The Next Reel Film Podcast

“It's simplifying the cells, until there's no difference between a cell in your eye or your toe.”
Alien Ripoffs, Mutations, and Space Station Romance
In 1982, legendary B-movie producer Roger Corman released Forbidden World, a low-budget sci-fi horror film that shamelessly borrowed elements from Ridley Scott's 1979 classic Alien. Directed by Allan Holzman and starring Jesse Vint and June Chadwick, this exploitation flick follows a space marshal investigating a deadly mutant creature on a remote research station. Join us—Pete Wright and Andy Nelson—as we continue the Roger Corman series with a conversation about Forbidden World.
We dive into the schlocky delights of this Alien knockoff, from its cheap special effects to its gratuitous nudity. We discuss the film's place in Corman's canon of quickly produced, low-budget genre fare, and how it compares to other Alien imitators of the era.
We highlight some of the more memorable aspects of Forbidden World, including:
  • The film's creative use of recycled sets and footage from other Corman productions like Battle Beyond the Stars
  • The surprisingly effective creature effects, despite the obvious budget constraints
  • The scene-stealing performance of Fox Harris as the eccentric Dr. Cal
  • The copious amounts of female nudity, a hallmark of many Corman productions
We also touch on some of the film's shortcomings, such as its derivative plot, uneven pacing, and occasional lapses in logic. However, we both agree that Forbidden World delivers exactly what it promises—a cheesy, exploitation-laden sci-fi romp that's perfect for fans of low-budget genre cinema.
Additional topics covered in the conversation include:
  • The film's not-so-subtle sexual undertones
  • Corman's influence on the careers of many notable filmmakers, including James Cameron, who worked on Forbidden World's art direction
  • The effectiveness of the film's practical effects, particularly the gory scenes involving the mutant creature
In conclusion, while Forbidden World may not be a cinematic masterpiece, it's an entertaining example of the type of low-budget genre filmmaking that Roger Corman excelled at producing. We have a great time discussing this schlocky 1982 Alien knockoff, praising its creative practical effects and cheesy exploitation elements while also acknowledging its numerous flaws. We have a great time talking about it, so check it out then tune in. The Next Reel—when the movie ends, our conversation begins!
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Creators and Guests

Host
Andy Nelson
With over 25 years of experience in film, television, and commercial production, Andy has cultivated an enduring passion for storytelling in all its forms. His enthusiasm for the craft began in his youth when he and his friends started making their own movies in grade school. After studying film at the University of Colorado Boulder, Andy wrote, directed, and produced several short films while also producing indie features like Netherbeast Incorporated and Ambush at Dark Canyon. Andy has been on the production team for award-winning documentaries such as The Imposter and The Joe Show, as well as TV shows like Investigation Discovery’s Deadly Dentists and Nat Geo’s Inside the Hunt for the Boston Bombers. Over a decade ago, he started podcasting with Pete and immediately embraced the medium. Now, as a partner at TruStory FM, Andy looks forward to more storytelling through their wide variety of shows. Throughout his career, Andy has passed on his knowledge by teaching young minds the crafts of screenwriting, producing, editing, and podcasting. Outside of work, Andy is a family man who enjoys a good martini, a cold beer, a nice cup o’ joe. And always, of course, a great movie.
Host
Pete Wright
#Movies, #ADHD, & #Podcasting • Co-founder @trustory.fm🎥 The Next Reel Family of #Film Podcasts @thenextreel.com🎙️ Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast @takecontroladhd.com📖 Co-author of Unapologetically ADHD • https://unapologeticallyadhdbook.com

What is The Next Reel Film Podcast?

A show about movies and how they connect.
We love movies. We’ve been talking about them, one movie a week, since 2011. It’s a lot of movies, that’s true, but we’re passionate about origins and performance, directors and actors, themes and genres, and so much more. So join the community, and let’s hear about your favorite movies, too.
When the movie ends, our conversation begins.

Pete Wright:

I'm Pete Wright.

Andy Nelson:

And I'm Andy Nelson.

Pete Wright:

Welcome to the next reel. When the movie ends

Andy Nelson:

Our conversation begins.

Pete Wright:

Forbidden world is over. Fair's fair. Get naked.

Trailer:

What is it? It's a metamorphic mutation. It's like an ordinary mutant and that is genetically different from its parent. A metamorph goes at one better. It keeps right on changing its genetic structure. Mutating again and again.

Trailer:

Even as it grows and matures, changes itself, changes us.

Trailer:

Coming soon to a theater near you.

Andy Nelson:

Sorry. I'm trying not to laugh when I was doing my lines, but I just saw what you had put in as your quote.

Pete Wright:

Come on, man. Is there any other line? There is one other line that that I I think I think was was it was actually on my list. It was, how'd you like to see some trouble?

Pete Wright:

But I felt like that wasn't really nuanced enough. I felt like it was

Andy Nelson:

That one needs the context. That yeah. You have to have the context of the whole conversation.

Pete Wright:

Right. But old Tracy Baxter telling me to get naked, I am down.

Andy Nelson:

Oh my goodness. We are back, to record another episode of our member bonus series that we've been doing all year long, celebrating Roger Corman after his passing last year, and this is the of this series. We're talking about Forbidden World, Alan Holtzman's film from 1982. Are you telling

Pete Wright:

me there's more? We have one more to do?

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. We we have one more to do. Our July member bonus episode. Okay. Yeah.

Andy Nelson:

And we'll announce what it is at the end of the episode.

Pete Wright:

I wonder what I am. I am thrilled. I'm so thrilled. Yeah. So what you what you what you think?

Pete Wright:

Give me your opening thoughts.

Andy Nelson:

I walked into this knowing very little other than kind of like as we were deciding which of the two choices we were gonna talk about this month when when we were doing our conversation last month, It was just this little synopsis. It was generally panned by critics as a cheap exploitative imitation of the movie alien with sex, nudity, uneven editing, cheap special effects, and a sound design which some movie yours found unpleasant. And that immediately sold you on it, which I think

Pete Wright:

is is which is hilarious. Why why you just described something that I would not describe as panned. Maybe closer to perfect.

Andy Nelson:

Well and so, I I mean, I knew I was walking into a Roger Corman film. It was gonna be a low budget b movie that was a rip off of a movie that I love very much. And so I was expecting a creature. I was expecting some silly effects, lots of nudity, dumb plot, super cheap. And and I got all

Pete Wright:

of that, and I it was not a great movie, but I had a lot of fun watching it. Yes. Yes. So I went into this movie knowing pretty much that they'd made battle beyond the stars two two years prior, I think. And that was another one on our list of things to think about for a member bonus, I believe.

Pete Wright:

And

Andy Nelson:

And and we're talking about it next season. And we're talking about

Pete Wright:

it next season. I wanted to do that one because I thought, okay. If we're gonna do a movie with these sets, why don't we use the one that had the originals? Like, we'll talk about Forbidden World someday, but let's use the the one that was intended to have this production design. I'm so glad we did not because I would classify this.

Pete Wright:

I'll go even further than you. I think this was an outstanding terrible movie. I had a I had a blast at this movie. I don't this is one of those in that one to two star range with a I don't know. You can't give enough hearts.

Pete Wright:

I I had a ball. I've I've watched it twice already over the course of a couple of a week and a half.

Andy Nelson:

That's great. Yeah. Well, and just to clarify, it's not using any sets from Battle Beyond the Stars. It's using footage from Battle Beyond the Stars during that opening space fight. There was another film that came out the year before called Galaxy of Terror, and that is the one that it ended up sharing sets with.

Pete Wright:

Okay. Was that also on our list? Is that what I'm thinking?

Andy Nelson:

It wasn't on our list, but it is another alien rip off that Corbin did.

Pete Wright:

So Good.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. It's you know, whatever he can do to save money, you

Pete Wright:

know, use the same footage, use the same sets, it'll all work. That opening that opening, you know, fight that that was, I guess, from Battle Beyond the Stars, Galaxy of Terror, whatever.

Andy Nelson:

That was Battle Beyond the Stars. Yeah.

Pete Wright:

Battle Beyond the Stars. My expectations were low, and I got it. That I was worried at that point. I I don't know when. It was very quickly after that.

Pete Wright:

I I don't know exactly when, but my opinion changed almost inverted moments after that fight ended, and we were ready to get into the stuff in the station. And I just I had a blast. I had a stupid stupid blast with this movie.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. Yeah. It it it is exactly the sort of movie that you kind of expect from Roger Corman. And it's it's funny because I feel like this is one of the of this kind of movie we've talked with Roger Corman, and we've done plenty of car chase movies, women in prison movies. We did like a western of his that he did.

Andy Nelson:

But I don't feel like we've tapped into, like, this creature feature world of his. And I know you were really hoping Dino Croc would would land on our list at some point.

Pete Wright:

Andy, I can't say that enough. I will continue to say

Andy Nelson:

it to

Pete Wright:

you until my wish is granted. That's really I mean, for such a corner of Corman, the Corman corner, it's weird that we went a whole year without really investigating movies like this.

Andy Nelson:

We tried. It's just our members kept voting for us to talk about other films.

Pete Wright:

So How many women in prison movies did I watch? I know. Right? Yeah. And it took us this long to get to a space bound nipple fetishist.

Pete Wright:

This is outstanding.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. And it's funny because I guess I I should I I wanted to also try to watch Galaxy of Terror before we had this conversation. I wasn't able to, because I was curious that he essentially did two alien rip offs back to back with Galaxy of Terror and then this. And that is kind of funny that he kind of went to that length to to celebrate alien in all of its glory. I don't think even asylum does that when they're releasing their rip offs.

Andy Nelson:

I think it's it's like they just do the one and hope people pick it instead of the the big one. But it's funny because it's it is an alien rip off, but in some ways, it's just completely not because it changes so many things. But they do have a fun time of the idea of it with I mean, I guess it's kind of a face hugger sort of thing. It's more of a face blob that one of our guys gets attacked with right away. And then eventually, as over the course of the story, it it does evolve into something that is alien ish, a big black hulking beast with kind of a big toothy grin.

Pete Wright:

What's funny is it's much more Cthulhu. Right? Like, it's it's much more Lovecraft than Alien. It's got more tentacles, and it's in the the deep deepest bowels of space.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. That's that is an interesting point that I you wonder where they were drawing from for a lot of this, you know.

Andy Nelson:

Like, is that a tentacle or a a tail or an appendage that the alien late in the movie kills one of our ladies with.

Pete Wright:

Right? Yeah. Because it alien is the rules they set up okay. I don't even know why I'm using words like rules, but it I'll I'll say it in heavy air quotes. The rules they set up around the alien are interesting.

Pete Wright:

When we get kind of close ups of the alien mouth in the act, and we'll we'll we'll kind of back into how, where you started, it's got some it looks almost like a, Seymour. Right? It's got a little bit of Seymour action going on with it.

Andy Nelson:

It's a very happy face.

Pete Wright:

Very it's the happiest of happy alien face with giant teeth. It enjoys what it does. It does. The alien.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. It's not a job. No. That it has

Pete Wright:

in this work a day in your life when you enjoy it.

Andy Nelson:

Day in your life. Exactly.

Pete Wright:

But the look of it, it looks like there are giant tentacles kind of folding in on themselves. It looks like it's just that here's a thing that is fixed in a place, and it reaches out for what it is. But it also, like, rolls around. Well, we

Andy Nelson:

never get to see it move, but it seems to move fairly fast. I don't know if it's rolling or crawling or slithering. You know, it does make you wonder.

Pete Wright:

Pulling itself. It just sort of kinda falls through that shaft. Who knows? But it doesn't it it seems like it's growing at a pace by the end that it just it just sits still and and things come to it, which is fine, which is really fine. And in spite of their best interests, they keep coming to it.

Pete Wright:

Like, they just keep coming to it. Crawling in and When

Andy Nelson:

they're not having sex.

Pete Wright:

They are when they're not having sex, they're they they go to the to the beast. So the rules are are fuzzy. I am on Team Tentacle because I like the idea that they took an alien knockoff and made it a a Cthulhu knockoff too. I think that's really fun because they could do whatever they want with the Cthulhu knockoffs. If they made something that was too alien, they'd get sued.

Pete Wright:

And so this one is that that makes me smile.

Andy Nelson:

Hey there, all you space faring cinephiles. Andy here, and I've got some news that'll make you wanna blast off into the unknown. If that little taste of our Forbidden World discussion got your thrusters firing, then it's time to upgrade to the full throttle experience by becoming a member. When you join our crew, you'll get access to a whole galaxy of exclusive content. We're talking monthly member bonus episode like this that'll take you on a wild ride through the universe of cinema.

Andy Nelson:

But that's not all. You'll also get bonus content from our other shows like Sitting in the Dark, Cinemascope, and The Film Board. It's like having a warp drive for your movie knowledge. As a member, you'll get early ad free access to all our shows so you can leave the competition in the stardust and experience our content the way it was meant to be heard. And if you wanna help chart our course, you'll get to vote on upcoming member bonus episodes of this show.

Andy Nelson:

That's right. You'll have a say in which films we cover so we can tailor our content to your out of this world tastes. And let's not forget about our Discord community. While everyone has access to it, our members have the chance to really make the membership channels shine. It's like a virtual space station where you can swap movie recommendations, debate the finer points of film history, and generally geek out with some of the most passionate sci fi enthusiasts around.

Andy Nelson:

So what are you waiting for? Head over to truestory.fm/join and sign up today. That's trust0ry.fm/join. For just $5 a month or $55 for the whole year, you'll get a VIP pass to the most thrilling ride in podcasting. And trust me, once you've experienced the full, unfiltered glory of our Forbidden World discussion, you'll be ready to explore the furthest reaches of the cinematic universe with us.

Andy Nelson:

But don't just take my word for it. Join the crew and find out for yourself. We'll be waiting for you, ready to ignite the boosters and blast off into the unknown together. So strap in, hold on tight, and get ready for the ride of your life. The final frontier of movie magic awaits, and we're just getting started.