Forbidden World is a 1982 sci-fi/horror film produced by Roger Corman and directed by Allan Holzman.
In the distant future, on the way back to Earth, bounty hunter Mike Colby and his android companion SAM are diverted to the remote planet Xarbia. There, a research facility has accidentally created a horrible monster called Subject 20. Shortly after Colby's arrival, the creature proceeds to decimate the lab's staff and becomes bent on converting them into a source of food.
The film utilized many of the same sets as Galaxy of Terror, which is standard Corman procedure for you.
Not to be confused with Forbidden Planet.
This film contains examples of:
- '80s Hair: Barbara's feathered blonde hair.
- Covers Always Lie: The creature in the poster bears little to no resemblance to the one in the film.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: An attack from Subject 20 causes its victims to disintegrate into mush alive—even if the attack takes off a chunk of the victim's head.
- Didn't Think This Through: Seriously, Barb? Did you honestly think that talking to the alien monster would convince it to let you and the others live?
- Eating the Eye Candy: Barbara eyes Colby with interest from the moment he turns up, and it doesn't take long for them to have sex. In fairness it's a small space station and he is quite handsome.
- Fanservice: Tracy and Barb get naked a lot, including a Shower Scene where they're both in the same shower for no apparent reason.
- Foreshadowing: Colby goes through a decontamination procedure and asks if anyone can get cancer from it. Cal's got it, though this may be due to his Cigarette of Anxiety use as well.
- Going Commando: When Tracy takes off her jumpsuit she's not wearing anything underneath.
- Gorn: In addition to the Cruel and Unusual Death mentioned above, there's also a scene where Mike and Tracy remove Cal's cancerous liver and feed it to Subject 20, causing it to explode.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Subject 20.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Cal has Mike cut out his cancerous liver to feed the creature and kill it by assimilation, even if means his own death. And Mike does it without anaesthetic.
- Hope Spot: Barb discovers that Subject 20 is sentient and can communicate via the ship's computer system, and it seems she might be able to negotiate it into letting her and the others live. It kills her instead.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Dr. Cal has one.
- It Can Think
- Kirk's Rock: A scene outside the base takes place here.
- Male Gaze: Dr Barbara Glaser is introduced via a lengthy shot of her ass in a tight white jumpsuit as she strides down a corridor.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr. Hauser is probably the least morally upstanding of the bunch, but really, everyone in the facility qualifies, as it's a black site specifically intended to sidestep ethical restrictions on scientific research.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: The creature's oily black skin makes discerning its shape rather difficult, but its many tyrannosaur-like teeth are easy to see.
- Off-the-Shelf FX: The corridors of the research base are covered in Styrofoam egg cartons and carry-out food containers.
- The Peeping Tom: Earl watches Barb have sex with Colby on CCTV, with accompanying space-saxophone music.
- Redemption Equals Death: Cal seems to feel guilty for his role in the experiment that created Subject 20, especially given how it involved the death of a female scientist who volunteered to serve as a surrogate for it, and allows Mike to kill him to use his cancerous liver as a biological weapon.
- The Remake: Fred Gallo directed a remake called Dead Space in 1991.
- Robot Buddy: SAM-104.
- Screaming Woman: Tracy doesn't do much besides be naked and scream.
- Shower Scene: Tracy relaxes in a steam bath while completely naked except for her sunglasses, and later shares a shower with Barbara.
- Stalker with a Crush: When searching for Subject 20, Earl opens Barbara's locker, takes her necklace, and puts it in his own. This is after watching Barbara and Mike have sex on the facility's camera network. Even as Subject 20 kills him he keeps flashing back to it.
- Stock Footage: Footage from Battle Beyond the Stars is used for an Action Prologue that has nothing to do with the plot. Our hero then flies through more stock footage from Galaxy of Terror. Roger Corman never let good footage go to waste.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- Barb disagrees with everyone else about destroying the creature and tries to communicate with it instead. The predictable happens, although in her defense previous attempts to kill it had failed.
- Jimmy takes the gold medal, though. He's in the lab alone with a containment chamber that holds the cocoon Subject 20 spun for itself after killing all the lab animals in the facility. He notices that it's twitching and contacts Dr. Hauser to tell him. Then he goes over to the containment chamber, opens the door, sticks his head inside, then leaves the door open while he turns his back on it and talks some more on the intercom. When Subject 20 hatches, Jimmy puts his face right up next to it, through the open door of the chamber. The outcome of this is also predictable.
- Women Are Wiser: The subtext of Barbara and Tracy's plan to negotiate with Subject 20 behind their male peers' backs — the men want to keep trying to kill it, even though it risks Subject 20 killing them or the station's life support being destroyed and dooming them all.
