Simply A Masterpiece

Fresh and Exciting

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The Terror Within has to be the most egregious and campy Alien rip-off of them all. The film takes place on Earth in an underground facility called the "Mojave Lab." The crew's mission is to exit the lab and explore the Earth's surface searching for survivors in a future where 99 percent of the human population died off from a virus that they now now have a cure for.In the film's opening two crew members are attached by some vicious mutant creatures they call Gargoyles. But in true low budget fashion we do not see the attack we hear it as the crew members do in a control room. The guy being mulled takes the time to cry out "Jesus Gargoyles." And they are referred to as Gargoyles many times as if to make it abundantly clear they are not Aliens, aka we're not going to get sued.The following are what The Terror Within and Alien have in common:They bring in someone from outside that is the host for the Alie- um, I mean Gargoyle to eventually run around and reek havoc inside their compound.The creature busts out of its host the same way. The instant the thing is seen lunging out of its host they resort to a cut away of our hero "David" played by Andrew Stevens looking on from a observation room and exclaims "Oh my God he's in the air vent." They clearly could not show any of that with the special effects set up they had, so they tell us. It was no surprise the creature retreated to the air vent. A fair share of the action takes place inside the air vents, just like in the Ridley Scott film. Two moonshine swigging crew members are modeled off a pair of characters who are friends and comic relief from Alien. This was so clear to the crew that the costume designer on Terror dressed the "Neil" character played by Tommy Hinkley with a Hawaiian shirt almost identical to the one Harry Dean Stanton wore as "Brett" in Alien.The over all look and tone the film is going for is clearly inspired by it's high budget predecessor. Even some of weapons the crew uses are the same.The unfortunate thing is the first 34 minutes of The Terror Within is uneventful and does not set up anything that you really need to know in order to understand the film. George Kennedy, who was "Hal" the leader of the crew and the other actors gave it their all. They did not have much to work with, the character work was just not there in the script.HOW THEY FELL SHORT:The Gargoyle is an actor in a full body suit and a bulky head piece that only looked good in extreme close ups or in the shadows. (They were aware of this when they made the trailer for the film.)The dialogue is too on the nose and with little use. The "David" character spends the second half of the film armed with a bow and arrow gun, which is never used. The prop was just there, I guess they though he looked good holding it.The best of all is the flame thrower that "Andre" lugs around with him. This is the least practical flame thrower ever conceived. Instead of strapping the fuel tank to the actor, he wheels it around on a hand truck. A HAND TRUCK, you know those carts we use to move furniture. During the opening scene Hal ask David, the owner of a dog Butch to "keep him under control." Then right on cue in comes Butch, the most docile and well trained dog on the planet. They kept this exchange despite casting a dog that makes it laughable. Lastly, the most entertaining sequence in The Terror Within also become the most over the top and ridiculous. There intention was clear, create suspense and have a proper reveal for when the Gargoyle is finally seen. When Andre is attacked by the Gargoyle they assemble a fun series of shots but it ends up making him look like he's standing there for a total of eight seconds waiting to be killed.David realizes the sound of a dog whistle is the Gargoyles only weakness it debilitates him, so they make a tape of it to play back over the speakers so he can hunt it down. The tape breaks just as the Gargoyle starts attacking him. The next seven minutes he is crippled, crawling around and doing everything except simply sounding the dog whistle he has hanging from his neck the whole time.In ClosingIt's goofs like this that lend to the overall charm of the film. In an attempt to duplicate a space epic like Alien on a budget estimated to be the cost of a new sports car, the film makers of The Terror Within have produced a low rent romp that is SO BAD IT'S GOOD. Beside the slow start, the film is oddly entertaining. They made a sequel in 1991 so the film must have been profitable.The Shout Factory DVD packages this film along with Dead Space (1990), another Corman produced Alien coin-up.There is really only one special feature on the DVD, a Feature Commentary by Fred Gallo the Director of Dead Space. If you are an aspiring filmmaker or enjoy informative and entertaining commentaries, this is a must own.

A handful of folks hole up in an underground laboratory in a remote desert region after a plague wipes out most of mankind. Trouble ensues when a pregnant survivor gives birth to a vicious predatory mutant (Jack Valan in a gnarly rubber suit) who quickly grows to adult size and goes on a murderous rampage. Director Thierry Notz, working from a familiar, but serviceable script by Robert McKelvey (it's basically your umpteenth "Alien" rehash), does a capable job of creating and sustaining a grimly serious tone throughout, milks a considerable amount of claustrophobic suspense from the subterranean setting, delivers a handy helping of nasty gore, and stages the tense and thrilling climax with real skill and verve. This film starts out a bit too slow, but fortunately kicks into high gear and really starts cracking once the monster gets loose. The sound acting by the sturdy cast helps a lot: Andrew Stevens as the rugged David, George Kennedy as no-nonsense lab head Hal, Starr Andreeff as the sweet, spunky Sue, Terri Treas as tough, feisty doctor Linds, John LaFayette as the easygoing Andre, and Tommy Hinkley as wisecracking goofball Neil. Stevens' dog Butch is likewise impressive as a gutsy and protective expert tracking canine. Moreover, there are also a few effectively harsh touches which include an attempted abortion that goes hideously awry and an extremely brutal monster rape set piece. Ronn Schmidt's competent cinematography makes the most out of the desolate desert and tightly confined lab locations. Rick Conrad's shivery score does the spirited shuddery trick. A fun flick.

Stupid thing-that-would-not-die mess has George Kennedy (no idea why he is in this) leading a group of humans who live underground in a post-apocalyptic future. Biological warfare has all but destroyed most all the human race and gargoyle-styled monsters roam all over the Earth's surface. Soon Kennedy and his crew have to come up to get food and rescue a frightened young girl who seems to be on the brink of death. Naturally they take her underground, but what they don't know is that she is carrying the child of one of the monsters who raped her. What do you suppose will happen when she gives birth? Another crazed picture from the sci-fi/horror genre of the 1980s never did do much business at the box office and made no real impression with the very few that sat through this yawner. Typical jack-in-the-box scares are not near enough to save so much unwanted dead time. Turkey (0 stars out of 5).

But what else would expect from the likes of Roger Corman?Chemical warfare experiment kills of most of the world's population. There are a few 'normal' people left like our protagonists (Andrew Stevens, George Kennedy, Teri Treas, etc..) and then there are the gargoyle-like creatures who impregnate female humans in order to procreate their own kind.See, Andrew Stevens & Co. are left inside an underground lab that spared them from the effects of the plague, so in one of their reconnaissance patrols out in the desert, they bring back a wounded human female (Yvonne Saa) to the complex in order to treat her. When they find out is that she is pregnant and that she was impregnated by one of the monsters, they decide to do an abortion. But just as they're about ready to perform the procedure, the little gargoyle pops out of her stomach ALIEN-style and escapes into one of the complex's air vents. It's an ok scene but we've all seen it before.Stevens & Co. then spend the rest of the movie trying to hunt down the creature as they are slowly being killed off one-by-one. The best scene is towards the end of the film when one of the gargoyles is trapped in the ventilation shaft and is cut up, sliced and diced by the fan blades. Pretty good although I wish it were more graphic.It looks like Corman & Co. spent a little bit of money on the set design but don't expect any of the fanciest gizmos from STAR WARS or any of the ALIEN sequels. At least the sets don't look too much like cardboard.Released on DVD the same time as THE NEST (Teri Treas appears in both), you could do a lot worse on a Saturday night. You could also do a lot better, too. 6 out of 10