Galaxy of Terror

1981 "ALIEN was the beginning… Hell Has Just Been Relocated!"
5| 1h21m| R| en| More Info
Released: 01 October 1981 Released
Producted By: New World Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

As a lone spaceship proceeds on its long voyage across space, the crew are surprised to encounter a strange pyramid form. Surprise turns to horror as one by one, they discover that their darkest nightmares are all starting to become real. The pyramid has to be behind it all somehow, but how can they save themselves from its influence?

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Reviews

Evengyny Thanks for the memories!
VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
Beanbioca As Good As It Gets
Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
nickboldrini From the first 5 minutes you can tell this is going to be daft. The characters are fairly one dimensional (the rebel captain, the nervous noob, the old man commander), the names and setting are borderline fantasy in genre rather than hard sic fi, and the storyline is fairly silly - characters do daft things for no obvious reason. The cast is a lot of b movie and tv stars you'll recognise even if you can't name them (assuming youre the right sort of age). This is also a rip off of Alien, and might almost have been an inspiration to Aliens... But don't let the comparison fool you into thinking this is of the same quality. This is pure trash, but without having pretensions to be any thing more than that. Its just dumb fun - so just switch off your brain and enjoy the ride.
etusciuk 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.
speakers 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.
Hitchcoc I got caught up in this film, even though it totally confused me. Who are these people and why are they so intent on this mission? it seems that there is a bona-fide death wish. They are all either neurotic, frightened, or pure sociopaths. They have no respect for each other and some have gone around the bend. The seemingly sanest is the cook, played by Ray Walston ("My Favorite Martian"), but that is short lived as well. Corman throws every type of gore and slime he can think of, including a woman being raped by some gigantic maggot. I wish I knew what these people were trying to accomplish. All they seem to do is become isolated and then become the prey of the monsters on the planet. There is perpetual jumping out at people where you can anticipate it happening almost every time there is a solitary figure on the screen. Erin Moran from "Happy Days" has a major role. The whole thing has no moderation. The difference between this film and some of the more successful ones is not in production costs. It has to do with a kind of control, a creation of suspense. Mostly, we are not privy to what motivates these people to do what they do. The dialogue is also about as stilted and downright idiotic as it can get. Still, it's hard to take one's eyes off it at times.