The Terror Within (1989)

I knew something was wrong with me as a child when I visited my father and we went to the video store. A normal kid would rent Jaws. I didn't. I forced my father to rent Jaws 3 or 4 instead. And I loved those movies, more than the first one - which is a masterpiece, but it never reaches that glorious shameless trash-level that I preferred. That's why I also loves movies like The Terror Within. It offers nothing original, it's actually nothing special at all. But still, it's there for our entertainment and nothing more. No silly subplots, no love-triangles, not stupid kids, not character development... just very unhealthy brain-candy.

In the near future, the world is a wasteland after "The Accident" and a crew of scientists is hiding in an underground base somewhere in the desert. George Kennedy is one of them, and Andrew Stevens another. The other actors are there, but I'm not sure what they're doing. Anyway. Two in the crew is killed by something outside, and the last thing they're screaming is something about "Gargoyles!" and then their voices fade away. A rescue team is sent, but find everyone dead - except a young woman, who's also pregnant! After a few hours down in the base, they need to do a caesarean operations on her... and out comes a monster! And you can guess the rest of the story...

Nothing new here, just move one. Nothing to see for you fancy-pants who deserves something special. This is just a Roger Corman-produced monster-movie with gore, cheap sets and underground corridors. I don't need anything more, and especially because a Corman-production almost every time has "it". Do you know what I mean? There's a sense of that they actually understand what people want with a cheesy low budget rip-off on Alien. They don't pretend to be arty, and gives us that gory belly-bursting. They know we want to see the monster in full light with out any silly ideas of letting it hide in the shadows of the most part of the movie. The Terror Within is a Big Burger extra-deluxe with cheese, and nothing more. 

It's not badly made. The director Thierry Notz handles the story fine and keeps thing going even when there's not a monster around creating havoc. The sets are cheap, but still... they work, and with some creative editing everything look a little bit bigger than it is. George Kennedy is there for the paycheck, it's easy to see, but it's George Kennedy for fucks sake! He's the man from Airport. And The Naked Gun... and from Wacko (I need to revisit that one... a perfect movie for Code Red to release by the way!)! You know it's a Corman-cheapie when the bodies in the background not just have fake blood all over them, but fake wounds and some pig-intestines sticking out. It's a detail that is needed when the budget can't be spend on name-actors and thousands of extras.

Yes, this is a simple DTV-movie from a time when even this one could have a sequel - and I will try to watch the sequel later this week. Because I need some more... GARGOYLES! GARGOYLES!!!! HELP!