Forbidden World (1982)

Director: Allan Holzman

Starring: Jesse Vint, Dawn Dunlap, June Chadwick

In the distant future, a federation marshal arrives at a research lab on a remote planet where a genetic experiment has gotten loose and begins feeding on the dwindling scientific group.

Judging by the movie poster, I unfairly believed ‘Forbidden World’ to be a low budget, sex exploitation B-movie, with cheap effects.

The only truth to the above, is the fact that it is low budget. However, this film surprised me by having much more substance than expected, with visual and practical effects that were actually bloody good.

This film will no doubt be compared to ‘Alien’ (which sci-fi horror since ‘Alien’ would not be compared to it?). ‘Forbidden World’ is a good film in its own right. It revolves around scientists who created a life form built out of synthetic DNA called Proto B. This life form unexpectedly mutates, and starts killing in order to survive – lab animals at first, and then turns to humans.

Our hero is Mike Colby (Jesse Vincent), who didn’t waste any time making his move on the female staff. Although Mike was a likeable character, I didn’t feel he was strong enough to lead the film. From a protagonist point of view, he wasn’t significant enough.

This is an 80s horror film, so yes, you can expect to see boobs, boobs, boobs. I did say it wasn’t sexual exploitation – in the sense that the nudity seemed more realistic here and didn’t felt forced like most of the slasher movies of the same era.

Although ‘Forbidden World’ was good in general, I’m not sure I’m going to remember this. Maybe I’ll watch it again in a while to refresh my memory…

‘Forbidden World’ received award nominations for Best Low Budget Film, Best Make-Up, and Best Special Effects. With a budget of less than $1 million, the film earned $4 million at the box office.

Would I watch it again? Maybe.