Lust In Space - FORBIDDEN WORLD

The late ‘70s and early ‘80s were a magical time for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures.  The summer blockbuster was still a new, exploitable beast and no one exploited like Corman.  He knew what people wanted and he would give it to them cheaper, faster, and trashier.  The fun of New World’s rip-offs was that they were rarely straight copies of popular movies.  They seemed straightforward, but actually diverged in weird, wonderful ways creating mad scientist mash-ups like; BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (STAR WARS + THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN + The Waltons), STARCRASH (STAR WARS + BARBARELLA + Italy), GALAXY OF TERROR (ALIEN + acid trip).  Perhaps the sleaziest, cheapest, and most ridiculous of Corman’s chimeras was FORBIDDEN WORLD (ALIEN + STAR WARS + softcore porn).  

The Capsule:

Intergalactic Troubleshooter and space Lothario, Mike Colby (Jesse Vint) is sent to Xarbia to help some panicking scientists.  It seems they have accidentally created a bloodthirsty mutant organism, as scientist tend to do.  Sexy Dr. Glaser (June Chadwick) seems really glad to see Mike; Dr. Hauser (Linden Chiles) and sweaty security chief Richards (Scott Paulin) less so.  While Mike gets better acquainted with the lady doctor, Subject 20, the mutant in question, grows larger and starts taking out the more dim members of the compound.  Conflict builds between Hauser, who wants to protect his deadly wonder of science, and Mike who wants not to be eaten.  Rapidly gaining intelligence, Subject 20 has a plan of its own that no one will like.  

Directed by Allan Holzman, FORBIDDEN WORLD is not to be confused with FORBIDDEN PLANET, though that was obviously Corman’s intent, because the title makes no sense, otherwise.  The only thing forbidden on this world is common sense.  It is also known as MUTANT, which is more appropriate since it is about a mutant, but should not to be confused with MUTANT from 1984, which stars Wings Hauser and is about zombies.  

The movie slams out of the gate with a dizzying open that ambitiously rips off ALIEN, 2001, and STAR WARS all at the same time.  Mike is awakened from hypersleep by his trusty robot sidekick, SAM-104 (Don Olivera)—who sounds and looks like an eleven year-old boy in a homemade stormtrooper costume—to find his ship is under attack by, um, pirates?  It’s hard to discern because like all Corman’s sci-fi movies of that period, it repurposes the space battle scenes from BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (that footage cost a ton of money, damn it).  It cuts from unrelated spaceships blasting lasers to Mike and SAM pushing buttons on a set while a view screen—which is behind them—shows random explosions.  Some of the explosion happen on the surface of a planet, so maybe it’s a screensaver.  

Once we get to the forbidden planet world of Xarbia, the mood abruptly switches tracks from sci-fi action to sci-fi porn.  Studly Mike is greeted—and eye fucked—by Dr. Glaser, slinking around in her low-cut jumpsuit.  It is so close to parody that I’m surprised they didn’t make Mike a space-pizza delivery boy rather than a troubleshooter.  Seriously, what kind of deep space science facility has a sauna?  When Mike stumbles in on clothing averse Tracy (Dawn Dunlap), her reaction is predictable.  “How dare you? Get out!  Wait, since you’re already here, we might as well have sex.”  Paraphrasing, but not by much.  And this is after he has already bedded Dr. Glaser.

The most egregiously porn-set scene comes after a traumatic death of one of the stupid, stupid crew members.  Dr. Glaser comforts the distraught Tracy in the way all professional colleagues do, by giving her a backrub as they both stand naked in the sauna.  This is only a guess, but I’d bet that was a script note from Roger.  “Heavy exposition scene.  Recommend boobs.”

Not everyone lusts after Troubleshooter Mike, some just resent him.  Head scientist Dr. Hauser is ruffled to find he is no longer the cock of the walk as far as eligible space bachelors go.  Richards, the security chief, is understandably grumpy since the monster got his girlfriend Annie just before Mike arrives.  Of course, the twitchy perv blows all inherent sympathy by watching Mike and Dr. Glazer go at it on the security monitor.  The monster might have done Annie a favor in that situation.

The facility roster isn’t exclusively horn-dogs.  Engineer Beale (Ray Oliver) is happy to just chill and play his space flute.  Then there’s obsessive Dr. Timbergen (Fox Harris, the loon in the radioactive Chevy Malibu from REPO MAN), who has no time for hygiene, much less love.  He comes to lunch still wearing his blood-stained lab coat and scoops up a biological sample with his fingers.  If this were a cop movie, he would be the coroner who does an autopsy while eating a sandwich.  

Of course, the one thing the residents of this interstellar Club Med lack more than inhibitions is any hint of self-preservation.  When Mike arrives, the scientists nonchalantly walk him through a lab literally dripping with blood and test animal guts to show him Subject 20, which is now cocooned in a plastic, completely unsecured incubator.  After explaining how dangerous it is, everyone leaves it in the care of the janitor, ironically named Jimmy Swift (Michael Bowen). Swift manages to do one better than ALIEN’s Kane by sticking his head directly underneath the cocoon as it undulates and leaks goo.  Cut to security footage of Swift flailing around with a giant black loogie dissolving his face, smashing into every piece of glass in the lab and spraying blood onto the camera, which no one is paying any attention to.  

I enjoy how Mike, who "does not know a gene from a jelly bean” is belittled by the scientists for wanting to destroy the creature.  Dr. Hauser is adamant about protecting their scientific accomplishment, even though it is actively killing his co-workers, and defends his position until the end.  His end, at least, which isn’t long.  Dr. Glaser is keen on communicating with it, hoping to use a computer link to ask it questions like, “Why do you enjoy killing humans so much?” and “Is there any chance we can persuade you to not eat us?”  Her efforts are rewarded by being shish kabobbed on a mutant tentacle.  

Of course, the scientists' most shortsighted endeavor was creating the mutant in the first place.  It could less be described as an accident than as a thoroughly intentional, highly complicated experiment in mass suicide.  First, they develop a fast replicating virus that instantly mutates any life form it touches, then for kicks, they spice it up with human DNA, inject it into a fertilized egg, and implant it—completely voluntarily—into one of the scientists.  Who could possibly have foreseen any complications?  This group would reject Wile E. Coyote as a member for being too risk averse.     

The fully grown Subject 20 is an imposing ALIEN knock-off, or it would be, if it was anything more than a completely immobile plastic statue.  Early on, it has two modes of attack, sitting completely still and waiting for someone to lean close to its mouth, or getting shoved off something by the film crew to simulate motion.  Later, it develops spiky tentacles and the ability to open its mouth, making it more dangerous.  Plus, it provides the opportunity to use a POV shot from inside its chomping jaws.  Having eyes inside your mouth seems disadvantageous, but the mutant makes it work.

I should note that, according to the stories, the substance invented for the mutant’s acid blood actually was caustic to flesh, making the prop more dangerous in real life than on the screen.

As I mentioned in my reviews of GALAXY OF TERROR and HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP, New World was where a young Jim Cameron spent his formative years, working in production and art design for their sci-fi films before becoming the director of the illustrious PIRANHA II: THE SPAWNING.  Even as trashy and ridiculous as these movies are, it’s fun to catch all the quick shots and setups that made their way into Cameron’s undisputed masterpiece, ALIENS. For instance, Mike is unable to use his laser in the mutant’s lair because it has coiled around the life support system, which echoes the Colonial Marines having to sling their heavy weapons in the xenomorph nest for fear of hitting the reactor’s coolant system.  And SAM the robot’s being ripped in half by the end stage mutant echoes Bishop’s fate at the hands of the Alien Queen.  I’m sure these were just subconscious inspirations, I don’t recall ALIENS having a space sauna.  Not in the final draft, anyway. 

The golden days of New World are long gone, as are its cheap, crazy mashup B movies.  It’s about time someone got those going again.  Who wouldn’t want to see CAPTAIN AMERICA + A QUIET PLACE + 50 SHADES OF GREY?  On second thought.

C Chaka

Mad for Science - SPLICE

The recent Science March against Trump got me thinking about cinema’s tremulous relationship with the subject of science.  The classic Frankenstein story warning against the hubris of man reaching farther than he should has been retold in hundreds, if not thousands, of times in film.  In all the variations, the cautionary tale is the same, do not meddle in God’s domain.  The thing is, deep down, we all kind of want to meddle in God’s domain.  The mad scientist routine may come off a bit extreme in the movies, but the underlying curiosity and desire to improve our world is fundamental to humanity’s progress.  Or it may simply be the desire to make cool stuff.  

Take the JURASSIC PARK movies, for instance.  Yes, they always end in bloody rampages, but do you think for one second if scientists really could churn out dinosaurs we wouldn’t be demanding they do so?  Say what you want about the quality of JURASSIC WORLD, it is the only logical extension of where we would take this.  Rich pet owners would be clamoring for the dino equivalent of the labradoodle.

Even more pointedly, look at THE TERMINATOR.  All of us know the story of artificial intelligent robots rising up to destroy humanity, but that doesn’t keep us from barreling towards creating them.  Because we also saw STAR WARS, and who doesn’t want their own R2D2?  Except one that actually says words.  Nobody wants to learn beep language.

So every time we see one of these grave warnings of science run amok, we think, “Boy, it really turned out badly for those guys, they made such bad decisions…but if I was doing it, things would have been awesome!”  Which brings us to Vincenzo Natali’s 2009 super creepy sci-fi experiment, SPLICE, which shows the horrifying ethical and moral consequences of genetically manipulating human DNA on a whim, even though it is still a pretty cool idea.  

The Capsule: 

Clive (Adrian Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley), a pair of adorable hipster scientists, have become famous for genetically engineering a less adorable pair of medicine producing love slugs for the giant pharmaceutical company they work for.  When the skittish, profit minded execs shoots down their idea of introducing human DNA into the mix, they go rogue and run their abomination of nature pet-project in secret.  What comes out of the mechanical womb is no simple love slug, but a freaky, kind of cute, peanut head monster with rat legs and a deadly stinger tail.  Clive wants to destroy it before they get caught, but since its rapid growth cycle means it will only live for a short time, Elsa convinces him to keep it around and study it.  Plus, Elsa has bonded with the little ragamuffin, despite it trying to kill her that one time (maybe two).  As the little horror grows, human characteristics and appearance become more dominate, turning the creation, now named Dren (Delphine Chanéac), into less of a pet as a daughter.  The pressure of maintaining this messed up family dynamic begins to weigh heavily on Clive and Elsa, especially as Dren’s behavior becomes  harder and harder to control.

SPLICE exists in a wonderful fantasy world where smart is sexy and scientists are rock stars (and Wired is the equivalent to Rolling Stone).  Clive and Elsa strut around the lab like they were the nerd versions of Prince and Madonna.  Their lab coats are covered in patches, badges, and pins.  They are the cool kids with the biggest brains and they know it.  Even Clive’s younger brother wannabe, Gavin (Brandon McGibbon) is trying to get in on it by sporting a serious Jack White look.  They should all have guitars slung over their shoulders, or at least keytars.  

They even have a square, killjoy supervisor, Barlow (David Hewlett), who is pretty much their manager.  He is always trying to make them to get serious and focus on the money making love slug classics, the arena rock of science, instead of running wild with their experimental new stuff that people don’t understand. 

Barlow is a drag, but he is not entirely wrong.  Their company, Newstead, holds a gala, Grammy-like presentation where Clive and Elsa (introduced as “The Splicemasters”) are supposed to impress all the investors and shareholders with their progress.  They have been so busy with their secret crime against nature, though, that they failed to notice the female love slug spontaneously changed to male.  When the slugs are put together in a big glass tank, they sprout giant hooks and start tearing each other apart.  As if that wasn’t disastrous enough, the tank tips over and sends gallons of blood straight into the fancy dressed crowd like they were in the splash zone at Sea World.

 

Afterwards, Barlow’s smugness is palpable when he takes over the lab and hands Clive a plain white unadorned lab coat to wear.  There is no room for fun in science, you two!

They still wind up shirking their day jobs, because Dren (nerd spelled backwards in case you didn’t get it, and you would, because they literally spell it out for you) is obviously much more interesting than the love slugs.  Her evolution is fascinating, if kinda absurd.  She begins life, traumatically birthed from the artificial womb in the lab, as a big, fleshy tadpole with a stinger that almost kills Elsa.  Later in the same scene she sheds her skin and becomes a hairless, armless kangaroo rat with a head like a peanut (or penis, depending on the angle).  After much tension, Elsa calms the creature down and bonds with it.  The sequence is great because it starts off as an homage to the med lab scene from ALIEN, and then seamlessly transitions into an homage to the med lab scene from ALIENS. It covers all the med lab bases.

     

Dren’s next stage is even weirder, because she transforms from a freaky pet into a super creepy little girl, but one with dog legs, three fingered hands, and eyes on the side her head, which also looks like an ass.  Elsa dresses her in a pretty blue dress, which just makes her that much more horrifying.  The fact that her intellectual development is accelerated to the same pace as her physical development, and that she still has that venomous stinger tail, should worry Elsa, but she still acts like she is working with a particularly clever chimpanzee.  Even when Dren attacks the eavesdropping Gavin, Elsa just scolds her like a toddler.  “Bad Dren, no trying to murder Daddy’s brother! Go sit in time out!”  I’m paraphrasing.

Dren has the most obvious and dramatic evolution, but Brody and Polley’s characters go through an extensive transformation of their own.  The story is as much an analogy of how becoming parents can change people and their relationship as it is about the dangers of hubris.  It becomes clear that Clive and Elsa really shouldn’t be parents, not to a normal kid, and especially not to deadly superhuman abomination of science.  

Elsa specifically did not want to have children because her mother was an abusive nutcase and she feared she might have inherited the bad mommy gene.  Her fears were justified.  When Dren is still a messed up mutant looking little girl, everything was fine.  Elsa was patient and encouraging.  But the more human-like Dren becomes, the colder and harsher Elsa treats her.  She doesn’t deal with Dren’s teenaged (counting in genetic freak years) rebellion very well.  At one point, after Dren has done something particularly nasty out of spite, Elsa loses it and goes totally mad scientist, tying Dren to a table and amputating her stinger.  She is not getting a “World’s Greatest Mom” mug for Christmas.

Clive is hardly any better.  When Dren is in peanut monster stage, he just wants to kill her.  When she changes into a creepy little girl, he… well, he still mostly wants to kill her.  Once she enters her third stage, things really get complicated.  See, she still has crazy backwards legs, three fingered hands, and unsettlingly wide set eyes, but she is now played by an adult actress and, as weird as she is, she’s also, um, kind of sexy.  Sci-fi sexy, like the hot alien at the space bar.  So, yeah, Clive no longer wants to kill her.  

He does seem to develop a genuine, non-creepy affection for her.  There is a touching scene at the secluded barn where they are keeping her when Clive stops her from flying away (oh yeah, she has wings now, too) by telling her that they love her.  It’s just the emotional connection she was looking for.  Dren is in a seriously uncomfortable daddy faze after that.

Things become even more awkward when Clive realizes Dren was created with Elsa’s own DNA.  So she’s kind of like Elsa’s daughter, or half-sister, or something.  I don’t know, the whole genetic splicing thing is a bit confusing.  I’m pretty sure that makes her biological father a love slug.  In any case, Clive is essentially her step dad, so it’s really messed up when she seduces him and he can’t make it thirty seconds before giving in and having sex with her on the barn floor.  Maybe it’s not quite Woody Allen level messed up, but it’s pretty damn bad.

Of course, none of this can compete with the enormously, astonishingly fucked up ending.  Um, [spoiler].  Clive and Elsa come to the decision that their dysfunctional family unit isn’t working and Dren cannot continue to exist.  They head to the barn, but she seems to have saved them the trouble of killing her by dying naturally.  Except she isn’t really dead.  Taking a cue from her love slug dad, Dren is really in stasis, metamorphosing from female to male (Dran?).  Now, a female aberration of nature is a handful, but a male one is real trouble.  He kills Barlow (no big loss), snatches Gavin, and flies off with him into the woods.  Clive and Elsa get separated, Dren finds Elsa, and suddenly it becomes THE LAST SPLICE ON THE LEFT.  Clive stops the assault by impaling rapist Dren with a stick, and Elsa puts him down with a rock, but she hesitates before delivering the final blow when Dren looks up at her with a “why, Mommy?” expression.   This gives Dren just enough time to sting Clive to death before getting his head caved in.  Yeah, that went dark really fast.  

But wait, it’s not over yet.  Flash forward to Elsa’s thousand yard stare as she’s getting a huge payout from the head of Newstead for providing them with a specimen of this new, very profitable lifeform.  Elsa stands up, revealing the specimen she is selling is her monster daughter/son’s child which she is now pregnant with.  Yay science!

Even though Natali shows that science can have terrifying and deadly consequences, much like he portrayed with technology in the brilliant debut, CUBE, I don’t think he is coming down against it.  After all, as the head of Newstead says, millions of people could benefit from the medical advancements gained from harvesting Elsa’s beastly offspring.  It just needs to be handled correctly.  I think the ultimate message of SPLICE, and of most Frankenstein variations, is that we don’t need to fear science, only respect it.  Consider the ramifications.  And for God’s sake, don’t fuck it on the barn floor. 

C Chaka