What is the number of extraterrestrial movies you have seen? Of course, I do not want you to count! However, here’s an alien film with a twist. What is your deepest apprehension? Fear of a terrifying monster, insect, or even yourself, not just any abstract fear! What if the extraterrestrial takes on the form of your worst fear? That is the secret plot of Roger Corman’s 1981 horror sci-fi picture “Galaxy of Terror,” directed by B.D. Clark. Last but not least, James Cameron served as the film’s production designer and second unit director.
The film, which was co-written by B.D. Clark is a mix of Ridley Scott’s “Alien” and the 1956 horror classic “Forbidden Planet.” The story follows a crew of explorers who are sent to the planet Morganthus on a rescue mission. They come across a massive pyramid-like edifice and are promptly murdered by monsters shaped in the image of their deepest fears.
Roger Corman is noted for following the trend of making low-budget films in a short amount of time. It is no surprise that he followed the same path that led to the 1979 blockbuster “Alien” Corman is also known for selecting talented individuals who can produce the greatest production design in a timely and cost-effective manner. James Cameron stepped in at that point. Cameron’s creative abilities resulted in awe-inspiring designs for the costumes and settings. Cameron is said to have built the spaceship interiors and planet surfaces out of burger boxes.
Cameron was dissatisfied with the lighting and cinematography after designing the incredible set. Yo, the foundation stone for one of the greatest directors the world will remember was laid when he opted to walk behind the camera. Cameron met Corman’s assistant, Gail Anne Hurd, on the sets of “Galaxy of Terror.” He assisted Cameron in the production of future Cameron films such as “The Terminator,” “Aliens,” and “The Abyss.” Cameron met Alec Gillis through this picture, and they eventually worked together as a creature effects coordinator on “Aliens” and “Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem.”
For lengthy gore and the famed huge worm rape sequence, the MPAA first gave the film an ‘X’ classification. The MPAA gave the picture an ‘R’ rating after a few cuts. The rape scene was added afterward to the picture in order to keep Corman’s promise to the producers of including a nude, sensual sequence. Although actress Taffe O’Connell and director Clark were not pleased with the rape scene, they eventually agreed to Corman’s decision.
Let us now travel to the strange planet of Morganthus to learn about the explorers’ worst fears.
Exploring The Darkest Fears on Morganthus
The movie commenced on a dark, deserted planet, Morganthus, with a panic-stricken explorer running frantically inside a spaceship. There was a corpse lying with part of his scalp missing, and the terrified man was escaping from something, but it was not clear what the strange thing was.
On another planet, Xerxes, two people were seen playing some game. One of them was being referred to as the Planet Master, whose head was veiled in a glow of red light like a sun. The Master received a transmitted signal, informing that all contacts with the spaceship Ramus were lost near planet Morganthus. The Master immediately ordered a rescue mission with the spaceship Quest and the crew that he particularly chose.
The mission was led by Commander Ilvar, featured by Bernard Behrens. Captain Trantor, featured by Grace Zabriskie, was the spaceship’s slightly demented Captain, the sole survivor of a massacre that had occurred aboard spaceship Hesperus. The other crew members included Cabren, the cool-headed space veteran; Alluma, who was psi-sensitive; Ranger and Dameia, the technical officers of the spaceship; Kore, the ship’s cook featured by Ray Walston; Baelon, the second in command; Quuhod, the crystal shuriken thrower and Cos, an inexperienced crewman. Ranger was starred by Robert Englund, best known for the “Nightmare on Elm Street” film series, and Taffe O’Connell starred as Dameia.
The Quest roared into space as Captain Trantor granted the crew only 30 seconds to prepare for the launch, and once the spaceship settled in space, she decided to hyper- jump for saving time. But as soon as the spaceship neared the planet Morganthus, Captain Trantor was no longer able to control the spaceship, as some unseen force took over. Somehow, Quest managed to crash land on the planet, and the crew prepared to commence their rescue mission. The rescue team consisting of Quuhod, Alluma, Cabren, and Cos, led by Baelon, reached the wrecked spaceship Ramos, and all they found were mutilated corpses. Cos was already scared to death from the very beginning and was left behind as his seniors moved on. Suddenly he was attacked by a gruesome monstrous insect and killed.
Back in Quest, Ranger and Daemia performed autopsies on Cos and another corpse from Ramos. Alluma revealed that she sensed something around Cos, but once he died, it disappeared, which everyone but Baelon believed. Meanwhile, Ilvar conveyed that the scanner of the ship stopped at a point that could not be detected, and they had no option but to investigate the source of that point themselves. As the team led by captain Ilvar approached the issue, they discovered a pyramidal structure that Alluma felt was “empty” and “dead.” Ilvar, Cabren, and Daemia decided to investigate the perimeter while Baelon, Alluma, and Quuhod climbed up the structure.
Ilvar eventually found an opening and decided to lower himself down, and while sliding down the rope, another worm-like creature with tentacles sucked up his blood and slaughtered him. Cabren and Daemia joined the rest and informed them about Ivar’s uncanny death.
Quuhod tossed his crystal shurikens to open a doorway, but to his dismay, the shurikens shattered into pieces. Quuhod guarded the entrance as the rest moved on. Suddenly Quuhod found his shurikens reassembling into its original form. His joy was soon converted to horror as a piece of the shuriken pierced his hand and started moving up. Quuhod sliced off his arm to stop it from penetrating further, but the severed arm threw another shuriken towards him and killed him.
Dameia discovered Quuhod’s dead body and his severed arm covered with maggots. It is worth mentioning here that Cameron used real maggots, and to make them wriggle, he invented a setup with a flow of current while the electric cables were hidden beneath the set. As soon as someone switched on the current, the maggots would wriggle frantically. Two producers present on the set were so impressed with Cameron’s innovative ideas that they signed him for their next film, “Piranha II: The Spawning”, released in 1981.
Back in the film, Dameia was extremely scared of worms, and though she burnt the severed hand and the maggots, one worm survived. It grew bigger and bigger, into a giant worm and severely raped and killed Daemia leading to the most controversial erotic scene of the film, which is quite intense. If this is the censored version, it is scary to imagine what the uncut version would have been like! How can this be someone’s darkest fear? I really don’t know! On that note, Taffe O’Connell was almost crushed under the enormous giant worm structure during the shoot.
Back in Quest, Captain Trantor started behaving abnormally. Suddenly she imagined Kore as a spy and started running. As soon as she tried to open an airlock, a blast occurred, killing her instantly. Inside the pyramid, the remaining team, to their horror, found the nude body of Dameia covered in slime, as Baelon fired a flare and incinerated her. They returned to the Quest, and though Alluma desperately wanted to go back to their planet, Cabren decided to re-explore the pyramidal structure as it might prevent them from escaping. Five of them returned to the structure, and this time they slid through a tunnel and reached a strange, perplexing place where ultimately everyone became separated. While Baelon was attacked by a grizzly creature and thrown outside the pyramid, Ranger was attacked by his replica, but he managed to survive.
A petrified Alluma attempted to reach Cabren but found herself confined in a small tunnel. As she slid along, she was grabbed by the tentacles of an unknown monster leading to the most gruesome murder of the movie. Actually, Erin Moran featuring Alluma had consented to shoot a nude scene, but later she changed her mind and agreed to a vicious death. Ranger and Cabren realized that their deepest fears came to life inside the pyramidal structure.
When they thought there was nothing else left for them to fear, they saw Kore standing at the top of the pyramid, and when Cabren climbed up to him, he found Kore’s head covered by the red light, indicating that Kore indeed was the Planet Master. He told Cabren that the pyramid was an ancient toy for children, of a long-lost tribe to reveal and control their darkest fears.
Cabren was infuriated to learn all this because if Kore wanted, he could have saved all those who had died. Kore also stated that Cabren had proved himself to be fearless among all, but he would also have to learn to control his emotions. Soon all the previous creatures and all his teammates attacked Cabren, but he survived all the assaults and returned to Kore. Kore stated that Cabren had won the game and he would become the new Planet Master just as Kore had become the Master when he won. Hence Cabren killed Kore, and as the red radiating ball of energy circled Cabren’s head, the pyramid lit up and became dark again. Cabren had become the new Planet Master.
Apparently, the “Galaxy of Terror” plot is quite interesting, setting it apart from many other Alien invasion movies, but the film appeared too short to explore the storyline. Viewers hardly understand the concept of the darkest fears coming to life before almost most of the crew is dead. None of the characters are explained suitably, while the major emphasis seems to be on the vicious murders. But considering the fact that the budget of the film was less than $1 m, the set, costumes, and creature effects are remarkable.
Many critics also believed that the choice of cast for the movie was entirely unexpected, but everyone pulled off their characters quite well. Sid Haig felt that the script didn’t suit his character, so he took Corman’s permission to remain mute most of the time. Quuhod’s death was also bizarre. There is no way to understand what exactly was his darkest fear! Nothing is more disappointing than a bland execution of an exciting plot. But the movie, for sure, proved to be the stepping stone for a few chosen ones, whose carriers took a hyper-jump from here.
The Pyramidal Structure and Deadly Creatures – Explored
The concept of the pyramid in the film ”Galaxy of Terror” is closely associated with the “Alien” movie. Dan O Bannon’s original script of the “Alien” mentioned two main objects. One was the dilapidated vessel that sent SOS signals, and the other was an alien pyramid. It also stated that the aliens were a unique annihilated race who performed a strange religious-based reproductive system within the pyramid structures. The explorers on the planet were supposed to find alien eggs inside this pyramid structure. But later, Ridley Scott and H. R. Giger decided to change the pyramidal structure to a honeycombed Egg Silo structure. However, the concept of the Silo was also rejected by Scott, due to lack of time and budget. Well, now we know that “Galaxy of Terror” succeeded in creating and highlighting the pyramid structure, which Scott and Giger failed to do.
Though the pyramid in “Galaxy of Terror” had nothing to do with reproduction, it was represented as a toy belonging to some long-lost Alien civilization. The structure was built to reveal the darkest fears of children in an enlarged form, and to enable them to control their fear and emotion. But the crew of the Quest had no clue about this phenomenal power of the pyramid, and so before they could comprehend anything, they were slaughtered by their own fears. Their darkest fears manifested in the highest forms and murdered them brutally. This bizarre power of the structure had eventually become a daring game to select the Planet Master.
The winner of the game undoubtedly would be someone who possessed the highest ability to control fear and emotion. As we see in the “Galaxy of Terror,” Cabren was the fearless man who also succeeded in controlling his emotions, and hence he succeeded the previous Planet Master, Kore. The structure had so much power that it was able to override the auto-pilot system of any spacecraft in its vicinity and attracted the spacecraft until it crash-landed, as we have seen with both Quest and Ramus that crashed on Morganthus.
A colossal massacre had also occurred in Ramus, as is evident from the first scene. The structure could not even be detected by the scanner of any spaceship, and it would not allow any spaceship to escape from its clutches. Alluma, who was psi-sensitive, was right about the structure being ’empty’ and ‘dead.’ We can conclude that the pyramid that we didn’t get in the “Alien” was used for giving life, while the pyramid we did get in the “Galaxy of Terror” was for taking lives.
Examining ”Galaxy of Terror” as a Rip-off of “Alien.”
For ages, it has been a trend to produce rip-offs of a highly successful film that has enthralled the audience. Ridley Scott’s “Alien” was no exception. We get a series of rip-offs in the next decade, beginning with the 1979 John Cardo film, “The Dark,” followed by films like “Saturn 3”, “Inseminoid,” “Intruder Within,” and many more. But Corman’s “Galaxy of Terror” proved to be a sensational, thrilling version of “Alien” with grisly attacks, excessive violence, and nudity.
The film can be considered as a classic example of a B-movie with maximum use of resources—a twisted plot of the “Alien” presented in low budget yet impressive manner. The sets of this film were reused in the film released the following year, “Forbidden World.” Cameron and his team’s effort to reuse and recycle scraps into an incredible set would have yielded him an award of “Champions of the Earth” had it all occurred at present.
Reasons to Watch the Movie
The movie indeed has its moments, especially the deaths of Daemia and Alluma successfully triggering the adrenaline rush with a terrifying impact. You can watch the movie if you need the adrenaline rush. You must watch the film if you are an “Alien” fan. If you are a James Cameron fan, you might love to watch the film that positioned him behind the camera for the first time. If you are someone learning to make a successful low budget film, then this movie is a must-watch. Last but not least, you can watch the movie as an environmentalist and enjoy the emphasis of the two R’s- Reuse and Recycle.