Instead of being set in space it’s set on a post-apocalyptic Earth (which was obviously going to make it much cheaper). The apocalypse was the result of a plague. This movie does not waste time giving us any complicated background.
The eight or so surviving personnel of the Centre for Disease Control’s Mojave Lab are besieged by gargoyles. The gargoyles are monsters which are apparently some kind of human mutants. The Mojave Lab is in intermittent contact with the CDC’s Rocky Mountain Lab. How many humans have survived the plague is unclear. There are some but their prospects seem grim. The Mojave Lab personnel are safe within their fortress-like facility, or at least they think they’re safe.
Two of the personnel leave the lab to look for more human survivors. Those two do not come back.
One human survivor, a woman, is found. She is pregnant, but the father was definitely not human.
If you’ve seen Alien you know that the mother-to-be is going to be in for a really bad time.
Things get worse. One of the lab’s crew, Sue (Starr Andreeff), gets raped by a gargoyle. She is found to be pregnant but she’s been having an affair with David (Andrew Stevens). The baby could be David’s or it could be the gargoyle’s, which leaves the lab’s doctor Linda (Terri Treas) and the mother-to-be in a quandary. This also provides the movie’s sleaze factor.
The real action starts with a gargoyle running loose in the laboratory. The lab people are hunting the gargoyle, or maybe the gargoyle is hunting them. The problem is that gargoyles are just about unkillable. If only the gargoyles had some weakness. Of course it turns out that they do, but it might not be enough to shift the odds in the humans’ favour.
There are no original ideas in Thomas McKelvey Cleaver’s screenplay but at least he and the director understand the formula they are ripping off. They know which ingredients need to be included and they make sure those ingredients are present. The screenplay might be unoriginal but it’s perfectly serviceable.
Thierry Notz knows what he’s doing. There’s no need for subtlety. This movie requires action, scares, nasty monsters, gore and monster rape creepiness. It needs to be fast moving, and it is.
Considering that this was made on a Roger Corman budget it looks quite acceptable. The sets are simple but they provide a decent arena for the action scenes.
The big problem with the low budget is that the film cannot possibly reproduce anything approaching the monsters special effects of Alien and instead has to rely on guy-in-a-rubber-suit monsters. The monster is a major weakness. It looks a little bit silly rather than terrifying. It didn’t bother me because I happen to love guy-in-a-rubber-suit monsters, although it has to be said that this is not one of the great guy-in-a-rubber-suit monsters.
The acting is generally quite adequate. Andrew Stevens as David makes a perfectly fine hero. The two female leads are quite OK and both Sue and Linda get the chance to be heroic.
The acting weak link is the movie’s only well-known name, George Kennedy. He’s the lab commander, Hal. Usually the problem with George Kennedy is outrageous overacting but here he gives a very flat lifeless performance. He just doesn’t seem interested. Admittedly the part is badly underwritten and Hal is the least interesting character.
Instead of Ripley’s cat we have David’s dog, Butch. Butch ain’t pretty but he’s likeable and brave. I’m not going to tell you which (if any) of the humans survive the movie but I will tell you that Butch survives. I know some people find a movie impossible to enjoy if they think the animal star isn’t going to survive.
If you can accept the very cheap monster effects then this is a very competently done Alien ripoff. The action scenes are well-staged and it’s exciting violent fun with some decent suspense. I liked it. Recommended.
This movie is paired with another Concorde movie, Dead Space, in one of Shout! Factory’s Roger Corman double-feature DVD releases. The Terror Within gets a good anamorphic transfer.
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