Forbidden World (1982) – Review

Welcome to the Forbidden World, where science is dangerous, aliens are juicy, and every woman is either a scientist, a seductress, or both, usually while standing next to a fog machine and covered in baby oil. This 1982 cult classic is what happens when you mix Alien, Barbarella, and a 13-year-old boy’s imagination, all under the slimy supervision of B-movie king Roger Corman.

The story follows Federation marshal Mike Colby (Jesse Vint), who lands on the planet Xarbia to investigate a government-sponsored genetic experiment gone wrong, which, of course, is just code for “spend 77 minutes being chased by an alien made of rubber and regret.” Mike is a government “troubleshooter,” which apparently means flying into biohazard death zones and seducing every woman within tractor-beam range. The experiment, naturally, is a bio-engineered mutant lifeform called “Subject 20” that promptly begins killing everyone in the research facility. 

“What? Science always has a few setbacks.”

And who will provide our “science” for this outing? Most importantly, at least for this kind of movie, we have Dr. Barbara Glaser (June Chadwick), the sultry, soft-spoken scientist who never met a situation too dangerous for a shared shower. Barbara balances her scientific curiosity with an uncanny ability to appear in sheer robes at all the wrong (or right?) times. She’s got brains, beauty, and a knack for calmly studying a mutant that’s trying to eat everyone. Her counterpart, Dr. Tracy Baxter (Dawn Dunlap), is the nerdier but no less cleavage-forward lab assistant who’s also deeply committed to science, unless there’s a chance to flirt with Colby.

Who says science can’t be seductive?

Next, we have Dr. Gordon Hauser (Linden Chiles), the head of research and the one who refuses to let the hero just kill the thing, because you have to have at least one irrational scientist in your cast who demands, “We must preserve the creature in the name of science!” But this film has two; we also have Dr. Cal Timbergen (Fox Harris) as the team’s lead geneticist and the creator of the genetically engineered lifeform, Subject 20. He’s obsessed with the science behind it and blind to its growing threat. His ambition to control evolution proves to be his downfall. You know, your typical mad scientist. Meddling in God’s domain is a regular Thursday night for him.

Welcome to the galaxy’s most poorly supervised lab.

Rounding out the cast is lab technician Jimmy Swift (Michael Bowen), who is more of a quick snack for the monster than an actual character, and then there is electrician Brian Beale (Raymond Olive), the station’s head of security and resident macho asshat. He makes up for being bad at his job by dying quickly. And finally, our real MVP: Subject 20—a squishy, slurping, DNA-abomination from space hell, that started as a genetically engineered organism designed to end famine but kind of went in the wrong direction. Their goal sounds noble, right? Wrong. Because these guys don’t care about things like ethics or basic safety protocol and will ignore good sense to achieve said goals. Needless to say, they will not achieve these goals. Subject 20 doesn’t want to solve world hunger—it wants to be the one doing the eating. Together, this crew delivers space horror as only the early ‘80s could: steamy, screamy, and extremely gooey. It’s a symbol of science gone way off the rails.

There’s no containment protocol for this much goo.

Faster than you can say “Recombinant DNA,” this synthetic protein lifeform quickly mutates into a hulking, goo-dripping, alien nightmare with a face only H.R. Giger’s lawyer could love. It slithers through air ducts, dissolves its victims into gooey puddles, and metabolizes human flesh like it’s sipping a smoothie. One by one, the crew members are picked off in gloriously gory fashion, accompanied by the pulsating synthesizer soundtrack of a late-night fever dream. But fear not! There’s still time for a gratuitous steam room scene, some aggressive ‘80s space romance, and plenty of “Oh no, it’s in the lab again!” moments. Eventually, Colby and the surviving crew must figure out how to stop the monster before it reproduces…or worse, escapes.

“Sorry, guys, but not all of us are going to make it.”

Stray Observations:

• The opening space battle is all recycled from Roger Corman’s Battle Beyond the Stars. Corman has always been a conservationist at heart. God bless him.
• To save even more money, they reuse the same film sets designed by James Cameron for Roger Corman’s Galaxy of Terror. Strange that Cameron has never reused any of his sets from Titanic.
• While Beale stalks the facility’s corridors, heading off to his death, the film does quick cuts to Colby and Barbara having sex. I’m no professional film editor, but this was definitely a weird stylistic choice.
• We get our group of idiots scrambling over a very familiar rock outcropping, because you’re not a proper science fiction movie if we don’t see Vasquez Rocks. Sadly, no Gorn makes an appearance.
• Roger Corman has never shied away from ripping off Star Wars, and this film is no exception; the robot SAM-104 looks like it was purchased at an Imperial outlet store.

“I may look like a stormtrooper, but I have better aim.”

Directed by Allan Holzman, and proudly stitched together from spare parts of better movies, this gloriously trashy sci-fi horror gem is the kind of cult classic that wears its B-movie badge like a sticky badge of honour. And let’s be clear, Forbidden World was made for drive-in screens and VHS covers. The gore is juicy, the effects are slimy, and the creature looks like a cross between an alien, a blender, and a rubber chicken—especially in the third act. There’s an impressive amount of screaming, melting, and synth-drenched tension, and just as much gratuitous nudity, often inserted with no narrative justification other than “it’s the 1980s and we can.”

It’s a forbidden world of ridiculous puppets.

It should surprise no one that the “science” in this science fiction movie is dubious at best. This is the kind of movie where a scientist will solemnly utter: “The creature is composed of synthetic DNA… and it’s feeding on protein.” And then, not five minutes later, someone’s head explodes in a glorious fireworks display of slime and foam rubber. It’s all very serious, you see. But let’s be honest—no one comes to Forbidden World for its hard-hitting dialogue. You come for the monster attacks, the low-budget practical effects that somehow still rule, and the fact that every other scene ends in a scream, a shower, or a sizzling pile of goo. Often all three.

“Doctor, you’ve looked better.”

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: this movie looks cheap. Like, “shot-in-your-buddy’s-garage” cheap. The sets are made of fast food cartons and shiny wrapping paper, the monster costume looks like it was cobbled together from melted Halloween masks and then poured over the xenomorph from Alien, and the special effects are about as convincing as a child’s crayon drawing of outer space. The editing? Choppy. The lighting? Mostly “brown.” The monster attacks? Shot in slow motion and awkward close-ups to hide the fact that the creature is about as scary as a soggy beanbag chair. But let’s be honest—this isn’t really about the story or scares. This is a parade of gratuitous nudity, cheap gore, and synth music that sounds like a robot having an existential crisis. It’s Alien meets Skinemax After Dark, sprinkled with mouldy cheese.

“I’m not bad, I’m just written that way.”

In conclusion, if you’re into rubber monsters, synth scores, and the kind of movie where science is mostly just an excuse for mayhem and skin, Forbidden World delivers the goods in gooey, guilty-pleasure fashion. Just don’t go in expecting 2001: A Space Odyssey. This is more like 2001: A Space Orgy, with a killer mutant and some dry ice fog for good measure.