Watched on Blu-Ray

Since he founded his own production company in the 70s, Roger Corman has unfortunately more or less retired from directing. Admittedly, however, many B-movies worth seeing continued to be made under his production wing. Whether worth seeing or not, what many of "his" films had in common was that they unscrupulously helped themselves to other studios' successful material.

In "Galaxy of Terror" (German title "Planet des Schreckens"-Planet of Terror), for example, the big hit "Alien" is the template. A certain "Master" (a human with a red light bulb to replace his head) commissions a quickly assembled group of astronauts/soldiers (Edward Albert, Erin Moran, Ray Walston, Zalman King, Robert Englund, Taaffe O'Connell, Sid Haig, Bernard Behrens, Grace Zabriskie and Jack Blessing) to rescue another team lost on a distant planet. However, as the stragglers discover, there is not much left to rescue - at most to salvage and bury. What is more surprising is the huge, pyramid-like structure, which virtually cries out to be explored.

But the horror already begins on the way there: several crew members are killed before the first foot can be set into the highly technical burial chamber. And inside it continues accordingly: following the classic pattern of the genre, a person is separated from the group again and again with high frequency and is then killed in a way that, strangely enough, always corresponds quite exactly to some previously expressed primal fear...

Just listing the actors should make it clear that there are some varied death scenes to be seen here. From death by one's own weapons to a fight with a doppelganger and death by orgasm after rape by a giant maggot to classic claustrophobia. So there is a lot of effort put into spectacular disgust effects.

It's quite watchable, but a certain fatigue effect sets in quite quickly. Fewer scenes of this kind, introduced in a more long-term way and with more detailed characterisation of the victims, might have been more successful. Sadder, however, is the fact that the actually much more bizarre and therefore much more worth seeing aspects, namely the interactions with this "master", come far too short. The design of the opening scene gives reason to hope for something, as some "unnecessary" things were included: The master could have simply sat on a throne and given instructions. Instead, he plays some strange board game with a character who can also only be described as bizarre. Even if it ultimately has no function, it still shows a willingness to be creative for its own sake, instead of just fulfilling one's duty.

Unfortunately, despite some quite good scenes, the main part doesn't go on like this. In keeping with the tradition of the science fiction genre of the 1950s, it is only in the last few minutes that the actual motivation for the plot is even brought back. After all, and for fans it's quite worth seeing anyway, but unfortunately it wasn't enough for much more. On paper, the plot sounds better than it finally turns out to be in the film.