ack home, your son is older than you are.” An emergency warning prompts the robot pilot of a spaceship to awaken the human captain from his frozen hypersleep slumber. A squadron of enemy ships are closing in fast, unloading their laser weapons against Commander Mike Colby (Jesse Vint), who must use some quick fixes and precision shooting to properly defend himself. Once that ordeal concludes, he’s informed of further bad news: his mission has not yet ended, as he’s been ordered by the Federation to divert to Xarbia, where a high-security lab is in need of militarized assistance.

Upon his arrival, Colby meets the lead bacteriologists at the station – Dr. Gordon Hauser (Linden Chiles) and Dr. Barbara Glaser (June Chadwick) – who inform him of the experimental risks allowed by the extreme isolation of the facility. And they’ve been conducting genetic engineering for a highly productive food source, though what they’ve ended up with is a metamorphic mutation. “We created a little monster, I’m afraid.”

Despite the many explanations of their tests (and the subsequent details about gene splicing and fusions and meddling with bacteria), which go well beyond the crew’s charter (chronicled by a doctor [Fox Harris], who inexplicably stays in a gore-soaked lab coat even as everyone else washes up more than once), it’s clearly all a flimsy setup for a gruesome horror movie; and it’s not long before bloody, gooey, gross, blobby substances start creating havoc. The goopy effects are sensational for this low-budget picture, produced by Z-grade aficionado Roger Corman from a story by shlock master Jim Wynorski. The acting, particularly by terrified victims, isn’t exactly convincing, but the copious amounts of red paint, destroyed props, and mutilated corpses is impressive; the aftermaths of slimy monstrosities devastating human flesh don’t disappoint. Visually, “Forbidden World” accomplishes most of what it attempts.

“What got loose?” Cheap costumes and an unoriginal gathering of space-goers don’t help, but the claustrophobic, darkly-lit sets are perfectly effective; this film borrows extensively from the aesthetics of “Alien” – from flashing switchboards to humid locales to computer readouts to characters feeling obliged to wander down unlighted corridors to various methods of tracking and cornering quarry. Perhaps expectedly, nudity also crops up, as if to insist that when alien creatures attack, the conspicuously attractive female scientists can’t help but to become aroused. Dawn Dunlap as Tracy seems to continuously show off her goods, finding opportunities to take a steam bath even as a killer entity is running amok (she’s also always barefoot for no reason). This mixes comically with the soundtrack, which starts with classical music, before following up with futuristic synthesizer tunes and space-saxophone riffs.

Since the performances are so mediocre, it’s difficult to get wrapped up in the thrills; the characters aren’t able to convey appropriate levels of fear or even concern. At least the body horror elements, the special makeup effects, and the mutant itself are engaging – that’s undoubtedly where the bulk of the funds went. As the humans slowly dwindle, succumbing to toothy, viscous demises, the plot actually stalls out; too much time is devoted to minor scares and silly hopes for peaceful solutions, even with a relatively short runtime. If the script had remained serious, the violence and visuals (many of which expand upon the yucks of “The Incredible Melting Man”) could have been enough to make “Forbidden World” a significant sci-fi chiller. Instead, the unfitting, awkward moments (including pitifully choreographed fights that obscure almost everything happening, as well as nonsensical flashback montages) overshadow the extreme carnage – itself boasting some creatively outrageous sequences, such as liquefying bodies and ferocious assaults. “That’s about the stupidest damn idea I’ve heard all day. No offense, Barbara.”

– Mike Massie