For those of you who have been following my Facebook for the past two years, you probably already know every year, during the week of Halloween, I do several horror movie reviews. These were rather short (simply because I don't like doing particularly long Facebook posts, that's why I started this thing in the first place), and last year, I adopted the guise of a horror host called the Storyteller, and reviewed them in costume. This year, my University does not have a fall break at the end of October, and I don't really want to do the Storyteller schtick again this year, so I'll just do them here, every weekend of October. This is "Masterpiece of Horror Theatre," where I take a look at the obscure and the classics the horror genre has to offer. I cheated a little bit with this first film. I watched this a few months ago. However, I never said this had to be a first impressions, and it is a good film, so I might as well review it. First, a little background. The Quatermass Experiment was a BBC science fiction serial that aired in the summer of 1953, created Nigel Kneale. It revolved around Professor Bernard Quatermass, a scientist in charge of the "British Rocket Group", who coordinated the first manned spaceflight (remember, Sputnik hasn't happened yet). When said mission returns with two astronauts dead, and one infected, it is apparent that aliens interrupted the mission, and now Quatermass must stop them from destroying the Earth. This serial was so successful that it spawned off two sequel serials, Quatermass II(Electric Boogaloo), and Quatermass and the Pit, and became very influential in British television and culture at the time. Most notably, it was one of the main inspirations for Doctor Who. Around the time the second serial was being aired in autumn of 1955, Hammer Films (later notable for a series of Dracula films starring the late Christopher Lee in the titular role) released a film adaptation of the first serial, called the Quatermass Xperiment (Because "e"s are uncool), which starred American actor Brian Donlevy in the main role, and directed by Val Guest. Kneale, who had little involvement with the film, wasn't very fond of the casting, but when they adapted Quatermass 2 in 1957, he wrote the screenplay, though Donlevy still returned in the role. However, while Quatermass and the Pit was released in between December 1958 and January 1959, and the film rights were purchased by Hammer shortly after, distribution issues prevented the film from being produced until 1966, with a new script by Kneale and Anthony Hinds. In the role now was Scottish actor Andrew Weir, and the director was Roy Ward Baker, who made the Titanic film A Night to Remember. Quatermass and the Pit was released in the United Kingdom on November 9th, 1967, and in the US on February 16th, 1968, as Five Million Years to Earth. After this film, Kneale would write one final Quatermass serial, simply named Quatermass in 1978, and the character was retired, until a remake of the Quatermass Experiment was made and released in 2005, starring future Doctor David Tennant, But, we're primarily focusing on the 1967 film, so here we go...
The film opens with in the London Underground, where several diggers find a number of fossilized human remains while digging a new extension. Paleontologist Dr. Rooney (James Donald) and his assistant Barbara Judd (Barbara... Shelly) are on the scene, excavating the remains, when another surprise arises. A mysterious metal. A bomb disposal unit is sent to examine the object, but needing further consultation, they call in Colonel Breen (Julian Glover, or as you may know him, General Veers from The Empire Strikes Back, or Walter Donovan from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). Breen is in a meeting with Professor Quatermass (Andrew Keir), who is irate that the military plans to hijack his Moon colonization, and that Breen is assigned to the British Rocket Group. Quatermass accompanies Breen to the dig site, where he witnesses the full uncovering of the object. Breen suspects that the object is V-weapon left over from the war. Underneath the object, however, is another fossilized human, which Dr. Rooney calculates to be 5 million years old. Quatermass and Barbara then go to around the area, called Hob's Lane, and learn of a number of local legends about devils and goblins haunting the region. Meanwhile, continued examinations of the object reveal it to be harder than any known Earth substance. It also appears to damage anybody who touches it. After a Borazon drills fails to open a door within the object, the door is destroyed, and it is revealed to have various insectoid residents. When Quatermass and Rooney examine them, they find them to be Martian in origin, and they bear a striking resemblance to the Devil. Quatermass uses this to hypothesize that they had come to Earth from a dying Mars to establish a colony. They increased the intelligence of the native humans to serve as the colonizers, and those eventually became modern homo saipiens. However, Breen gives an alternative hypothesis, that it was a Nazi propaganda weapon meant to scare Britons by giving the start of an alien invasion ( A theory that has a number of holes in it. Like: why would the Nazis develop such a hard material, and then waste it all on this one trick, when they could have made tanks or planes with the stuff? Why is it buried under the city, where no one could find it? Finally, why place all these fossils next to it? Was it just a nice touch?) The minister of defense decides not to think, and not only accepts Breen's theory, but plans to unveil the craft. Meanwhile, Sladden, the Borazon drill operator, is going to get his equipment out of the cave, and is haunted by the images of Martian hordes.Quatermass hypothesizes that it was a "survival of the fittest." style event, and fear that a similar event will occur. At the unveiling, disaster strikes, as the ship begins to use the television equipment to cause the population to riot. Further, some are drawn to the ship, and are killed, including Colonel Breen. Quatermass almost suffers the same fate, only for Rooney to snap him out of it. The two realize that the ship intends to destroy London, and remake it as a Martian colony. A large virtual image of a Martian insect looms over the city. Eventually, drawing on a legend that the "devils" could be repealed by metal, Rooney climbs a crane, and smashes it into the Martian. The film ends with Quatermass and Barbara tired from the experience.
First, all the actors do very well, particularly Andrew Weir as Quatermass (a person of strong intellectual conviction and scientific mind; a character someone like me is inclined to like), and Colonel Breen (who is thoroughly unlikable, but at least you understand his positions). The effects, for the 1960's, are well done. It is very B-Movie, but not too distracting. I admit, I do find the idea expressed in this work fascinating. I don't subscribe to the ancient alien theory at all, but I do find the idea that aliens came in the distant past, and altered humanity to make them intelligent fascinating, if unrealistic. Granted, this is not the first work to show such a view (The Star-Begotten by H G Wells did this in 1937, with Martians no less.). However, the way it is portrayed was the most interesting part of the story. The mystery also does progress very well, and you do wonder why an alien ship is inside a London tunnel.
I'll admit, the climax and ending were somewhat confusing. It was hard to follow exactly what was happening due to the chaos. They also don't explain why the ship looked like an organism towards the end. Hell, they don't explain why the Martians decided to use proxy humans to colonize the Earth, instead of doing it themselves. Once again, the Colonel had a very flimsy theory, which thinking about it ten seconds makes it fall apart easily, given what we were shown earlier. Finally, it is very slow and prodding, and it does take a while to go through.
An incredibly entertaining, if slow film. I'll admit, the image of the Martian insects and the chaos of London are horrifying enough to justify this as a horror film. If you prefer more bloody and grotesque horror, you'll not find it here. However, if you enjoy watching a compelling mystery, with horrifying implications, and intense moments, I would give this a watch. Thanks for reading. Next time: I take a look at the seminal slasher horror film Halloween, and its sequel, Halloween II
The film opens with in the London Underground, where several diggers find a number of fossilized human remains while digging a new extension. Paleontologist Dr. Rooney (James Donald) and his assistant Barbara Judd (Barbara... Shelly) are on the scene, excavating the remains, when another surprise arises. A mysterious metal. A bomb disposal unit is sent to examine the object, but needing further consultation, they call in Colonel Breen (Julian Glover, or as you may know him, General Veers from The Empire Strikes Back, or Walter Donovan from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). Breen is in a meeting with Professor Quatermass (Andrew Keir), who is irate that the military plans to hijack his Moon colonization, and that Breen is assigned to the British Rocket Group. Quatermass accompanies Breen to the dig site, where he witnesses the full uncovering of the object. Breen suspects that the object is V-weapon left over from the war. Underneath the object, however, is another fossilized human, which Dr. Rooney calculates to be 5 million years old. Quatermass and Barbara then go to around the area, called Hob's Lane, and learn of a number of local legends about devils and goblins haunting the region. Meanwhile, continued examinations of the object reveal it to be harder than any known Earth substance. It also appears to damage anybody who touches it. After a Borazon drills fails to open a door within the object, the door is destroyed, and it is revealed to have various insectoid residents. When Quatermass and Rooney examine them, they find them to be Martian in origin, and they bear a striking resemblance to the Devil. Quatermass uses this to hypothesize that they had come to Earth from a dying Mars to establish a colony. They increased the intelligence of the native humans to serve as the colonizers, and those eventually became modern homo saipiens. However, Breen gives an alternative hypothesis, that it was a Nazi propaganda weapon meant to scare Britons by giving the start of an alien invasion ( A theory that has a number of holes in it. Like: why would the Nazis develop such a hard material, and then waste it all on this one trick, when they could have made tanks or planes with the stuff? Why is it buried under the city, where no one could find it? Finally, why place all these fossils next to it? Was it just a nice touch?) The minister of defense decides not to think, and not only accepts Breen's theory, but plans to unveil the craft. Meanwhile, Sladden, the Borazon drill operator, is going to get his equipment out of the cave, and is haunted by the images of Martian hordes.Quatermass hypothesizes that it was a "survival of the fittest." style event, and fear that a similar event will occur. At the unveiling, disaster strikes, as the ship begins to use the television equipment to cause the population to riot. Further, some are drawn to the ship, and are killed, including Colonel Breen. Quatermass almost suffers the same fate, only for Rooney to snap him out of it. The two realize that the ship intends to destroy London, and remake it as a Martian colony. A large virtual image of a Martian insect looms over the city. Eventually, drawing on a legend that the "devils" could be repealed by metal, Rooney climbs a crane, and smashes it into the Martian. The film ends with Quatermass and Barbara tired from the experience.
First, all the actors do very well, particularly Andrew Weir as Quatermass (a person of strong intellectual conviction and scientific mind; a character someone like me is inclined to like), and Colonel Breen (who is thoroughly unlikable, but at least you understand his positions). The effects, for the 1960's, are well done. It is very B-Movie, but not too distracting. I admit, I do find the idea expressed in this work fascinating. I don't subscribe to the ancient alien theory at all, but I do find the idea that aliens came in the distant past, and altered humanity to make them intelligent fascinating, if unrealistic. Granted, this is not the first work to show such a view (The Star-Begotten by H G Wells did this in 1937, with Martians no less.). However, the way it is portrayed was the most interesting part of the story. The mystery also does progress very well, and you do wonder why an alien ship is inside a London tunnel.
I'll admit, the climax and ending were somewhat confusing. It was hard to follow exactly what was happening due to the chaos. They also don't explain why the ship looked like an organism towards the end. Hell, they don't explain why the Martians decided to use proxy humans to colonize the Earth, instead of doing it themselves. Once again, the Colonel had a very flimsy theory, which thinking about it ten seconds makes it fall apart easily, given what we were shown earlier. Finally, it is very slow and prodding, and it does take a while to go through.
An incredibly entertaining, if slow film. I'll admit, the image of the Martian insects and the chaos of London are horrifying enough to justify this as a horror film. If you prefer more bloody and grotesque horror, you'll not find it here. However, if you enjoy watching a compelling mystery, with horrifying implications, and intense moments, I would give this a watch. Thanks for reading. Next time: I take a look at the seminal slasher horror film Halloween, and its sequel, Halloween II
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