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Summary: Attention all american readers
Review: This hammer film is of course a remake of a british television series, like quatermass experiment and quatermass 2. What you might not know is (sorry don't mean to patronise) that this series exists intact and is available to buy from british DVD sites.I am the biggest hammer film in the world, but the original is superior to the film in everyway, it also lasts about 3 hours and is terrifying. Also, it stars the great hammer actor andre morrel as quatermass, so it feels like a hammer anyway (also has michael ripper of course) and chec linder as rowney. Comparing morrel to keir is like comparing champagne to lemonade, he was a titan of an actor, hammer fans will know this already... It really is the greatest piece of television ever made and is still scarifying today. In comparison the hammer adaption is tacky, cheap, truncated,to fast a pace, flatter, less scary, lesser score (the original has great incidental music, and although i like james bernard his stuff for this one isn't great)and without all the pluses that make the great hammer films great (ie: it looks horrible) . its not a bad film, but i implore you to check out the original, the british version of it is region 0, so please look for it, i promise you won't be dissappointed
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Summary: Scary as ever
Review: One of the scariest sci-fi movies ever made as it attempts to explain the origin of evil in all of us. Scared me when I was a teenager; still scary now. The special effects are excellent for the time (1967), particularly the many examples of telekinesis. The science is no doubt silly, but consistent within the context of the film. All the actors are believable, as is the conflict between the two scientists and the military man who wants to believe nothing unusual is going on down there in an underground construction project. The last ten minutes of the film are shocking and suspenseful, as "all hell breaks loose", literally. If you remember this movie and have not seen it for many years, get it. The sound and picture quality of the DVD are excellent. If you have never seen it, hold on to your hats, you're in for a wild ride.
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Summary: Great sixtes british Sci Fi
Review: This is a great movie for the person who doesn't know the Quatermass Character, Because the focus of the Movie is on Martians, who were her before us and can still say that they are part of some of us. Great special effects for this low budget movie, and this also leaves it up too your own imagination, like the ghosts on Hobbs Lane.
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Summary: Intelligent Science Fiction
Review: Andrew Keir plays the famous British Scientist in this under-rated science fiction movie made in 1967. One of the very few non-horror movies made by Hammer Studios and released in the USA by 20th Century Fox, the intelligently written script concerns the unearthing of an alien spaceship down in the London subway systems and scientists discover that it emits telepathic power that can have a deadly effect on human beings. Soon it is revealed that this craft might have come from Mars and that it played a role in human evolution. A somewhat controversial story idea for a movie, none the less the film has some great acting and a good musical score. It was made on a pretty meger budget but it does not have the look and feel of one.
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Summary: When Sci-Fi was Really Sci-Fi
Review: A great movie from a time when a science fiction movie didn't mean "action-adventure with science terms thrown in". My favorite of the Quartermass series, this movie is exciting and intelligent. In addition to excellent performances from Keir, as Quartermass, and James Donald, who plays a single-minded scientist without turning the character into a comic pastiche, I particularly enjoy the smaller roles. Workmen and soldiers seem like actual people, ones you would see in real life. The effects are somewhat dated, but hold up well and do not detract from the enjoyment of the film. If you enjoy "scientist as hero" sci-fi, this is a must buy for you.
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Summary: In the US we call this classic "Five Million Years to Earth"
Review: Known in the Colonies as "Five Million Years to Earth," this science fiction/horror classic is arguably the best film ever produced by Hammer Studios. "Quatermass and the Pit" quickly gets you hooked, as workers extending the London subway system uncover some ancient skeletons to the delight of Dr. Mathew Roney (James Donald) and his assistant Barbara Judd (Barbara Shelley). By the time Dr. Quatermass (Andrew Keir) arrives upon the scene, the workers have uncovered an alien spaceship and the strange insect-like creatures that apparently piloted it from another planet. Unfortunately the arrogant Colonel Breen (Julian Glover) dismisses it all as a Nazi hoax left over from the war, despite the fact the craft is made from an unknown metal. Quatermass deduces the strange creatures might have been ancient Martians and is worried about all the strange psychic phenomenon associated with this area. But Breen and the bureaucrats have their way until all hell breaks loose. Like the original version of "The Thing From Another World," this is a film where the dialogue and the performances make you forget we are dealing with strange creatures from another planet. In point of fact, "Quatermass and the Pit" uses a bare minimum of special effects to create its thrills and chills. To be fair, the idea of Martians affecting human evolution to institute a surrogate race war is way out there, but such concerns are forgotten when the giant Martian image turns everybody in London mad and all that is left between humanity and the end of civilization are a couple of scientists and a giant crane. This 1967 film was directed by Roy Ward Baker, whose eclectic list of credits includes "A Night to Remember" and "The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires." Baker deserves a lot of credit for the tone of the film, which he maintains even during the final credits as an exhausted Quatermass and Barbara survey the ruins around them. If you do not watch the DVD version of this classic film, then make an effort to get the widescreen VHS version.
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Summary: Intelligent science fiction at its best!
Review: This is a film that very easily could have gone wrong. Don't misunderstand me...I like Quatermass. I even have a copy of the old B&W BBC serialization of this story in my unwieldy collection. But, *this* movie could easily have been just another in a series of eccentric but interesting adventures, or maybe just another Hammer-type science fiction mystery. It's not! Perhaps like Casablanca, the elements all add up here, and the movie easily rises out of it's genre. It's genuinely one of the most intriguing science fiction stories I've ever seen or read. It has real psychological depth, and...well...it's intelligent! It's a favorite that I often come back to, from time to time. Hopefully, you will, too.
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Summary: Hammer at its chilling best!
Review: Outstanding, low budget, high shudder shocker concerning an area of London (specifically the Hobb's Lane underground station) long plagued by strange occurences. After escavationists unearth an ancient space ship... the mysterious origins of all that has been recorded in this area begin to be realized by our scientist protagonists. The scientists begin to link the ship with the origins of man...but when they introduce the plot concerning the ghostly apparitions and strange noises and the supernatural....things really get going until finally the great demonic energy field is awakened sending London into a frenzied free for all riot into madness. A must see!
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Summary: Ahhh! Giant devilish murderous psychic Martian grasshoppers!
Review: And I'll be darned, it works! Intelligent, stylish, low-key, realistic horror/sf/thriller about an ancient spaceship unearthed in London. Not surprisingly, things go really bad really quickly. ("Hey, why are all of you chasing me?" "You're...different...we have to kill you.") This is one of those rare finds; a 50's horror/sf film that transcends the genre (much like the similiar _Them!_) In the U.S. this one is almost always televised under the title _Five Million Years to Earth._ It's a goodie. If you want to give your kids a harmless thrill (and yourself, too) then take a peek.
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Summary: Quatermass does battle with five million year old Martians
Review: This movie although not strictly my favourite of the Quatermasses, is still an excellent piece of Sci-Fi cinema, and it has an absolutely brilliant cast to back it up. Andrew Kier is excellent as our intrepid hero, and a million light years away from Donlevy's more abrupt version of Quatermass in the 2 previous films. Anchor Bay have excelled themselves with this quality presentation, there are trailers galore US & UK, which are quit similar, an episode of World of Hammer the Sci-Fi one! And streets ahead of this are the commentaries by writer Kneale and director Ward-Baker which are really informative. Although I prefer the BBC 3hr version, this is a piece of cinema gold and certainly worth repeated viewings.
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