News

Part alien, part human, and all nightmare, Forbidden World will invade 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on March 18 via Scream Factory.

Also known as Mutant, the 1982 sci-fi horror film was one of producer Roger Corman‘s attempts to cash in on the success of Alien.

Allan Holzman directs from as script written by Tim Curnen. Jesse Vint, Dawn Dunlap, June Chadwick, Linden Chiles, and Fox Harris star.

Both the 77-minute theatrical version and the 82-minute director’s cut have been newly restored in 4K from the 35mm original camera negative with Dolby Vision.

Disc 1 – 4K Uhd:

Theatrical Version & Director’s Cut 4K Restoration and Dolby Vision Presentation From the 35mm Original Camera Negative (new) Audio: English DTS-hd Master Audio 2.0 Dual Mono Audio Commentary on Director’s Cut with Director/Editor Allan Holzman

Disc 2 – Blu-ray:

Theatrical Version & Director’s Cut 4K Restoration and Dolby Vision Presentation From the 35mm Original Camera Negative...

As much as I dig his takes and tales of Poe from the ‘60s, my favorite era of Roger Corman is the New World years: you know, pulpy pictures like Death Race 2000 (1975) and Humanoids from the Deep (1980). At the turn of the ‘80s he decided to cash in on the Star Wars and Alien craze with Battle Beyond the Stars (’80) and Galaxy of Terror (’81). His follow up to that last one, Forbidden World (1982), carries on the low-minded tradition of boobs and bloodshed in glorious, goofy fashion.

Made for around a million dollars and released in early May, Forbidden World (Aka Mutant), received mostly poor notices as it made the rounds of the drive-in circuit, but became a staple on home video for those looking for cheap thrills as only Corman could provide; which is to say, with confidence, competence, and a twisted sensibility.

Our film opens in outer space...

Stars: Jesse Vint, Dawn Dunlap, June Chadwick, Linden Chiles, Fox Harris, Raymond Oliver, Scott Paulin, Michael Bowen, Don Olivera | Written by Tim Curnen, Jim Wynorski | Directed by Allan Holzman | Produced by Roger Corman

Set on a far off desert planet in a distant future, Forbidden World is a gory tale of a genetic experimentation that goes disastrously out of control. When Federation Commander Mike Colby (Jesse Vint) is sent to investigate reports that a scientific research team’s ambitious quest to create a brand new creature from human cells has gone horribly wrong, he makes a terrifying discovery. Now, there’s a monster on the loose and it’s threatening to wipe out all human life on the planet. Colby embarks on a desperate race against time to destroy the creature but unknown to him some people have a sinister interest in keeping the thing alive and completing the top...

Last time I looked back at Galaxy of Terror and this month I tackle my favorite Corman production: Forbidden World, directed by Allan Holzman and starring Jesse Vint, June Chadwick and the spectacular Dawn Dunlap.

Bounty hunter Mike Colby (Vint) is called to Xarbia to check out Subject 20, which was created in hopes of curing a galaxy wide food crisis. Too bad they didn’t explain that to Subject 20. After an opening segment with Colby awakening from cryosleep to fight off raiders, he receives orders to go to Xarbia where he is met by Doctor Hauser (Linden Chiles) and Geneticist Barbara Glaser (Chadwick). They show him to the Biohazard chamber where he sees the remains of various animals killed when Subject 20 got loose. It has now cocooned itself in the incubator and despite Colbys insistance on destroying it, they convince him to sleep on it. While they go to dinner,...

Sometimes it's best to use what worked the first time; it's been confirmed that Jane Badler will be playing the evil Diana, mother to the reptilian queen Anna, in the popular TV series V. Badler also played Diana in the original 1980's miniseries from ABC.

Reprisals of Diana's role are nothing new to Badler. The original mini-series, viewed in 1983, led to two sequel mini-series titled V: The Final Battle and V: The Series, both of which aired between 1984 and 1985. Badler returned to both sequels to play the cruel and evil lizard mom.

This new appearance of the role of Diana was new as of July's Comic Con, and, at the time, it was announced the choice of character name was nothing more than "...a wink to the audience." Since that time, ABC must have realized the popularity of the idea of casting Badler and it has come to be.

The...

Hamsterdam, MD - News at 4:20. As part of the celebration for the upcoming season of Weeds, Glick University polled over 4,000 Americans about what TV News personalities they wanted to see get high during a broadcast.

Naturally there were ground rules including the disqualifications of news organizations that contain notorious on air potheads. This meant no votes were collected for the cast of The Daily Show, Colbert Report and Fox and Friends. You think Steve Doocey is sober? Hard to think that any of those folks have eyes that aren’t pied 24-7.

10, Bill O’Reilly (Fox News) had a lot of folks who reacted that it’d be like, “Dude, I’m getting high with dad.” Of course this initial elation is cut down with the horrifying fact of “Dude, I’m getting high with dad and it’s just not someone I need to party with.”

Rick Sanchez...

Forbidden World

Stars: Jesse Vint, Dawn Dunlap, June Chadwick, Linden Chiles, Fox Harris, Raymond Oliver, Scott Paulin, Michael Bowen, Don Olivera | Written by Tim Curnen & Jim Wynorski | Directed by Allan Holzman | Produced by Roger Corman

Set on a far off desert planet in a distant future, Forbidden World is a gory tale of a genetic experimentation that goes disastrously out of control. When Federation Commander Mike Colby (Jesse Vint) is sent to investigate reports that a scientific research team’s ambitious quest to create a brand new creature from human cells has gone horribly wrong, he makes a terrifying discovery. Now, there’s a monster on the loose and it’s threatening to wipe out all human life on the planet. Colby embarks on a desperate race against time to destroy the creature but unknown to him some people have a sinister interest in keeping the thing alive and completing...