CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Scott LeBrun "The Terror Within" is adequate sci-fi / horror, no more and no less. Still, it's about as good as a low budget Roger Corman knockoff could be; it's reasonably well produced (by Corman himself) and directed if mostly predictable and routine stuff.It takes place in a future world where most of humanity has been decimated by a chemical experiment that got out of control. But the people of the deep underground scientific base Mojave Station were able to administer themselves an antidote, and now they spend their time foraging for supplies and looking for other survivors. When members of their team encounter a crazed young woman (Yvonne Saa), they find that she's pregnant - but not with any human child. The resulting "gargoyle" that emerges when they try to abort it then proceeds to slaughter the hapless crew one schmuck at a time.To Cormans' credit, the sets look decent, and also giving the look of the movie some degree of quality is the work of cinematographer Rohn Schmidt, who's gone on to big things such as the feature film "The Mist" and the TV series 'The Walking Dead'. Rick Conrads' music is actually quite good while the creature effects by Dean Jones prove to be adequate. (In an interesting development, the monsters have super sensitive hearing, akin to that of dogs). However, the movie does so much cloning of "Alien" as to be somewhat groan inducing, right down to its creation of two comic relief characters (played by John Lafayette and Tommy Hinkley) clearly patterned after Parker and Brett from the '79 film. It manages to create some suspense, and come up with a somewhat cathartic finale.A committed B movie cast plays this as well as they can, with Oscar winner George Kennedy lending some credibility to the proceedings. Andrew Stevens (who went on to direct "The Terror Within II") is likable enough, as are lovely ladies Starr Andreeff and Terri Treas. Lafayette and Hinkley are able to generate some laughs, while both Saa and Andreeff supply any eye candy the viewer could want.If you can't get enough of this kind of thing, "The Terror Within" is certainly watchable if not inspired. As has already been said in other reviews, yes, you can do better, but you can also definitely do worse.Six out of 10.

wiserender The Terror Within has to be the most egregious and campy Alien rip-off of them all. The film takes place on Earth in an underground facility called the "Mojave Lab." The crew's mission is to exit the lab and explore the Earth's surface searching for survivors in a future where 99 percent of the human population died off from a virus that they now now have a cure for.In the film's opening two crew members are attached by some vicious mutant creatures they call Gargoyles. But in true low budget fashion we do not see the attack we hear it as the crew members do in a control room. The guy being mulled takes the time to cry out "Jesus Gargoyles." And they are referred to as Gargoyles many times as if to make it abundantly clear they are not Aliens, aka we're not going to get sued.The following are what The Terror Within and Alien have in common:They bring in someone from outside that is the host for the Alie- um, I mean Gargoyle to eventually run around and reek havoc inside their compound.The creature busts out of its host the same way. The instant the thing is seen lunging out of its host they resort to a cut away of our hero "David" played by Andrew Stevens looking on from a observation room and exclaims "Oh my God he's in the air vent." They clearly could not show any of that with the special effects set up they had, so they tell us. It was no surprise the creature retreated to the air vent. A fair share of the action takes place inside the air vents, just like in the Ridley Scott film. Two moonshine swigging crew members are modeled off a pair of characters who are friends and comic relief from Alien. This was so clear to the crew that the costume designer on Terror dressed the "Neil" character played by Tommy Hinkley with a Hawaiian shirt almost identical to the one Harry Dean Stanton wore as "Brett" in Alien.The over all look and tone the film is going for is clearly inspired by it's high budget predecessor. Even some of weapons the crew uses are the same.The unfortunate thing is the first 34 minutes of The Terror Within is uneventful and does not set up anything that you really need to know in order to understand the film. George Kennedy, who was "Hal" the leader of the crew and the other actors gave it their all. They did not have much to work with, the character work was just not there in the script.HOW THEY FELL SHORT:The Gargoyle is an actor in a full body suit and a bulky head piece that only looked good in extreme close ups or in the shadows. (They were aware of this when they made the trailer for the film.)The dialogue is too on the nose and with little use. The "David" character spends the second half of the film armed with a bow and arrow gun, which is never used. The prop was just there, I guess they though he looked good holding it.The best of all is the flame thrower that "Andre" lugs around with him. This is the least practical flame thrower ever conceived. Instead of strapping the fuel tank to the actor, he wheels it around on a hand truck. A HAND TRUCK, you know those carts we use to move furniture. During the opening scene Hal ask David, the owner of a dog Butch to "keep him under control." Then right on cue in comes Butch, the most docile and well trained dog on the planet. They kept this exchange despite casting a dog that makes it laughable. Lastly, the most entertaining sequence in The Terror Within also become the most over the top and ridiculous. There intention was clear, create suspense and have a proper reveal for when the Gargoyle is finally seen. When Andre is attacked by the Gargoyle they assemble a fun series of shots but it ends up making him look like he's standing there for a total of eight seconds waiting to be killed.David realizes the sound of a dog whistle is the Gargoyles only weakness it debilitates him, so they make a tape of it to play back over the speakers so he can hunt it down. The tape breaks just as the Gargoyle starts attacking him. The next seven minutes he is crippled, crawling around and doing everything except simply sounding the dog whistle he has hanging from his neck the whole time.In ClosingIt's goofs like this that lend to the overall charm of the film. In an attempt to duplicate a space epic like Alien on a budget estimated to be the cost of a new sports car, the film makers of The Terror Within have produced a low rent romp that is SO BAD IT'S GOOD. Beside the slow start, the film is oddly entertaining. They made a sequel in 1991 so the film must have been profitable.The Shout Factory DVD packages this film along with Dead Space (1990), another Corman produced Alien coin-up.There is really only one special feature on the DVD, a Feature Commentary by Fred Gallo the Director of Dead Space. If you are an aspiring filmmaker or enjoy informative and entertaining commentaries, this is a must own.

Aaron1375 Roger Corman oftentimes would use a big budget film as a template for his B movie. Jaws was one of the films he would do, but the film that seemed to bring out some of his more entertaining films during the 70's, 80's and 90's. This one had its moments, but not as good as "Galaxy of Terror" and "Forbidden World". It has some good effects, some good deaths and a decent enough for a plot like this. The main problem is the pacing. One minute everyone is alive, the next we are quickly down to the last two! There are also problems with the plot as there are several things in it that kind of do not work. The cast is okay, a lot better than a film with a similar theme, "Xtro 2". In that one we are stuck with a lead in Jan-Michael Vincent who is seemingly drunk! This one features George Kennedy who appears not to want to be in the film, but at least he does not slur his words like Vincent did!The story has the world's population mostly wiped out by some sort of plague. In this world, strange monsters the characters refer to as gargoyles...why are said beasts roaming the world now? Don't ask me, I don't have a clue. There really is no explanation as to why these things exist. Well, there are people at an underground facility that is kind of studying the things, or finding a cure or something...not sure on this either, but two of them are topside trying to find food and stuff and are killed by something. A man, along with his dog, Butch...Butch Stevens go to see what happened along with this girl and find them dead and find what appears to be a small human colony that was living in a cave. They locate a survivor and bring her back to the facility, but she turns out to be pregnant and it turns out to be a monster and thus it begins to attack the members of the facility! Thus, Butch Stevens and his buddy try to fight off said beast and try to survive the terrible onslaught! One of the main problems I found with this film is the pacing. They have like six main cast members, but as soon as the monster takes out one of them, the others are taken out within a span of ten minutes and we are done to the final two people and watching one get thrown around by the monster just like in the worse film, "Creepazoids". George's death is rather funny though as he blasts the monster four times with his 'laser' then rushes the beast most likely to expel himself from the film sooner! Another problem is the plot...there are portions that do not make any sense. Like, why they are so desperate for food? There is not that many of them and the facility they are in is four levels, didn't anyone think of heavily stocking it with food? Also, it is not like there was a nuclear war, there are animals aplenty outside. There is also the strange lack of weapons. The main guy has a crossbow, which considering the effectiveness is more trouble carrying around than it is worth. When the monster attacks they have to rig weapons together, once again, four levels, no one thought to bring anything with a bit of punch to it? I mean, there are evil gargoyles taking over the world and no one brought an assault shotgun or machine gun? So, the film is not bad and is enjoyable for the most part. They really needed to spread the deaths of the team a bit more as one of the reasons one watches a film like this is to see the deaths, so when you have them so close together it kind of makes the last portion of the film a bit more bland than it would have been. Still, there was a good monster exploding from belly scene and a cool scene with a fan too! Of course, even with all the shortcomings one will enjoy Butch Stevens performance!

Scarecrow-88 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.