The opening scene of The Terror Within takes place at the Vasquez Rocks in California, perhaps the most overused location in sci-fi cinema and TV, which gives an idea of just how fresh and innovative this Roger Corman produced Alien rip-off is. The familiar plot sees a group of scientists, survivors of a plague that has all but wiped out humanity, finding a woman in the wilderness surrounding their underground lab complex. On examining the new arrival, they discover that she is pregnant, but when the foetus shows extraordinarily rapid development, suggesting a mutation, they decide to terminate the pregnancy. While performing the operation, the 'baby' tears itself free from the womb in a blatant crib of the chestburster scene from Alien, and scuttles off to the air vents where it quickly grows into a full-sized man in a really bad rubber monster costume.
The rest of the movie sees the plucky scientists constructing a flame-thrower and some handy-dandy laser weapons and hunting down the monster, which is keen to get its claws on the female members of the group so that it can impregnate them. The action that ensues is poorly executed, and completely devoid of suspense and tension, largely thanks to the laughable monster, but also due to unconvincing performances from all involved (I can't really blame them; I imagine that it's hard to look scared when faced with such a silly creature). The daft ending sees the two remaining survivors setting fire to the gargoyle (as they call it), electrocuting it, and finally chopping up the creature in the blades of an air vent fan, before destroying their base (and several other gargoyles that come a-visiting) with a self-destruct device (don't all laboratories come with one of those?).
The rest of the movie sees the plucky scientists constructing a flame-thrower and some handy-dandy laser weapons and hunting down the monster, which is keen to get its claws on the female members of the group so that it can impregnate them. The action that ensues is poorly executed, and completely devoid of suspense and tension, largely thanks to the laughable monster, but also due to unconvincing performances from all involved (I can't really blame them; I imagine that it's hard to look scared when faced with such a silly creature). The daft ending sees the two remaining survivors setting fire to the gargoyle (as they call it), electrocuting it, and finally chopping up the creature in the blades of an air vent fan, before destroying their base (and several other gargoyles that come a-visiting) with a self-destruct device (don't all laboratories come with one of those?).