Highly Overrated But Still Good

Excellent adaptation.

Best movie ever!

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

I will start this review by saying I love low-budget movies. As a kid I was bombarded by them on Saturday-afternoon TV, plus my father was always showing me these strange ones from the 70's and 80's that were made in Canada, Italy, countries like that. I have been around those types of movies even since the age of 3, 23 years ago. Roger Corman is obviously one of the first names you think of when you think low-budget films. I am a fan of him myself. To get to the review this is one of the films I have heard about and read about in countless magazines, movie trailers, review sites, etc., but never seen until just recently. Warning! This review will probably have spoilers!This film starts off looking like a low-budget Star Trek-type space opera, about 10-12 minutes in it becomes more of an Alien clone, ending up with an ending that is like a psychological mind-bender. To put the plot-line in as basic a way as possible without telling too much, pretty much a ship-crew goes on a mission examining another ship that was lost on a planet and find out something is way wrong with the situation.The acting for the most part was okay. They weren't really great, but it was not exactly dull or mediocre. Granted most of the actors probably didn't do too much before this so I could forgive it for that reason, although Robert Englund does a good job.The soundtrack for me wasn't necessarily great. It was one of the soundtracks that fit the circumstances, how it was a lot of weird sounds and synth chords, so it works as a film-being-a-horror-type standpoint, but I didn't enjoy it as a way of being something that I would listen to on it's own for enjoyment. So the soundtrack is good, but not that type of good. It was composed by Barry Schrader.The effects in this movie is fantastic. From the weird looking computer animations on the ships computers systems, to the stomach-twisting, and surprisingly graphic blood and guts effects. This film was definitely made before CGI, so they had to come up with creative ways to make the effects, and they are great. Nowadays they spend thousands of dollars making these effects on computers that for the most part end up looking like crap, and here they are in this film using techniques that are very cheap to make, some of the effects and stuff probably not taking more than 30-40 dollars to make and these look way better than most of these computer-generated effects you see today. The effects in this film do not disappoint. The only effect I didn't really care for was the weird red glow around the mystical beings head, but that was about it.This film was surprisingly graphic, violent,and psychologically and philosophically deep for not only a Roger Corman film, but for low-budget 80's films in general. Also the cinematography and camera work for the most part was pretty good. Set designs as well. The alien planet was very creepy in appearance and you did get a real sense of dread looking at it. This film genuinely gives you goose bumps, sometimes before anything even happens. This film does give you some real shocks. James Cameron was also one of the production designers for this film, and some of the effects and landscapes does make you think of his work in Aliens. If you are a fan of science fiction-based horror films or low-budget films, check this out. It is a recommended watch. I give this film a 7.5 out of 10.

I love watching bad 80s science-fiction and this fits the bill. The special effects are shoddy, even for the time; the actors all take turns at chewing the scenery, apart from Robert Englund who has a natural charm throughout the film.The story is that a ship with a crew entirely chosen by the Master (whose head glows bright red for no accountable reason), have been sent to rescue the crew from another ship that has crashed on a remote planet. Each one is introduced with a sketchy characterisation which is pretty much all the background you get; there's the weirdly manic, driven captain (with terrible ageing make-up), the commander who is obviously "too old for this s**t", the sullen leader who hates the jovial moustache man, the pretty psychic the moustache loves, the buxom blonde, the cook with secrets, the semi-mute who carries some plastic throwing stars, the coward, the cheery tech guy.The moment they land and investigate the crashed ship, things start to go wrong. They also do odd things, like incinerating the bodies in the crashed ship or splitting up for no good reason which leads to the death of the coward. The ones left behind in the ship fare no better; the Captain begins to hallucinate she is facing an old enemy from a previous disaster where she was the only survivor. After firing the ships weaponry, she picks up an enormous gun and dies in a completely unexplained way.At this point, the plot and the character motivations go out of the window and everybody turns their acting up to 11; the mute is killed by his own plastic stars and the poor blonde is raped to death by a giant slimy maggot, in a scene that is as uncomfortable to watch as it must have been to act.After killing almost everyone else, the plot then takes a metaphysical left turn which would have been a masterstroke had it not been setup so badly at the beginning and rushed at the end.Try this film as a basis for a drinking game (a shot every time someone does something really stupid or a character dies or the dialogue makes you cringe) and you'll have a great, if rather drunk, time.

I am not sure why I actually finished watching this crummy movie. The only semi-decent acting came from Edward Albert. All the others including Erin Morin must have taken this role because she needed the money. She must not have a residuals agreement for the numerous "Happy Days" reruns that are all over the TV screen. I don't think she was all that good then either. The special effects are some of the worst I have ever seen for this time period. There are a couple of questions that come up but are never answered. Why was Baelon such an emotional wreck? Why so angry? Why did they burn all the bodies they came across? Who in their right mind would send a newbie Cos out on his own to search a crash. I mean if I had written this script (no way in hell) I would have paired him with someone, that way two could be killed instead of just him. The entire plot of this movie seemed to be to select the new Master" for what ever world they came from. Another point is where is the food source for the creatures that appear? This is an extremely poorly done movie and I hope ALL the copies and the original get destroyed.

OK he was the Production Designer... but his name was top of the credits at the end of the film. This is a low budget Roger Corman film who brought us a lot of other cheesy movies that I personally like to watch. To no surprise many of the actors who get started in Roger Corman films go on to bigger and better parts. For example; Jack Nicholson in his 1963 production of "The Raven". In Galaxy of Terror we have a cast of virtual unknowns like; Robert Englund and Zalman King. There are some other familiar faces in this movie such as; Ray Walston, Erin Moran, and Sid Haig. The acting is crap, it is a poorly done remake of several sci-fi plots, and the special effects are mediocre. But that is what this movie has going for it, from the perspective that it is something to laugh at and poke fun. I laughed at Cos, "panicky guy role" played by Jack Blessing. For a bunch of tough space rescue team, they all seemed to scream a lot. All the movie monsters in this one are laughable, but just because this is a inferior and shoddy sci-fi/horror movie doesn't mean it should be viewed by children. Dameia played by Taaffe O'Connell, by far, had the best tasteless death scene in the whole movie. Just as bad as Ellen Sandweiss death scene in "The Evil Dead", when she was raped by the woods... not in the woods, by the woods.Good for a MST3K party, get some friends over and rent or view it on Netflix this month.