Forbidden World [Blu-ray]

The synopsis on the back of the Blu-ray case:On the planet Xarbia, an experimental life-form known as "Subject 20" has been created by an elite group of scientists in hopes of preventing a major galactic food crisis. However, instead of prolonging life, Subject 20 is destroying it, and the man-eating organism poses a double threat because it constantly changes its genetic structure. Bounty hunter Mike Colby is called in to investigate but soon suspects that the scientists are keeping something from him, and he discovers why...Subject 20 is half-human!If that doesn't sound like pure B-Movie fun then I would suggest looking to other films for entertainment and ignore this review completely.It seems most films these days are out to be as emotionally dramatic as possible all whilst seeking out those lovely Oscars; now films like that are perfectly fine but in a world today full of questionable times and events, turning to a film like this really hits the spot. I saw a trailer for this film online and I had little to no hesitation on shelling out the 18 dollars to have the pleasure of seeing Forbidden World. The movie is basically Roger Corman and company ripping off other films; two obvious franchises that were "inspiration" were Alien and Star Wars. What the bigger brother films focus on (Deep character development, logical plot/character actions, and elaborately staged action set pieces etc.) Forbidden World throws right out of the window and gives viewers a rather briskly paced 70-something minute Grindhouse/exploitation film experience.For a relatively low budget flick the special effects aren't half bad. The intro has a space battle between two ships and is quite impressive for being made way cheaper than the original Star Wars films; though a bigger budget, production and effects team does yield better results. Things are gooey and detailed when need to be; you can't really get much better than practical effects. The set pieces, though not of the highest quality and from what I have read they are recycled from another Roger Corman production "Galaxy of Terror", do have charm to them. The acting is what you would expect from a picture like this; it's bad for the most part but you can tell the cast is having fun and as a result it comes back to you the viewer. My personal favorite character is Dr. Cal Timbergen. He hams up the overly passionate scientist image and always has coughing fits yet lights up a cigarette after doing so. I surely laughed more than once at his performance. The hero in this picture, Mike Colby, comes across as a mix between Han Solo and every character Kurt Russell has played. This being an exploitation type movie there is plenty of "doesn't benefit the narrative of the film at all" nudity and sex to be had and while it comes across as a soft core porno once or twice it does add to the overall experience. The lead women are honestly quite beautiful (even when fully clothed) and unlike most Hollywood royalty today they look all natural from head to toe, a rarity I know... I could go on about the film but I think it's time to what I thought about the overall Blu-Ray package and let you be on your merry.Like I said I paid roughly $18 (normally costs more) for this Blu-ray combo pack and while you may think spending so much on an old movie is bad here is my rule of thumb on that subject. These movies usually have a cult following, that means they are only appreciated by a select group of folks. There are smaller-independent companies out there that are taking the time and effort restoring these hard to find gems and for their passion and dedication to fans I have no issues spending 20+ dollars to own these types of films if they are handled with love.Shout Factory is one of those studios that try to give fans as much as possible in terms of content and solid Blu-ray specs and I highly recommend looking them up for more products.When popping the disk into my player I knew I was going to get a respectable video transfer from the folks at Shout Factory and after watching the movie I was happy with the quality. Forbidden World is presented in 1080p 16x9 aspect ratio and housed on a 25GB Blu-ray disk; any more would have been overkill in my opinion. The movie is never going to look like a brand new production but this transfer is the best it will ever look I feel. I give the video 3.5 out of 5.The Audio is a hit and miss however. It does what it needs to do to get you through the movie but has a couple issues to boot. The audio is encoded under a DTS-HD MA 2.0 lossless soundtrack which means it won't rock your 5.1 set-up. During one scene in the movie when Dr. Cal Timbergen is talking the audio gets slightly distorted and crackles a little bit as if the master recording was damaged beyond restoration; when this happens some things, for me at least, were hard to make out. It wasn't a deal breaker and was easy to look (or listen) past. If you can go into this Blu-ray knowing the movie was made on a slim budget and didn't have the best equipment around, you will be satisfied. Audio is 3 out of 5.I haven't had much time to view the special features but they are there and the couple that I did see were interesting. My favorite is, of course, the brief Interview With Roger Corman. Aside from the special features housed on the Blu-ray the set also comes with a DVD copy of Mutant (another name for Forbidden World) and to make the deal sweeter it is the Directors Cut running at roughly 82 minutes in length. I did pop this in for a few minutes to see what it was like and I must warn you to set your quality expectations to low. Mutant didn't get any restoration and is locked into a 4:3 aspect ratio. To make matters worse (depending on how you look at it) Mutant is a simple port from VHS to DVD, which means you don't even get DVD quality picture. This could sound horrible but it's also fun in some ways because it looks and feels like a true B-movie film instead of being cleaned up and restored for the modern age. From the bonus features that I have seen I give it a 3.5 out of 5.Also if you own this or look to own it, Shout Factory was nice enough to give the slip cover two sides. The factory shipped side is Forbidden World and if you flip it around it is Mutant. Always cool to have.I could go on and on about the film, the specs, the quality, and things of the like but I hope this has given you enough information to possibly give Forbidden World a try. This movie could also make for a very interesting experience if you watched it with a group of friends. Don't take the movie serious at all, enjoy it's stupidity, glaring flaws, beautiful women, slimy creatures, poor acting and hopefully you have as much fun as I did watching it.

This review is for the Steel Case version of 'Forbidden World' release by Shout! Factory in 2019.THE STEELBOOK: You can judge for yourself just by looking at it. To be honest, I don't think it's very good. I have seen much better. The art seems amateurish and the the colors don't 'pop'. There isn't even a key scene depicted. It's just a few drab images thrown together on the front and back.I think they could have and should have done a much better job.BLU-RAY: There are two versions of this movie. The theatrical cut uses a new 4K scan of the original film elements. The director's cut uses a 2K scan of the only existing film print. As you would expect, the theatrical cut picture is better. Themovie is shown in it's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio.EXTRA'S:-Audio Commentary with the director, Allan Holzman - This is a commentary of the 'Mutant' or director's cut of this movie.-'The Making of Forbidden World' - This is a 35 minute documentary which features most of the important people involved in the production including the director, Allan Holzman, lead actor, Jesse Vint, production designer, Robert Skotak, head of special effects, Christopher Biggs, director of photography, Dennis Skotak, composer, Susan Justin, head of make-up, Christopher Biggs and others.-Interview with Producer Roger Corman - This is a short 6 minute interview with Corman. He briefly talks about his expectations for 'Forbidden World', the title, the actors and how the movie got made.-Interview with Special Effects Artist John Carl Buechler-Theatrical Trailer-Photo Galleries-Subtitles*****WARNING - LOTS OF SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT*****PLOT/SUMMARY: The movie takes place on a mostly desert planet by the name of Xarbia. Mike Colby and his robot, SAM-104, are sent to Xarbia to investigate a problem. A research team working on Xarbia has created a lifeform they call 'Subject 20'. The team is working on solving a universal food crisis. When Mike gets to the research station, he is told that Subject 20 is mutating at a rapid rate. It has killed all the laboratory animals and is currently in a cocoon. Mike naturally wants to kill it. The staff has other ideas. They view Subject 20 as very important. Subject 20 escapes the laboratory and goes outside. Once outside it transforms into a large horrific looking creature (think Alien). It gets back inside the research center and starts killing everyone. They discover that it needs pure protein to survive. The creature is also intelligent. Can it be stopped before everyone is eliminated?PRODUCTION: 'Forbidden World' was released in 1982 by New World Pictures.-The original title of this movie was 'Mutant'. Roger Corman preferred that name but it was changed and he does not remember why.-Most of the production was made on sound stages. The outdoor scenes were shot north of Hollywood.-Some of the sets from 'Galaxy of Terror' were re-used in this movie. There is also some footage used in this movie from 'Battle Beyond the Stars'.COMMENTS:-I think making the alien intelligent was a good idea. Unfortunately they waste the idea. After expressing intelligence, the creature just kills and never communicates again. This was a wasted opportunity to do something different.-I like the sets, even if they were borrowed from another production. The outer space special effects were lousy. I think they should have just eliminated that opening battle scene.-The acting ranges from fair to very weak. Let's face it, some of the actors were just plain terrible.CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS: I like the fact that this movie uses a thoughtful script. It's not for idiots. You actually have to have a brain in order to follow the plot. At the very least you need to know a little bit about biology. The down side is that the movie is pretty boring.The release itself is decent. You get two cuts of the movie along with a commentary and documentary. The picture is good enough. The steelbook art is not good. I think the art is terrible and the colors are bland. There is nothing of importance depicted.It's up to the viewer to decide if this release is worth buying. If you are a huge Roger Corman fan then you will probably want to own this. If not, you can look and see if there are cheaper options available.RATINGS:Picture: 7/10 or 3 stars - The picture nice but not amazing. The theatrical cut is much better than the director's cut.Plot: 6/10 or 3 stars - I find the movie to be a bit slow. I do like that the movie is not dumbed down.SFX: 6/10 or 3 stars - The sets are nice, the special effects are not. It's low budget but I can't give it a higher rating.Acting: 4/10 or 2 stars - Most of the actors are very weak.Extra's 8/10 or 4 stars - There are some good extra's here.Steelbook: 2/10 or 1 star - I think it's terrible.Overall: 3 starsARE THERE ANY SEQUELS?: There are no sequels but this movie was re-made in 1991 under the title of'Dead Space'.

This is a Roger Corman classic from the eighties, (a producer who is legendarily prolific), which I had absolutely no clue about, and I find that astonishing. I am a bit of a collector of these old films and have some classic rare ones from the eighties and nineties too, but having seen this featured on a youtube video, it was the way I found it, and I couldn't believe I didn't know about it. A mate told me that with Roger Corman films, there are scenes in there what you may recognise from other films, but that is the way he saved money and how he worked. This film however is a brilliant example of low budget eighties sci fi horror, lots of blood, special effects done cheaply and economically with a bit of imagination, plenty of nudity from two blonde female stars (including June Chadwick of V The Series) and of course, a deadly alien creature that is the result of an experiment in space gone awry. Put it all together, with an intergalactic troubleshooter, and you have an eighties classic that again, has stood the test of time, and could attract an even bigger audience now who might appreciate these things for what they were.There are other Roger Corman films which I haven't got yet, but am still investigating (I haven't even seen Death Race 2000), but this was a good place to start. Great fun and recommended.

This is a Roger Corman production which starts with a space battle (using spare "Battle Beyond The Stars" footage) which fills 10 minutes and introduces our square-jawed hero Mike Colby as he is diverted to a research station in trouble. An experiment has gone awry and begins killing people and turning them into easily-digested mush and it has to be stopped. This dates from that period of the early 1980s after Alien, Close Encounters, Star Wars and so on when basically anything with spaceships or slime-dripping monsters was assured of an audience. If it could be any good as well, it might get a second week.This film manages a space battle, a genetic experiment, alien pods, slimy exploding monsters, laser guns and comic relief. Despite this, we still find time for three (blatantly pointless) nude scenes, a lot of shouting in steam-filled corridors and a potential redemption against a toothy monster that isn't at all an Alien rip-off design, certainly not (ahem).Interestingly, there's a second version of the same film on the second disc, this time in full-screen with about five minutes extra footage -- yes, it's an unrated Director's Cut! Shout Factory are excelling themselves in the "Special Editions of films that don't really deserve them" space being occupied by Arrow in the UK.There's a commentary (only on the director's cut), some featurettes and galleries and a rather sweet interview with Roger Corman, who always comes across as a pussy cat but who is presumably not.Picture and sound are as good as you could expect from the sources. The film's not nearly as much fun as the better-known "Galaxy of Terror" or even "Battle Beyond the Stars" but it's still silly, slightly sweaty, sleazy, minor fun.If it's cheap, why not?

Film opens with the most pointless space-battle ever. It has nothing to do with anything that comes after.The film improves from then on but the quarantine procedures for a scientific lab are ludicrous at best.

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Ignoring the cover [which is all Greek to me] this actually plays in English in set-up. This 1982 sci-fi/horror chiller opens to a main menu offering play, scene selection, set up [German, English or subtitles], extras [theatrical trailer, photo gallery of about 10 stills from the film, biography and film credits] and trailershow [basically 12 trailers for other movies].As the titles roll we encounter professional trouble-shooter Mike Colby (Jesse Vint), who is being awakened by his robot assistant SAM-104 (Don Olivera), They immediately come under attack in a typical ‘Buck Rogers in the 25th century’ manner, and surviving the attack, Mike is ordered to investigate a problem at a research station. Upon arrival he learns that an experimental life-form –subject 20, has been created and has now escaped, wreaking havoc. The staff of the station includes the head of research, Gordon Hauser , his assistant Barbara Glaser [June Chadwick –Lydia from ‘V’], lab assistant Tracy Baxter [Dawn Dunlap from ‘Laura’], the station head of security and the chief of bacteriology.It was shot in about 20 days on less than $1 million and is a mix of Star Wars and Alien filmed in a ‘Buck Rogers’ and ‘V’ style. Sure it’s not the best out there and is often unintentionally funny [despite 7 minutes of humour being cut] but it is hugely entertaining and shows what can be achieved on a limited budget. The electronic [typically early 80’s] soundtrack has a seductive pull to it and Tracey spends much of her time showing what great lungs she has by screaming -and running naked [or wearing a baby doll nightie,] through the corridors -repeatedly. Not to be outdone, Barbara sheds her clothes and seduces Mike as soon as he arrives. So if you want a ‘Buck Rogers’ with a more ‘grown-up’ approach, plenty of gore [in the gooey blob style] and some gruesome deaths, then this could be good for you. A great fun gore film and a definite **** rating.