Forbidden World is a wonky sci-fi film from trash auteur Roger Corman. This review follows on the heel of similar movies like The Dark Side of the Moon and Inseminoid. I might make this a series similar to my made-for-TV-horror-films series.
We’ll call it Sci-Why? Theater.
Let’s spelunk the goofy depths of Forbidden World…
Forbidden World
The movie starts with an ersatz stormtrooper/robot piloting a spaceship. The cockpit is the standard “office” setting used by cheap sci-fi movies since the beginning of time. One expects Stephen Root to wander through the background looking for his stapler.
The robot costume is good, though. It looks like a live action M.A.S.K. character. The robot is named SAM, which likely stands for Sad Actor Man, who is stuck inside of it and forced to smell his own stale sweat for the duration of the shoot.
Two minutes in, and Forbidden World already references Star Wars and Alien. Next, SAM plays classical music to bring 2001 into the mix. Plus, we get stock footage from Corman’s magnum opus Battle Beyond The Stars.
The spaceship is attacked by said stock footage. SAM awakens Jesse Vint from hyper-sleep to deal with the threat. Vint was Farmer #2 in Chinatown.
Vint is having a dream that appears to be a premonition, in that it contains snippets of images that look like they come from later in the movie. Then is now, and now is soon…
Corman is sure to include four breasts in the montage. The man knows his audience. What’s the over/under on how many times Abed from Abed’s Gas Station/Video Emporium called Stark to tell him his rental return on this movie was overdue?
I’m going with three…
The Forbidden World Is Not Enough
SAM informs Vint they have a pair of “foo-bears” on their tail. At least, that is what I think SAM calls them. I care as much about accuracy as the news, but I’m not going to rewind on a movie like this. I prefer cilices for my self-flagellation.
Vint rolls out of his hyper-sleep chamber and strolls to the cockpit office with all the alacrity of Boba going to his third showing of Snow White. He flips switches and presses buttons, and the foo-bears magically explode. It’s as riveting to watch as someone setting the time and pressing the start button on a dryer.
To prove it all pointless, SAM immediately informs Vint that the ship is being diverted to an accident on a nearby planet, presses the hyperdrive button and the ship zooms off into the opening credits while Vint grimaces. I feel you, Vint.
War of the Forbidden World
The camera cuts to a girl in high heels and focuses on her derriere as she walks down a hallway. I get the feeling we will see a lot of this hallway. Movies like this have three sets: cockpit office, hallway and somewhere for girls to take off their tops.
The girl is played by June Chadwick. She showed up in This Is Spinal Tap and Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.
Vint and SAM land. Vint flirts with Chadwich and takes his first trip down the hallway. A second look at the hallway reveals familiar things. It looks like hundreds of Styrofoam food containers were used to make the wall look padded on its bottom half. Meanwhile, the upper half looks decorated with hundreds of egg flats.
I want to mock that, but I can only nod with begrudging respect at Corman’s thriftiness.
Vint is taken to a lab where all the animals have been slaughtered, like all of the animals. There are dead bunnies and rats everywhere. There is even a dead turtle. Have you ever seen a turtle as a lab animal before? Who is this set designer?
I looked it up. Forbidden World had a robust Art Department. It’s more names than I want to type. I give them all an A+, however. A dead turtle is as above and beyond as cutting off the torn perforations on the pages of your fifth-grade school report on Columbus.
As The Forbidden World Turns
Vint is introduced to “Subject 20,” which is a king-crab cocoon in a glass case. Jargon is spewed that explains the nature of Subject 20. All I got out of it is “genetic wildcat” and something to do with solving a food crisis. Subject 20 is responsible for all the animal death in the labs. Vint has a rule for such things.
“If it moves, and it’s not one of us, kill it.”
All of the scientists disagree, however. Linden Chiles (The Annihilation of Fish) is the head scientist. Chiles died falling off his roof at 80-years-old. That is kind of impressive. I have enough trouble taking that first step on an escalator, let alone climbing on a roof.
Fox Harris (Repo Man) is the second scientist. He coughs a lot (plot point).
Dawn Dunlap (Barbarian Queen) is the third scientist. Her main job is to take all of her clothes off. Her secondary job is to take all of her clothes off again.
Everyone leaves the lab and janitor Michael Bowen enters to clean up. Bowen is a half-brother of the Carradines and has a surprisingly jacked credit list. He has been in everything from Night of the Comet to The Godfather Part III to Kill Bill and more.
The Subject 20 cocoon pulsates. Bowen opens the glass door of the glass case for a better look, even though the door and case are made of glass. The purpose of glass is to observe things through it. You don’t actually need to open a glass case for a better look. I’m not sure how to make this any clearer. Hopefully, you get the concept.
Subject 20 leaps onto Bowen’s face. He spazzes out and breaks all of the glass in the lab, like all of the glass. Perhaps, he is not angry at the glass. Perhaps, he is really angry at himself for being such an idiot. He may not be able to see through glass, but he can see through the flimsy inner veil of his own self-loathing projection.
Forbidden World War Z
Everyone else is in he mess hall eating strawberry shortcake. They also have a black guy on staff. Ray Oliver (Child’s Play) is the base electrician. I didn’t even realize he was black at first because no mention is made of it at all.
Oliver delivers more exposition about Subject 20. A video is even shown, Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan-style to further explain the experiment. It’s all a bit too much plot for me.
Eventually, they discover Bowen’s body. He has a giant hole in his head, to the point where he has more hole than head. Somehow, he is still alive. I am not confused by this situation. I’ve had migraines before. Same principle.
The team removes Bowen’s body from the lab, but they can’t find Subject 20 anywhere. Gee, I wonder where it could be…
Meanwhile, the security officer (Scott Paulin, Cat People) searches the lab for Subject 20. He peeks in corners and inside lockers and says things like…
“This is it, you goldarn ding whop!”
Tim Curnen wrote this dialogue. His only other film credit is Ghost Warrior, about a frozen 400-year-old samurai brought back to life, who goes on a rampage in Los Angeles. I can see why that is his only other credit. Where do you go once you reach the top?
Master Of The Forbidden World
At this point, the film editor consults Corman’s movie timeline and notes: “Time for boobs.”
Dunlap strips. Slime drips over the camera lens during the process. Okay, credit where credit is due; that is actually a good shot. Rather than being simply exploitive, the director found a way to make the shot about storytelling. We now know Subject 20 is on the loose.
Allan Holzman directed. Forbidden World is probably his best-known work. He got the job because Corman gave him four days to create a seven-minute, space-movie opening. Corman also gave Holzman an astronaut and a robot. Cormon was impressed enough with the result to sign Holzman to do Forbidden World in 20 days with a $1 million budget.
But I digress, Dunlap puts clothes back on, gets in bed and holds a picture of Bowen. Apparently, she was sweet on him. One of her nipples hangs out while she laments. Welp, there goes all the goodwill Holzman garnered with the previous slime shot…
Meanwhile, Chadwick seduces Vint by toying with the opening of her shirt and saying, “I hear you’re the best troubleshooter in the federation. Do you see some trouble?”
This kind of signal is too subtle for most men, but Vint picks up on it right away. He’s not like most men. He has battle scars for women to caress.
I haven’t even had my appendix out…
You Are My Forbidden World
The next sequence made me fully invest in Forbidden World.
Vint and Chadwich get amorous. Paulin jealously watches them via a security camera. Oliver plays a futuristic saxophone. Stop right there and think about that:
OLIVER PLAYS A FUTURISTIC SAXOPHONE.
It all cuts together like a music video that resembles One Track Lover from Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace. And all without irony.
Forbidden World started out as basic schlock, but now it is like…Italian schlock.
Vint and Chadwick’s lovemaking sends Paulin on a jealous walk through the hallway. He takes a necklace out of a locker and places it in another locker.
Huh? What? Is he trying to set up a jealous love triangle between the ladies and Vint? No idea. And we will never know because Forbidden World forgets all about this plotline…
Master Of The Forbidden World
The Cormon Timeline dictates it is time for even more boobs. Dunlap visits the sauna and takes off all her clothes. Again, the Art Department rises to the occasion. Even her towel is futuristic. It has something like a tinfoil X on it.
Vint enters, and Dunlap cannot help but kiss him. Alas, Subject 20 interrupts their dalliance. I get a bit confused at this stage. Terms like “Subject 20,” “Proto B” and now “Metamorph” blur together when it comes to referencing the monster. Regardless, the beastie looks like a giant spider with an Alien head.
Maybe Forbidden World counts as one of Hawkzino’s giant spider movies then?
The crew realize their imminent danger and come up with a plan to kill the monster, which they call a “ding whop” again. What does that even mean? It sounds like what a person who does not grasp English might call a bellringer.
Vint, Chiles, Oliver and Paulin go outside to hunt for Subject 20. Before they do, we get a glimpse of Bowen again, who is now almost completely melted. It is a very well-done puppet, yet it only gets about two seconds of screentime. It appears Subject 20 turns people into a protein goo to eat. You know, like Brundle-Fly.
Vint, Chiles, Oliver and Paulin walk around Vasquez Rocks, where Kirk fought the Gorn. Dunlap watches on security screens and uses a glow stick to push buttons. Someone dies in the process. I can’t really tell who. Maybe Paulin. Maybe Wierzbowski, for all I know…
The Forbidden World’s End
More running around the hallway happens. More jargon happens. Big gooey piles of slime happen. It is revealed that Subject 20 is part Annie.
Who is Annie? Who cares?
Dialogue like this happens…
“It is planting a garden, and we are the seed.”
Somehow, Forbidden World manages to get four more boobs onscreen as Chadwick and Dunlap take some sort of space shower together with lighting effects. They decide to try to reason with Subject 20 and walk down the hallway to do just that.
Chadwich and Dunlap communicate with Subject 20 via computer.
“What do you want?” Chadwick types. “Can we coexist?”
“Please stand by,” Subject 20 responds.
Aaaaaand Forbidden World enters the hentai genre, as well. Bye-bye Chadwick.
Dunlap runs around and screams. Oliver tries to fix some electronics right under yet another Subject 20 cocoon (it becomes a cocoon roughly four times). Oliver then gets urinated on by Subject 20 and is electrocuted. Vint sticks his hand inside Harris and removes his tumorous liver. Chiles melts. SAM falls apart. Vint rams Harris’s cancer down Subject 20’s throat, and Subject 20 barfs up pink foam and dies.
Whew! That was certainly a sequence of events that might be called a movie!
Ultimately, Vint and Dunlap survive. Forbidden World ends with another montage of the entire movie. It is like the film is barfing itself up, as well. Do they fit boobs into the montage?
That’s a dumb question, friend.
The Forbidden World According To Garp
What a lurid, garish and slimy movie. Forbidden World hits good-bad status for sure. It’s trash. Everyone involved knows it’s trash, but they try to deliver treasure.
Holzman even dared to be artistic at times. This brings up the question: are his choices actually artistic or are they just wonkery done in an attempt to polish a turd?
Yes.
We must also mention Susan Justin’s score. She does not have a lot of credits. She also composed the music for the Daryl Hannah Friday the 13th clone The Final Terror. Justin’s work on Forbidden World is synth-based and odd at times, yet it also has some style to it. It might not achieve the desired effect, but it definitely achieves an effect.
In an effort to squeeze every last dime out of the concept. Corman remade the film as Dead Space in 1991. Completely unnecessary, although it did star Marc Singer and Bryan Cranston.
In the end, visiting Forbidden World is not so much about the destination. It’s about the friends you made along the way…that you never want to see again.
