After humans have just about destroyed everything, the stragglers try to eke out a living in an underground bunker. The bunker is a laboratory in the Mojave Desert. The closest other facility is the Rocky Mountain Lab, but communication between the labs is spotty. Above ground there are a few people who manage to survive but most have mutated into monsters due to the effects of a man-made plague. The underground people call the mutants "Gargoyles".
The underground bunker is run by Hal (George Kennedy). Occasionally, the survivors need to go above ground to search for food. Michael (Joseph Hardin) and John (Al Guarino) leave the Mojave Lab to scout around. Their attention is taken by a flock of buzzards. Communication with Michael and John is lost when they are attacked by Gargoyles.
David (Andrew Stevens) and Sue (Starr Andreeff), along with a pit-bull named Butch (Butch Stevens), go out to find the missing scouts. They find the guys dead. They also find a small band of people that were attacked by the gargoyles. Only one person is still alive, a woman named Karen (Yvonne Saa). They manage to get Karen back to the lab.
While treating her wounds, the doctor of Mojave Lab, Linda (Terri Treas), finds out that Karen is pregnant. The gestation rate of Karen’s fetus is far quicker than it should be. Linda believes that Karen’s baby is a mutant. It is determined that to ensure the safety of everyone in the bunker, Karen’s baby must be aborted. When Linda tries to give Karen the abortion the fetus bursts out of her and hides in the air duct system. Karen dies. The mutating fetus is growing exponentially and is loose somewhere in the bunker.
The team is short on weapons to battle the Gargoyle. They manufacture a kind of laser gun and a flamethrower to fight the creature, however, the Gargoyle is strong and difficult to subdue. The Gargoyle begins picking off the male survivors one by one. When it catches Sue, it rapes her and impregnates her. Linda learns that the mutants reproduce by raping human women.
“The Terror Within” was released in 1989 and was directed by Thierry Notz. It is an American science fiction horror film produced by Roger Corman. A sequel was done in 1991 called “The Terror Within II”.
The movie doesn’t have any real sex scenes or nudity to speak of, but it does have some unusual features. There is alien rape as well as alien pregnancies. The movie also features two abortions, one regular abortion, and one self-done abortion, both with mutant babies. One of Roger’s reoccurring themes is the ‘alien raping human women’ aspect. This theme was featured in “Inseminoid” 1981 and “Humanoids from the Deep” 1980, both Roger Corman films.
The movie has a lot of tropes, and a lot of the situations are standard for horror films, especially ones in confined spaces. Despite the tried-and-true aspects, in general, the movie was interesting, especially toward the end. There was a slow buildup of suspense and tension, but by the end it was racing along.
The gargoyle was played by Jack Valan. The creature suit used is very similar to the monster in Corman’s “Watcher” films.