Galaxy of Terror (1981) (2025)

Popular reviews

• Review by Lou (rhymes with wow!) ★★★½ 13

  This Alien rip-off may lack a shower scene where two naked ladies discuss how they can thwart the extraterrestrial menace, but at least there is a moment where a giant worm rips open a woman's top and forces itself on her.

• Review by Kevin_Robbins ★★½

  I recently came across the Robert Englund and Sid Haig cult classic Galaxy of Terror (1981) on MAX. The story follows a spaceship crew that stumbles upon a vessel with a missing crew. As they investigate, hoping to find survivors, they instead encounter alien creatures that begin picking off the members of their own ship one by one.

  The film also stars Erin Moran (Happy Days), Ray Walston (The Stand), and Edward Albert (Power Rangers), and is directed by Bruce Clark (Ski Bum and The Hammer).

  It’s clear that Galaxy of Terror was aiming to capitalize on the success of Alien, which had been released two years earlier. However, the special effects and action sequences here are far from the…

• Review by belial_carboni ★★★½ 3

  Sleazy slimey low budget sci fi insanity. This has always bewn close to the top of my favourite Alienploitation films. Somehow I've never owned this one so I bought the new steel book which looks great. This is just a fun and cheesy ride right from the start. A solid cast, decent gore, goopy alien action, dramatic characters, ambitious set designs and loads of lo fi glowy/lasery FX!

  There's some unnecessary plodding since it's only 80 minutes but it makes the gore and action all the more jarring when it does occur. Oh and a giant rapey worm lurks around every corner, watch out!

  Robert England fights his evil twin in a cheap looking mirror funhouse place and it rules. Ummm Sid Haig throws cool diamond ninja stars and Mr. Hand From Fast Times turns into a sneaky evil laser being...nuff said.

  Blam! That's how you make a lo fi sci fi brain fry.

• Review by 📀 Cammmalot 📀 ★★½ 2

  Cinematic Time Capsule1981 Marathon - Film #120

  ”This is insanity!”

  In space no one can hear you guffaw.

  This cheap Alien knockoff could care less if you know what’s going on as it jumps head-first into it’s own cheesiness with some inventive James Cameron production design on a Roger Corman budget.

  There’s a wonderfully recognizable cast. Including a charmingly young Robert Englund, a space-crazed Grace Zabriskie, and a lurking Sid Haig… who lives and dies by the crystals.

  Come for the LOL’s, but stay for the jaw-dropping shock of oversized gooey worm rape.

  ”If it weren’t so gruesome, it’d be fascinating.”

  
  Cinematic Time Capsule - 1981 Ranked

• Review by Aberrant Ghoul ★★★★★ 16

  Revisited this one to show Jozlyn and it reminded me just how much I miss movies like this. Trashy, atmospheric, low-budget Alien knockoffs, of which this is probably one of the absolute best, are such a friggin' mood. This kind of stuff isn't even a dying art anymore. It's fucking dead and buried. They literally don't even remember how to make films like this in Hollywood. Films that milk every penny of their meager budget to maximum effect, with tons of amazing sets, gorgeous matte paintings, and goopy rubber monsters. Plus, you get a pre-Nightmare Robert Englund, and Sid Haig as a stoic space-warrior with these awesome crystal throwing star dealies. Upped my rating to 5 stars.

  Oh, and a girl gets raped by a giant space caterpillar or something.

  Watched with Jozlyn

• Review by Realkinoshit ★★★

  These special effects and sets are amazing, especially considering the budget 🔥

• Review by BeardofTsu ★★★ 2

  Hang on to your shorts. We're gonna dump.

  It's an alien rip-off from New World Pictures with Freddy Kruger and Captain Spaulding trying to fight off tentacled creatures and alternate versions of themselves! There is minor gore with heads being crushed by tentacles and a gooey monster thing forcing itself on a naked Taaffe O'Connell in one particularly nasty scene. It doesn't have too much else going for it, unfortunately.

  James Cameron got his big break on this production as Art and second unit director it's insane to think he went from this Alien knockoff to directing ALIENS five years later. Funny how things work out.

  Long live Roger Corman.

• Review by Ben Hibburd ☘🏀 ½ 26

  "Galaxy of Terror" is produced by Roger Corman (who I usually love) and directed by Bruce D. Clark. And it's one of the most egregious rip-offs of "Alien" (1979) put to film. This film rips off the plot of Alien beat for beat at-least up until the fortieth minute or so as I stopped watching by then. The plot was nonsensical, the set design and cinematography were garbage, the audio was hollow and the characters were as flat as a pancake. I wasn't planning on writing anything for this film, but it was so utterly terrible I thought I'd warn people against this film.

• Review by Dan Abel ★★

  The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs - Season 6 - Episode 12

  The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs - Nightmareathon - Film 6 of 6

  The Planet Master of Xerxes sends a military team to the desolate planet of Morganthus to rescue a crew that has gone missing. Upon arriving they make the trek to the crashed ship of the missing. They discover that there has been a violent bloody massacre. The crew has been killed by something vicious. It doesn't take long before they are attacked as well but this is no typical alien threat. Something on this planet has the ability to attack people based on their worst fears and it's not willing to let them…

• Review by Slig001 ★★★

  Eighties Alien rip off that looks more like a campy sixties TV show. It's obviously heavily influenced by Ridley Scott's masterpiece but it has a few ideas of its own; I reckon it was an influence on Event Horizon. I wouldn't say that Galaxy of Terror is an exciting film, but it gets on with the action straight away and actually manages some surprisingly memorable sequences; the worm rape/disappearing clothes scene being the best of them. There's a handful of goey gory practical effects which is always nice and there's a few memorable faces in the cast. The final reveal is quite interesting aswell...it's really a shame that the overall film isn't better because it has a lot going for it.

• Review by Gregor Kreyca ★★★★½ 4

  "Doubt is demon brother to despair; The demon's tale outwithers those who dare not dare." - Commander Ilvar

  
  Aaaaahhhhhhhh... that was exactly the medicine I needed after the shallow, artificial and cookie-cutter Thor: Love and Thunder. A beautiful looking, lovingly handcrafted little sci-fi horror film from the golden age of Roger Corman produced B-Movies.

  From all the cheap Alien rip-off’s Galaxy of Terror (along with Forbidden World) is most likely my favorite one. This one juts has it all. We got loads of blood and guts and atmosphere to spare. A great cast including Ray Walston, Robert Englund, Sid Haig and Grace Zabriskie. Detailed and beautifully crafted sets, models and map-paintings by none other than James Cameron. And last but…

• Review by Kaijuman ★★★★ 3

  A gloriously bonkers sleazefest from the king himself, Roger Corman.

  James Cameron is responsible for the production design which explains why the movie looks a good as it does. Expansive sets, smart low-budget workarounds, cool as hell matte paintings, this movie looks incredible.

  Plus the copious amounts of weird shit is always fun to watch. Stop-motion bugs, wall worms with killer suction cups, Sid Haig living and dying by the crystals, Captain flambé, some glowing head guy that pops up, and of course: the giant gooey maggot that rapes a woman to death. Where else can you see something like that?