Galaxy of Terror

Galaxy of Terror is a 1981 American science fiction horror film produced by Roger Corman through New World Pictures and directed by Bruce D. Clark. It stars Edward Albert, Erin Moran, Ray Walston, Taaffe O'Connell, and future horror film alumni Sid Haig and Robert Englund. Set in a dystopian future where humanity is a spacefaring race ruled by a sole person called "The Master," the film features a space crew confronting primal fears after they are marooned on a distant planet.

The film has many of the hallmarks associated with the "B-movie" style Roger Corman became known for: low budget, clever set designs, talented, up-and-coming production personnel, and lots of exploitive material, including a notorious scene in which a worm sexually assaults Taaffe O'Connell.

Plot
On the planet Morganthus, the last survivor of a crashed spaceship is killed by a monster. On the world of Xerxes, the Planet Master, a man whose face is obscured by an aura, instructs one of his military commanders to take a spaceship called Quest to Morganthus. The Planet Master is seen playing a sort of chess-like game with an old woman who advises him that his actions are dangerous and will lead to ruin. The Planet Master responds by saying that it (his actions) is necessary.

The Quest is piloted by Captain Trantor, a survivor of a space disaster that has left her psychologically scarred. While approaching Morganthus' atmosphere, the ship veers out of control, with Trantor barely able to make the landing. The rescue team then leaves the Quest in search of survivors.

The team reaches the other vessel and finds several victims, making them think that a massacre has taken place. They take one body back for analysis and dispose of the rest. Cos, a young crewmember, becomes increasingly terrified of being on the ship. He is later killed by something that vanishes before anyone finds his remains.

The crew later discovers a force emanating from a large pyramidal structure that pulled the Quest down and keeps it from lifting off. Leaving their ship, they approach the structure, which the psi-sensitive, Alluma, describes it as "empty" and "dead". Splitting up, one team led by Commander Ilvar discovers an opening along the side of the pyramid. Ilvar insists, over the objections of his two younger counterparts, on going in first. While being lowered, Ilvar is attacked by tentacles within the chamber that drain his body of blood, killing him. The other two continue on to the surface, linking up with the other group, and find another entrance. Leaving crewmember Quuhod to guard the entrance, the remaining four search inside the pyramid. Quuhod, who has a religious affinity for the crystal stars he uses as weapons, later sees one form in front of his eyes. Before he picks it up, the crystal springs to life and attacks the grunt. As he tries remove it, a piece breaks off and begins sliding through his skin, forcing him to sever his arm to keep it from entering the remainder of his body. The dismembered arm becomes animated and throws the crystal star into Quuhod's chest, killing him.

Alluma starts sensing something strange, so technical chief Dameia is sent back to the entrance. Dameia discovers Quuhod's severed arm being swarmed by maggots. She blasts the arm and staggers off. One surviving maggot grows to giant size and, when Dameia comes back into the chamber, proceeds to rape and kill her. Back on the ship, crewman Ranger sees Captain Trantor running as if being attacked. Trantor spontaneously combusts as she fires a weapon in an airlock. The remaining rescue team members find Dameia's naked remains, and return to the ship.

All surviving Quest crewmembers return to the pyramid, where Baelon elects to stay behind and is torn apart by a monster. Inside the pyramid, Alluma, Ranger and Cabren are separated by moving walls. Ranger begins to feel a rush of terror and is soon attacked by a double. Regaining control of himself, he manages to fend off the double, which fades away. Alluma, crawling through a tunnel, is attacked by tentacles which crush her head. Crewman Ranger and Specialist Cabren later discover that the planet creates monsters to attack people based upon their individual fears. Inside the pyramid, the two meet Kore, the ship's cook. Cabren discovers that Kore is really the Master, who has been masquerading as the cook on board the Quest. The pyramid is actually an ancient toy for the children of a long-extinct race, built in order to test their ability to control fear. Cabren is forced to confront the creatures which attacked the crew and also zombified versions of the victims, all of which he kills. After defeating his final challenge, Cabren has "won the game." Kore starts dying, and the energy that had engulfed his face engulfs Cabren. Stating that he will not play the game, Cabren decides to leave the planet. Kore's dying words express doubt that Cabren will manage to change his fate. Angered, Cabren kills Kore, but as the Master himself cannot die, he becomes the new Planet Master.

Cast

 * Edward Albert as Cabren, an experienced and cool-headed space veteran who is the film's main protagonist
 * Erin Moran as Alluma, the ship's empath
 * Ray Walston as Kore, the ship's cook
 * Taaffe O'Connell as Dameia, the ship's technical officer
 * Bernard Behrens as Commander Ilvar, the overall commander of the mission
 * Zalman King as Baelon, the rescue unit's team leader
 * Robert Englund as Ranger, the ship's second technical officer
 * Sid Haig as Quuhod, crewman and crystal shuriken thrower
 * Grace Zabriskie as Captain Trantor, the ship's troubled captain
 * Jack Blessing as Cos, an inexperienced, frightened crewman

James Cameron
While known as a "B movie king", Roger Corman has started the careers of many prominent Hollywood people with his films. Galaxy of Terror was one of the earliest films to feature the work of James Cameron, who served as Production Designer and Second Unit Director on the film. It was the second Corman film on which Cameron worked as a crewman, the first being Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). Working on a tight budget, Cameron's innovative filmmaking techniques came to the forefront. In one scene, Cameron was able to figure out a way to get maggots to wiggle on cue by developing a metal plate onto which the maggots were placed, then ran an electric current through the plate whenever filming began, causing the maggots to move energetically about. His ability to find low-tech solutions to such problems reportedly made him a favorite of Corman and eventually allowed him to pursue more ambitious projects. Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) was an important inspiration for Galaxy of Terror and Cameron would later direct the sequel, Aliens (1986). Optical FX Supervisor Tony Randel, who worked with Cameron on Galaxy of Terror, commented on the Shout! Factory DVD release that Aliens looks like Galaxy of Terror in many ways.

Taaffe O'Connell and "the worm scene"
The commentary on the 2010 Shout! Factory DVD release includes R.J. Kizer, one of three editors of the film. Kizer reveals that the originally scripted version of O'Connell's "Dameia" character would see her die topless while being stripped and consumed by a monster. Producer Roger Corman, however, had promised financial backers of the movie a sex scene. In the early stages, the sex scene could have involved either the Alluma or the Dameia character, but Moran chose to have her character die violently, leaving the sex scene to O'Connell's character of Dameia. Corman re-wrote Dameia's death so that she would be confronted by an id monster, in this case a 12 foot long maggot complete with slime and tentacles, that represented both her fear of worms and a fear of sex. The re-write included full nudity and far more explicit sexual content, including simulated sexual intercourse, during which Dameia would be seen and heard reacting first with terror, then forced sexual arousal, to the monster raping her. Dameia would perish as the monster drives her to a fatally intense orgasm.

After informing director Clark and actress O'Connell of the changes and having both of them balk, Corman decided to direct the scene himself. He hired a body double (it is suggested in the Shout! commentary of the film that this was Iya Labunka) to shoot the full-nudity sequences, parts of which made the final cut, even though Corman was eventually able to get O'Connell in front of the camera for most of the sequence. The completed film was submitted to the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system (MPAA) for review. While the MPAA did not specify exactly what it gave the rating for, the film was initially given an X rating, a rating which existed at that time that was used with films containing adult content (usually sexual) of a graphic nature.

Kizer, in the film's commentary, stated he then had to go back through the scene and remove anything that could have gotten the X-rating. He removed any "erotic rhapsody looks" on O'Connell's face as she was being raped. He also removed any suggestive "humping movements" made by the worm. In Kizer's words, he made "all these little, little snips of film" removing those aspects, re-submitted the film, and the rating was changed to R. The cuts were anywhere from about 1 foot of film (less than 1 second) all the way down to four frames or even a single frame. However many in number and short they were, the snips were enough to avoid the film receiving an X rating. The final released scene in film and VHS versions still contain two segments of O'Connell's facial expressions as well as three side views of her or the body double moving up and down underneath the worm, indicating that the cuts were probably made in those sequences. Several countries still found this too explicit and either required the scene to be deleted entirely or denied the film a theatrical release. All later authorized VHS/DVD/Blu-ray/Steelbook releases of the film in Europe, America and elsewhere contain the scene as it was released in its final, R-rated version. The X rated clipped materials themselves were lost over time and are not included in any release. The scene can be seen again, in part, during the opening credits of a later Corman produced film, the 1988 remake of Not of This Earth directed by Jim Wynorski and starring Traci Lords. The scene has nothing to do with the content of that film, but is part of a montage from earlier Corman films shown during the opening credits. The audio in this version of the scene is done by another, uncredited actress.

The scene is discussed on the commentary of the Blu-ray Disc release more than any other aspect of the film. Clark, the director, admits that Corman's insertion of the scene, which Clark adamantly opposed, is what ultimately made the film a commercial success. O'Connell, in a separate interview with Femme Fatales magazine, interpreted that Dameia was frightened by her own sexual desire to completely submit to someone or something powerful, which the phallic, tentacled monster lethally provides. O'Connell also relates in the commentary how physically challenging the scene was and how the maggot prop made for the film, which weighed in at over a ton, almost collapsed on top of her at one point, which could have potentially killed her.

Release
The film premiered in Illinois and Indiana on September 4, 1981.

The film was originally released on VHS and Laserdisc by Nelson Entertainment. Up until 2010, Galaxy of Terror did not have an authorized Region 1 (North America) DVD release. There was a remastered and authorized Region 2 (Europe) Italian disc available from Mondo Home Entertainment released in 2006 which is now out-of-print. The lack of authorized discs for so many years has led to numerous unauthorized copies of the movie being sold online and elsewhere.

On July 20, 2010, Shout! Factory released Galaxy of Terror on Region 1 DVD and, for the first time, on Blu-ray Disc. The release also contains cast interviews and behind-the-scenes information on a variety of aspects.

The film was released in Germany in a dual Blu-ray and DVD uncut 2-disc limited edition mediabook from BMV-Medien Entertainment on April 19, 2012. The film was also released in Japan on Blu-ray from Stingray distribution on September 27, 2013 and contains the original English language version and a Japanese dubbed version both in Mono DTS-HD Master Audio and also includes Japanese subtitles.

Reception and legacy
On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 31% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 3.9/10. On Metacritic the film has a score of 38% based on reviews from 5 critics, indicating "Generally unfavorable reviews". Galaxy of Terror has typically been reviewed as one of a number of Alien (1979) rip-offs that appeared in the early 1980s, but it has also been credited with itself influencing later, more mainstream films such as Aliens (1986). There is a direct connection between Galaxy of Terror and Aliens in that the latter was directed by James Cameron. The success of Aliens, which shares Galaxy of Terror's grim and dark visual aesthetic (completed with a much greater budget) has in turn influenced a variety of later films. Another mainstream sci-fi/horror film that seems to have borrowed directly from Galaxy of Terror's plot line of astronauts facing base fears is Event Horizon (1997).

In addition to Cameron, the film is also known for indirectly starting actor Bill Paxton's career. At this time, Paxton was not an actor, but was serving as a Set Decorator, but his working relation with Cameron would eventually help pull him into the acting arena. Robert Skotak had his first job as Visual Effects Artist, and Iya Labunka, later a film producer and wife of Wes Craven, had an early job as a prosthetics fabricator.