Review by E.C.McMullen Jr.

THE TERROR WITHIN - 1988 Concorde Pictures Rated: Australia: M / UK: 18 / USA: R

Best Blatant Alien Rip-Off Ever!

Which isn't saying a whole lot. It's still stupid and still cheesy and if you have ALIEN, then you've no reason at all to watch this.

T.C. McElvey (THE HAUNTED SEA), plagarized this bit of garbaje and got it passed into greenlightville where director Theirry Notz (WATCHERS II), helmed it and shlock movie maestro Roger Corman (SWAMP WOMEN, IT CONQUERED THE WORLD, ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS, THE UNDEAD, A BUCKET OF BLOOD, THE WASP WOMAN, THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, LAST WOMAN ON EARTH, CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA, PIT AND THE PENDULUM, THE PREMATURE BURIAL, THE INTRUDER, TALES OF TERROR, TOWER OF LONDON, THE RAVEN, THE TERROR, THE HAUNTED PALACE, X, THE MASQUE OF RED DEATH, THE TOMB OF LIGEIA, FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND, HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP, GALAXY OF TERROR, FORBIDDEN WORLD, CHOPPING MALL, THE HAUNTING OF MORELLA, RAPTOR) produced it.

The movie begins well enough where two guys are in the desert, giving things a look around. They are looking for something, doing manuevers, what have you, and call their base. The folks on duty, Linda (Terry Treas: THE NEST, LADYKILLER), and David (Andrew Stevens: BATTLEFIELD EARTH, FEAR DOT COM, A SOUND OF THUNDER), banter in a friendly manner and the movie seems to be going well. The effects are good enough, the sets are good enough, you are ready to suspend disbelief.

Then actor George Kennedy appears. Kennedy (DEATH SHIP, FUKKATSU NO HI, WACKO, CREEPSHOW 2, UNINVITED, NIGHTMARE AT NOON, DEMONWARP, BRAIN DEAD), somehow reprising the hideous role he did on purpose in the James Brooks comedy, Modern Romance, brings death to the film. I'm sure that was not the point of his starring in the flick, but there you have it. Humans hide underground to avoid gargoyles; former humans gone mad from some kind of infection created by, well someone somewhere.

In short order, a human woman, unaffected by the disease in the air, is bloody and running from a gargoyle, which, according to the POV camera angles being used, may or may not be able to fly.

She is brought back, found to be pregnant, and her birth unwinds like ALIEN. The Alien bursts out, runs off the operating table, and into the air ducts like ALIEN. The two bitchy engineers, one black (John Lafayette: NEON MANIACS, FRIGHT NIGHT 2, WATCHERS II) and one white (Tommy Hinckley: WATCHERS II, SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT 4, THE LITTLE VAMPIRE), rig up a few weapons, among them a flame thrower.

The rest of the film concerns itself with chasing the gargoyle which, it seems, we never get enough of seeing - and is REALLY cheesy. How cheesy? Whenever it roars it rears its head back. And whenever it rears its head back, the mask lifts up off of the body suit.

That bad.

Yet, the production values are good enough. Andrew Stevens is a good enough actor, and the script doesn't give much room to anyone else. The black guy, Andre, is a coward and dies screaming. As he is the only black guy in the movie, out of the many white folks, that gives this flick an

!!!UNFAIR RACIAL CLICHE ALERT!!!:
Go to the Unfair Racial Cliche Alert page to see why.

Like all ALIEN rip-offs, there is no need to buy this, rent this, or anything else this. Though it's now released on DVD as a Corman Classic, there is nothing classic about it, and Roger has one hell of a lot better flicks in his stock than this.

THE TERROR WITHIN gets two shriek girls.

This review copyright 2006 E.C.McMullen Jr.

TRIVIA On the DVD back cover, Roger Corman is credited with making the statement, "I've always felt you shouldn't show too much of the monster in the first half of a horror film. You should only tantalize the audience..." YEAH, RIGHT! It was ALIEN director Ridley Scott who is credited with coining the term, "Don't show your monster too much" In monster movie after monster movie etc., that Corman has ever produced, directed, or both, he has ALWAYS shown as much of his ridiculous looking monsters as possible, including right up there on the damn movie poster and that includes the monster from this movie review! I LIKE ROGER, BUT SERIOUSLY! WHEN HAS HE EVER HELD BACK FROM SHOWING THE MONSTER?

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