The Terror Within has to be the most egregious and campy Alien rip-off of them all. The film takes place on Earth in an underground facility called the "Mojave Lab." The crew's mission is to exit the lab and explore the Earth's surface searching for survivors in a future where 99 percent of the human population died off from a virus that they now now have a cure for.
In the film's opening two crew members are attached by some vicious mutant creatures they call Gargoyles. But in true low budget fashion we do not see the attack we hear it as the crew members do in a control room. The guy being mulled takes the time to cry out "Jesus Gargoyles." And they are referred to as Gargoyles many times as if to make it abundantly clear they are not Aliens, aka we're not going to get sued.
The following are what The Terror Within and Alien have in common:
They bring in someone from outside that is the host for the Alie- um, I mean Gargoyle to eventually run around and reek havoc inside their compound.
The creature busts out of its host the same way. The instant the thing is seen lunging out of its host they resort to a cut away of our hero "David" played by Andrew Stevens looking on from a observation room and exclaims "Oh my God he's in the air vent." They clearly could not show any of that with the special effects set up they had, so they tell us.
It was no surprise the creature retreated to the air vent. A fair share of the action takes place inside the air vents, just like in the Ridley Scott film.
Two moonshine swigging crew members are modeled off a pair of characters who are friends and comic relief from Alien. This was so clear to the crew that the costume designer on Terror dressed the "Neil" character played by Tommy Hinkley with a Hawaiian shirt almost identical to the one Harry Dean Stanton wore as "Brett" in Alien.
The over all look and tone the film is going for is clearly inspired by it's high budget predecessor. Even some of weapons the crew uses are the same.
The unfortunate thing is the first 34 minutes of The Terror Within is uneventful and does not set up anything that you really need to know in order to understand the film.
George Kennedy, who was "Hal" the leader of the crew and the other actors gave it their all. They did not have much to work with, the character work was just not there in the script.
HOW THEY FELL SHORT:
The Gargoyle is an actor in a full body suit and a bulky head piece that only looked good in extreme close ups or in the shadows. (They were aware of this when they made the trailer for the film.)
The dialogue is too on the nose and with little use.
The "David" character spends the second half of the film armed with a bow and arrow gun, which is never used. The prop was just there, I guess they though he looked good holding it.
The best of all is the flame thrower that "Andre" lugs around with him. This is the least practical flame thrower ever conceived. Instead of strapping the fuel tank to the actor, he wheels it around on a hand truck. A HAND TRUCK, you know those carts we use to move furniture.
During the opening scene Hal ask David, the owner of a dog Butch to "keep him under control." Then right on cue in comes Butch, the most docile and well trained dog on the planet. They kept this exchange despite casting a dog that makes it laughable.
Lastly, the most entertaining sequence in The Terror Within also become the most over the top and ridiculous. There intention was clear, create suspense and have a proper reveal for when the Gargoyle is finally seen. When Andre is attacked by the Gargoyle they assemble a fun series of shots but it ends up making him look like he's standing there for a total of eight seconds waiting to be killed.
David realizes the sound of a dog whistle is the Gargoyles only weakness it debilitates him, so they make a tape of it to play back over the speakers so he can hunt it down. The tape breaks just as the Gargoyle starts attacking him. The next seven minutes he is crippled, crawling around and doing everything except simply sounding the dog whistle he has hanging from his neck the whole time.
In Closing
It's goofs like this that lend to the overall charm of the film. In an attempt to duplicate a space epic like Alien on a budget estimated to be the cost of a new sports car, the film makers of The Terror Within have produced a low rent romp that is SO BAD IT'S GOOD.
Beside the slow start, the film is oddly entertaining. They made a sequel in 1991 so the film must have been profitable.
The Shout Factory DVD packages this film along with Dead Space (1990), another Corman produced Alien coin-up.
There is really only one special feature on the DVD, a Feature Commentary by Fred Gallo the Director of Dead Space. If you are an aspiring filmmaker or enjoy informative and entertaining commentaries, this is a must own.
In the film's opening two crew members are attached by some vicious mutant creatures they call Gargoyles. But in true low budget fashion we do not see the attack we hear it as the crew members do in a control room. The guy being mulled takes the time to cry out "Jesus Gargoyles." And they are referred to as Gargoyles many times as if to make it abundantly clear they are not Aliens, aka we're not going to get sued.
The following are what The Terror Within and Alien have in common:
They bring in someone from outside that is the host for the Alie- um, I mean Gargoyle to eventually run around and reek havoc inside their compound.
The creature busts out of its host the same way. The instant the thing is seen lunging out of its host they resort to a cut away of our hero "David" played by Andrew Stevens looking on from a observation room and exclaims "Oh my God he's in the air vent." They clearly could not show any of that with the special effects set up they had, so they tell us.
It was no surprise the creature retreated to the air vent. A fair share of the action takes place inside the air vents, just like in the Ridley Scott film.
Two moonshine swigging crew members are modeled off a pair of characters who are friends and comic relief from Alien. This was so clear to the crew that the costume designer on Terror dressed the "Neil" character played by Tommy Hinkley with a Hawaiian shirt almost identical to the one Harry Dean Stanton wore as "Brett" in Alien.
The over all look and tone the film is going for is clearly inspired by it's high budget predecessor. Even some of weapons the crew uses are the same.
The unfortunate thing is the first 34 minutes of The Terror Within is uneventful and does not set up anything that you really need to know in order to understand the film.
George Kennedy, who was "Hal" the leader of the crew and the other actors gave it their all. They did not have much to work with, the character work was just not there in the script.
HOW THEY FELL SHORT:
The Gargoyle is an actor in a full body suit and a bulky head piece that only looked good in extreme close ups or in the shadows. (They were aware of this when they made the trailer for the film.)
The dialogue is too on the nose and with little use.
The "David" character spends the second half of the film armed with a bow and arrow gun, which is never used. The prop was just there, I guess they though he looked good holding it.
The best of all is the flame thrower that "Andre" lugs around with him. This is the least practical flame thrower ever conceived. Instead of strapping the fuel tank to the actor, he wheels it around on a hand truck. A HAND TRUCK, you know those carts we use to move furniture.
During the opening scene Hal ask David, the owner of a dog Butch to "keep him under control." Then right on cue in comes Butch, the most docile and well trained dog on the planet. They kept this exchange despite casting a dog that makes it laughable.
Lastly, the most entertaining sequence in The Terror Within also become the most over the top and ridiculous. There intention was clear, create suspense and have a proper reveal for when the Gargoyle is finally seen. When Andre is attacked by the Gargoyle they assemble a fun series of shots but it ends up making him look like he's standing there for a total of eight seconds waiting to be killed.
David realizes the sound of a dog whistle is the Gargoyles only weakness it debilitates him, so they make a tape of it to play back over the speakers so he can hunt it down. The tape breaks just as the Gargoyle starts attacking him. The next seven minutes he is crippled, crawling around and doing everything except simply sounding the dog whistle he has hanging from his neck the whole time.
In Closing
It's goofs like this that lend to the overall charm of the film. In an attempt to duplicate a space epic like Alien on a budget estimated to be the cost of a new sports car, the film makers of The Terror Within have produced a low rent romp that is SO BAD IT'S GOOD.
Beside the slow start, the film is oddly entertaining. They made a sequel in 1991 so the film must have been profitable.
The Shout Factory DVD packages this film along with Dead Space (1990), another Corman produced Alien coin-up.
There is really only one special feature on the DVD, a Feature Commentary by Fred Gallo the Director of Dead Space. If you are an aspiring filmmaker or enjoy informative and entertaining commentaries, this is a must own.