Review: "Forbidden World"
The 1980s had a lot going for it as far as movies went: insane plots, great music, neon, T&A, cocaine, and practical effects. This movie has it all, but is it good?
On the edge of the galaxy sits the planet of Xarbia. Given how remote and isolated Xarbia is, it is used for "questionable" experiments. Testing using a lifeform designated "Subject 20" has begun, combining it with the synthetic DNA called "Proto B," and things have gone wrong almost from the beginning. One of the scientists in charge of the experiment was killed, and the subject in question has now gone into a hibernating state.
Officer Mike Colby is headed home in cryo-sleep on board his spacecraft, looking forward to a bit of deserved R&R when he is awoken by his robo co-pilot, Sam. They are about to fly into a battle that he will need Colby to assist in surviving. After dispatching the enemies around them, they are given new orders and new coordinates to reach. They are headed to the planet of Xarbia with orders to find a rogue lifeform and either capture or destroy it.
I feel it is my duty to start off this review with a warning about this film. If you are the absolute LEAST bit sensitive to flashing lights/images, this is NOT a movie to be messed with. It starts off fine, but about 10mins in, there is a slew of flashing lights during the opening battle, and then once Colby gets planetside, things only get worse. Wow!
Now, getting back to a review of the film as a whole... It's fine. I actually really enjoyed the fact that it was full of practical effects. Honestly, the special effects for the time are actually pretty good. Forbidden World seems to have had a beefy budget. Possibly because the cast is almost all just random character actors for the time. None of the cast names were any that I immediately recognized.
As far as a xeno-massacre space movie goes, there are way worse movies out there. Made in the early 80s, it's easy to see that they had yet to shed the shackles of that decade's T&A tropes. The female actresses spend most of their time either nude or just screaming. The one girl, Tracy, literally spent the entire film being told where to go, what to do, and screaming in terror the entire time. The monster alien in its final form is a laughably bad rubber puppet, absolutely stuffed with gore and gross, squishy things. Again, though, it's fine.
This is not a sequel to the Leslie Neilson movie "Forbidden Planet" at all, sadly. It will not end up on anyone's "Top 10" list for space horror. It's a perfectly serviceable horror movie, and I feel that is exactly the kind of movie I want to open this marathon with.
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