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FORBIDDEN WORLD
aka
MUTANT
Rating: 
USA. 1982.
Director – Allan Holzman, Screenplay – Tim Curnen, Story – R.J. Robertson & Jim Wynorski, Producers – Roger Corman & Mary Ann Fisher, Photography – Tim Suhrstedt, Music – Susan Justin, Special Effects – Dennis & Robert Skotak, Makeup Effects – John Buechler, Steve Neill & Don Oliviera, Production Design – Robert Skotak & Chris Horner. Production Company – New World Pictures.
Cast:
Jesse Vint (Commander Mike Colby), Dawn Dunlap (Tracy Baxter), June Chadwick (Dr Barbara Glaser), Linden Chiles (Dr Gordon Hauser), Fox Harris (Dr Cal Tinburgen), Raymond Oliver (Brian Beale), Scott Paulin (Earl Richards)
Plot: Intergalactic bounty hunter Mike Colby is sent to a genetic research station on a lonely desert world where an experiment to build a creature out of human cells has gotten out of control. Shortly after he arrives, the experiment hatches from a cocoon as a monster and starts killing station personnel.
Some claim was made to Forbidden World being a genre send-up, but there is little evidence to it being anything more than a cheap clone of Alien (1979). The influence of Alien casts a giant shadow over the film in all regards, from the look of the creature, to its biology and means of attack. And in all respects the film is cheap and dreary. The action alternates from attack scenes to sexual encounters and back again with indifferent regard. Meaningless babble is occasionally thrown in to justify happenings. Logic is confusing – why is a trouble-shooter called in before the creature has hatched? And why at all if people want it hushed up? The tiresome point-of-view shots from the creature look only like someone has smeared the camera with Vaseline, and the poor editing leaves the film sorely lacking anything approaching the masterful handling of Ridley Scott in Alien. Jesse Vint makes a resoundingly wet hero and the cheap electronic score is a major irritant. The film has gained a certain (undeserved) recognition on the basis of its climax where the scientist kills the alien by reaching in, pulling his cancer-ridden liver out and feeding it to the creature.
Copyright Richard Scheib 1999-2012
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