The Terror Within (1989)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Expected more

Blistering performances.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Well if you are going to make a no-budget B-movie it is nice to have a cast committed to their roles, willing to put forth decent performances. It also never hurts to have the caliber of a go-to character actor like George Kennedy in the cast, either.The integrity of an underground installation is compromised when abnormal humans (nicknamed "gargoyles") who seemed to have developed into monsters due to radioactive fallout thanks to war that wiped out 99% of mankind, find out their entrance (a shack in the middle of the Mojave desert). Oh, but that really isn't the problem for the small Mojave Lab crew holed up in the installation. Two of the members (the handsome Andrew Stevens and cherubic Starr Andreeff) find a female human survivor of the plague, bring her to the lab, and it is soon discovered that she is pregnant. The fetus is actually a monster, a victim of the plague, abnormal because of the radioactive effects of the outside atmosphere (it is also possible she was raped by one of the gargoyles). During a surgical removal operation, the monster escapes into the ventilation shaft, leaving the crew concerned about their safety because its growth rate is also abnormal. Multi-leveled, the installation has several places to hide and it will be up to a coordinated, intricately planned hunt for the creature if the crew is to find and kill it. Sound familiar? Even after ten years, the inspiration of Alien continues to reverberate into the later 80s (and 90s). The Terror Within has a monster fetus "exit" very similar to the infamous chest bursting scene, this time fleeing from the surgical stomach cut by the installation's chief medical officer. Aimed with a laser (its use is limited to four shots) and a blow torch (yes, quite similar to Alien, also), the weaponry at their disposal requires getting close to the monster. Soon, the movie becomes a "man in rubber suit" affair with Stevens and company in pursuit of the seemingly indestructible monster that walks upright but has a protruding face and hands with claws that rip flesh in one strike. Several are downed in quick order due to neck flesh wounds by the creature's aforementioned claws. The most tragic scene is what happens to Andreeff, who rushes to help her beloved Stevens (they are lovers in the movie), when she is captured and sexually molested by the creature on the rampage. Andreeff, I thought, was really good during her limited contribution to the film, and her plight/fate truly saddened me. She has an almost angelic quality to her. Terri Treas is also quite good as the doctor who must join forces with Stevens after the monster has wiped out most of the crew and figure out some way to kill the damned thing on the loose. Sealing the ventilation ducts is one option, clever use of high frequency sound inspired by Stevens' dog whistle, and survival techniques right out of Rambo 101 are also options tried by Stevens and Treas, hoping that something might stop it from adding them to its death list. While it's an obvious rubber suit, I thought the designers done a good job on making the creature as ugly and ferocious as possible. And those monster fetus designs and neck flesh wounds are properly grotesque. I admit that I enjoy Alien, Robocop, and Terminator rip-offs, and "The Terror Within" was better than I expected. Sure, the sets and props, even the rubber suited monster, are meager, but given the budget Thierry Notz had to work with, I found "The Terror Within" rather surprisingly exciting and fun. Notz hasn't had a lucrative directorial career, but I did enjoy his Watchers II. Stevens, I thought, actually doesn't make too bad a hero and has the looks for the role. Treas gets to be heroine at times and come to Stevens' rescue even, so I imagine she had a blast in her role (she has an inspired line, "I'm a doctor, not an engineer."). An obvious criticism will be that this film doesn't have one original idea, but I never felt it was designed to be anything more than a cash-in sci-fi actioner mimicking other popular flicks from the past.

"The Terror Within" is an entertainingly cheesy creature feature.**SPOILERS**On a research mission, Hal, (George Kennedy) David, (Andrew Stevens) Sue, (Starr Andreeff) Andre, (John Lafayette) Linda, (Terri Treas) and Neil, (Tommy Hinkley) begin worrying that their mission should be concluded. Believing that the gargoyles around pose no real threat to them, they find young Karen, (Yvonne Saa) sole survivor of a massacre, alone in the wilderness and bring her back to them with safety. Trying to determine how she survived the plague-ridden countryside, the eventual discovery of her abnormal pregnancy is made. During the abortion attempt, the fetus produces a monster that wreaks havoc through the military base. Determining the reason behind it's attacks, the team scours the base for the creature and launches a plan to get rid of it before it is able to kill off the entire crew one-by-one.The Good News: While not a great film, this one here is pretty decent. One of it's inherent pluses is that it manages to evoke a really campy attitude towards itself. There's no sense of it every really being taken seriously, especially not with the creature present or it's blatant use of so many copied scenes in it's plot. The monster itself is the biggest one, as it's got a great design to it that only manages to provoke giggles through the fact that it's made up of a badly-done suit. The reptilian facial features, crocodilian jaws, bony scalp and icy stare give it a great look that may have come off fairly well if done right, and there is moments where it does look intimidating. The film does move at a pretty nice pace, keeping it between one encounter with the creature at a time and one significant discovery until it's done capitalizing on the previous one. This really makes it seem like there's no real down-time at all, and by making the creatures' appearance in the film really early works wonders. This allows for the second half to be a series of showdowns, making their action-packed exploits all the easier to sit through. The initial appearance of the creature is the real highlight, coming through in a really gory, bloody way that looks quite gruesome and shocking. It's hard not to be impressed by that scene, even though it's blatantly taken from another film. There's even some more gore thrown in with it's few kills, with some exceedingly graphic throat slashings, a couple of stomachs ripped open to various degrees in interior-organ-display, scratches along the face and chest and more as well, leaving this one nice and bloody when it wants to be. This also deserves the praise of keeping the creature off camera until well into the film, as the beginning stalking scenes are done through the creature's POV, and this leads into some pretty nice scenes. Overall, this one wasn't all that bad as it could've been.The Bad News: This one here didn't have a whole lot of failings, but they were visible. The biggest flaw in the film is the fact that the film decides to liberally steal from other sources. The basic premise of the film, several of it's key action and plot-point set-pieces are taken from one singular movie, the creatures' actions are the exact same as another film, and there's a whole series of scenes that come off as being featured in a thousand individual scenes themselves. All of these five the film an unmistakable sense of repeated affairs when nearly every scene is from another film. That makes the film's scenes stand out more, as it's going to be more noticeable that's where they're coming from. It's quite hard to see these scenes as anything but that, leading many to become instantly dismissed due to the outright stealing that they use. The other major flaw is that simply, the creature looks terrible. The basic design is great, but there's the fact that it's just a badly-made suit for it's scenes. This is quite evident, as it looks way to fake to be anything else but a cheaply-done monster. It's way to humanoid, sports not a whole lot of detailing in major areas that need it, and just simply screams fake. These here are the main problems in the film.The Final Verdict: With a load of cheesy charm, this one here does include some obvious flaws mixed in with it as well. Lovers of cheesy creature features should owe it to themselves to give it a shot, while those with more discriminating tastes will find the negatives more than outweigh the good parts.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity and mention of a rape

Did the makers get sued by Ridley Scott or the production company behind Alien? It's impossible to spoil this movie but I hate to mention the many times it blatantly rips-off Alien, a far superior film. Maybe it was done as a kind of tribute, either that or it was done with contempt. They duplicate dialogue, plot lines and weapons/tactics to the point it's ridiculous. They even have a 'chest-burster', except it's a 'fetus' that bursts from the mother's belly. Even the banter between the crew is directly from Alien, with very minor changes. The acting is vastly inferior, along with effects and sets, I'm sure I've seen the same rubber suited creature in at least one other low-budget film.Oh, sorry, I did notice one major difference. Instead of a cat that gets in the way of the hunt, it's a dog. This was one of the few times I actively cheered for the 'alien' to devour all the crew members (and hopefully the producer and director).

But what else would expect from the likes of Roger Corman?Chemical warfare experiment kills of most of the world's population. There are a few 'normal' people left like our protagonists (Andrew Stevens, George Kennedy, Teri Treas, etc..) and then there are the gargoyle-like creatures who impregnate female humans in order to procreate their own kind.See, Andrew Stevens & Co. are left inside an underground lab that spared them from the effects of the plague, so in one of their reconnaissance patrols out in the desert, they bring back a wounded human female (Yvonne Saa) to the complex in order to treat her. When they find out is that she is pregnant and that she was impregnated by one of the monsters, they decide to do an abortion. But just as they're about ready to perform the procedure, the little gargoyle pops out of her stomach ALIEN-style and escapes into one of the complex's air vents. It's an ok scene but we've all seen it before.Stevens & Co. then spend the rest of the movie trying to hunt down the creature as they are slowly being killed off one-by-one. The best scene is towards the end of the film when one of the gargoyles is trapped in the ventilation shaft and is cut up, sliced and diced by the fan blades. Pretty good although I wish it were more graphic.It looks like Corman & Co. spent a little bit of money on the set design but don't expect any of the fanciest gizmos from STAR WARS or any of the ALIEN sequels. At least the sets don't look too much like cardboard.Released on DVD the same time as THE NEST (Teri Treas appears in both), you could do a lot worse on a Saturday night. You could also do a lot better, too. 6 out of 10