Who else than B-movie deity Roger Corman would provide inexperienced but enthusiast directors with the necessary budget to create the umpteenth "Alien" rip-off in a span of barely a couple of years? The market was pretty much congested with space-terror movies during the early 80's and even other countries began making them, like the UK ("Inseminoid") and of course Italy ("Contamination"). Did anyone really need another clone of Ridley Scott's masterpiece? And yet it looks like another wise investment for master Corman, as "Galaxy of Terror" is still a guilty pleasure of many horror fans and it's frequently mentioned as one of the more tolerable "Alien"-imitations ever made. Personally I'm not such a big fan, but can see why so many others are! This movie has quite some gory bits, gratuitous sleaze, a fantastic cast and most of all it requires absolutely NO brain activities! "Galaxy of Terror" is unpretentious and relaxing entertainment, but still it could have been a lot better. The opening and closing minutes are incredibly dumb and the movie tends to be tedious whenever there aren't any hideous monsters on display. Luckily the gutsy killings and eerie set designs (by no less than Bill Paxton!) compensate for a lot! A nine-headed expedition is send (at hyper speed) to the unexplored regions of space to find out what happened to a previously vanished spaceship and its crew. Bad idea, of course, because unknown galaxies usually is where big slimy monsters live! And, in the good tradition of the aforementioned "Alien", there's a spy on board of the ship and the female crew-members severely risk to get impregnated by horny extraterrestrial rapists. Robert Englund is pretty great in a somewhat heroic role, a couple of years prior to the start of his successful villain-role of Freddy Krueger in "Nightmare on Elm Street". Zalman King and Erin Moran are good too, but veteran-actor Sig Haig's role should have been bigger.
Review of Galaxy of Terror
