worth watching as long as you don't expect too much, it could have been better but it could have been worse. Produced by king of the cheapies Roger Corman who also produced another early 80's sci-fi horror Galaxy of Terror (1981) which is a better film than Forbidden World in my opinion...