The Phantom Empire (1988 film)

The Phantom Empire is an American 1988 science fiction horror film directed by Fred Olen Ray.

Plot summary
When a man-eating cave creature appears with a fortune in uncut diamonds around his neck, Dr. Chambers' daughter Denae hires a salvage company to find the underground source of the gems. Accompanied by archaeological intern Andrew Paris, mineralogist Professor Strock, and the salvage company's Cort Eastman and Eddy Colchilde, Denae's hopes of emerging from her famous father's shadow become as remote as getting out of the caves alive!

Cast

 * Ross Hagen as Cort Eastman
 * Sybil Danning as Alien Queen
 * Dawn Wildsmith as Eddy Colchilde
 * Jeffrey Combs as Andrew Paris
 * Robert Quarry as Prof. Strock
 * Russ Tamblyn as Bill
 * Susan Stokey as Denae Chambers
 * Michelle Bauer as Cave Bunny

Reception
The Phantom Empire has received mostly negative reviews. The film holds a rating of 36% on Rotten Tomatoes. Creature feature gave the movie two out of five stars, finding it campy.

A review at Horror Society stated, "The story for this one almost feels like Ray’s sleazy send off to Land of the Lost. We have strange creatures, dinosaurs, primitive women, and a woman from outer space. It does have his trademark horror elements but calling this one a horror movie would be completely false. It’s a sci-fi fantasy adventure film that takes together other stories to make an oddly entertaining melting pot of ideas. It’s fun but not original."

References