Lifeforce (Son of "Quatermass and the Pit") (1985) Part 2 of 3

Notice: Please be advised that there are photos containing nudity near the end of Part 3 of this blog post.

Greater latitude than the book  💥
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Since Lifeforce immediately preceded Hooper’s 1986 remake of the 1953 Invaders from Mars and since Hooper’s two films shared much the same creative talent, it was not, and is not, inappropriate to finally give Lifeforce its due. This blog provides me with greater latitude than the book, where I merely touched on this subject. Here I will discuss Lifeforce here without restraint, particularly in relation to Hammer Films’ Five Million Years to Earth/Quatermass and the Pit. My book contains many Mars movies—but few are perfect. Five Million Years to Earth is one of the perfect ones. Like Casablanca, not one frame is out of place. It is my sincere position that the same can be said of Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce, which is brilliantly conceived, perfectly executed, and is, frankly, a truly great science-fiction film, jump-starting from the very first pulse-pounding note of Henry Mancini's epic martial score to the final shot of the vampires’ spaceship drifting off.

Bullied into failure

I find it truly reprehensible and incomprehensible that the film was bullied into failure and obscurity.  Lifeforce was and is a practically perfect film, but its own Tri-Star distributor for obscure business reasons chose to malign the film and recut it into insensibility for American audiences; further, the company went out of its way to do "its utmost to distance itself from the director's intentions and spirit," according to Cathode Ray Tube.com creator Frank Collins. Naturally, in a situation like this, the negative energy filtered down from the top and the critics and then the public followed suit, and then maligning the film became the order of the day—the “in thing” to do!

In fact, I spell out the process in Mars in the Movies, saying, "The best in human nature does not thrive when there is disharmony. There are many fine films that have tanked at the start not due to the inherent quality of the movie but because of the climate of hostility that for some reason exists within the management of those films' respective studios. This negativity affects pre-release promotion and creates an environment of rumor that, once begun, is impossible to shake. And once a negative rumor begins to circulate, a kind of pack mentality takes over and critic after critic, often not even consciously, sense the prevailing attitudes and climate about a movie and automatically dismiss it. Of course, critics' dismissals seldom automatically spell disaster for a movie, but there is something about malice generated at the top executive level of a film's own company that is far more toxic than common garden variety criticism." All and all, this sort of rabid behavior is a sad commentary on the proclivity of humans to so easily fall into lemming-like actions, attitudes, and opinions.

Vindication

In Mars in the Movies, I say, "What virtually all critics miss, among other things, is that Lifeforce is largely a remake of Five Million Years to Earth/Quatermass and the Pit….  I have been perplexed why I’ve not found anyone else who noticed such an obvious Hammer connection.”

Alas!  At the time I wrote that, I was not familiar with a certain comment made by genre expert Stephen Jones in his The Essential Monster Movie Guide: A Century of Creature Features Film, TV, and Video (2000) that read: “Loosely based on Colin Wilson’s novel Space Vampires, [Lifeforce], Hooper’s lively blend of science-fiction and horror begins like Alien (1979), turns into a remake of Quatermass and the Pit (1967), and ends up looking like a Hammer gothic.” (Obviously, this is yet another of those ubiquitous recurring references to the mixing of genres (see Part 1 of this posting), but at least the Quatermass and Hammer parts are right on the money.)

Lifeforce is clearly a sort of $25 million amped up remake of 

Five Million Years to Earth / Quatermass and the Pit.

Thankfully, the word “virtually” covers a multitude of sins and kept me from painting myself into an embarrassing corner! Nevertheless, my point is still valid since, clearly, too many critics who really ought to have known better were either uncharacteristically dim or too apoplectic from 1985 to 2013 to see any obvious connection. Some, however, in their 2013 comments on the Blu-ray finally took the blinders off and, surprise!, saw the similarities, though, again, only saying so begrudgingly, and likely only because some other critic had called attention to the fact, but even still, usually making irrelevant or incorrect claims regarding Quatermass in general and not about Quatermass and the Pit. As I researched and wrote the book, I admit I was not at all aware that the Blu-ray release had generated so much—a veritable flood—of commentary and criticism.

Nevertheless, it was when I watched the making-of documentary on the Lifeforce Blu-ray, that I saw in an interview Tobe Hooper explain how Cannon gave him $25 million, free-reign, and the novel The Space Vampires by Colin Wilson, and said, basically, go knock yourself out (hoping for a Star Wars–like reception). Hooper then shares how giddy he was. “I thought I’d go back to my roots and make a 70 mm Hammer film.” I felt so totally vindicated!

After all, the connection between the two films is utterly obvious for anyone with a basic foundation in science-fiction cinema (and as an aside, while researching my book I discovered to my utter astonishment that far too many so-called science-fiction film experts have no basic foundation and regularly speak nonsense as a result):

• Quatermass and the Pit/Five Million Years to Earth is about an alien species (Martians) that had been influencing the development of humankind (through genetic mutation) for millions of years—from which derives the ancient legends of the devil—and concludes with epic scenes of London being destroyed by vast, nearly occult powers in the form of rampaging lightning-like bursts of (paranormal) energy focused on a huge glowing alien manifestation made of pure energy (the giant head of a grasshopper-like Martian, see figure below), which is effectively short-circuited by cold-iron, the traditional enemy of the devil (in the form of an overhead crane), by way of self-sacrifice.

Quatermass and the Pit's "huge glowing alien manifestation made of pure energy".

• While, Lifeforce is about an alien species (vampires) that had been influencing the development of humankind (through absorption of its life force) for millions of years—from which derives the ancient legends of the vampire—and concludes with epic scenes of London being destroyed by vast, nearly occult powers in the form of rampaging lightning-like bursts of (spiritual) energy focused on a huge glowing alien manifestation made of pure energy (the huge column of human souls rising into space, see figure below), which is effectively short-circuited by cold-iron, the traditional enemy of the devil (in the form of a fearsome sword), by way of self-sacrifice.

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Lifeforce's "huge glowing alien manifestation made of pure energy".

Clearly the title "Five Million Years to Earth" 

was consciously derivative of Ray 

Harryhausen's "20 Million Miles to Earth".

The fact is that I "got" this, or understood this, at my first viewing (it may have helped that Five Million Years to Earth was one of my favorite films at the time!). But it might be enlightening to explain the background of my first viewing. My first son Nicholas was born on February 15, 1985. Then there came a period of several months when getting him to sleep was difficult. My wife and I took turns holding him on our shoulders and walking him around the house endlessly. I mentioned this to my friend Gail Morgan Hickman, and he suggested that I play the video of Lifeforce to keep my mind occupied.  He said he thought I'd like it. I'd never heard of the film and had zero preconceptions. We'd only just bought our first VCR, and the whole idea of home video was new to me (though very quickly I learned to loathe VHS, but that is a very different story). At that time, I watched Lifeforce over and over, and please note this was the tragically cut American pan-and-scan version. The film was nonetheless riveting despite having these serious counts against it. And it did the trick. (And it was probably helpful that I was at all times too preoccupied pacing around the house to be too critical!) The film kept my brain occupied as my perambulation soothed Nicholas into sleep night after night.

Two more fine films that were absolutely destroyed by negative and/or confused energy generated at the top executive level of their respective film companies (per Mr. H. Ellison and Mr. M. Sellers, respectively).  Ahhh!  I can see all the eyebrows raising, the nostrils flaring, and hear the harsh mutterings of disbelief. For details about the care and feeding of lemmings, please see my book Mars in the Movies: A History.

Continued in Part 3

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