Quatermass 2 (1957)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Best movie of this year hands down!

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Professor Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) is angered when his space rocket project is cancelled by the government. Yet he becomes involved in a big conspiracy when investigating meteorite falls over the Winterdon Flats area in the North West of England. They turn out to be far from ordinary meteorites when the Professor's assistant, Marsh (Bryan Forbes), is injured when one bursts open and gives him a strange infection. Suddenly, armed guards appear and drag Marsh off to a heavily guarded complex which is an exact replica of Quatermass's moon base, which is designed to allow life to exist in an artificial atmosphere. Quatermass teams up with an MP, Vincent Broadhead (Tom Chatto), and secures a visit to the plant with an inspection party who are concerned about the level of secrecy surrounding it and the vast public expenditure. The party are told that the plant is being used to produce synthetic food but, the so called 'food' turns out to be toxic when Broadhead dies after being exposed to it. Quatermass discovers that the plant's giant domes contain an alien life force that got to Earth via the meteorites and has taken over senior members of the British government. The plant is cultivating the alien life force and when released it could take over the country and the entire world...Hammer's sequel to their box office smash, The Quatermass Xperiment, is a considerable improvement on its predecessor. Naturally, the special effects look extremely primitive when one considers what the Hammer team could have done had they had all the resources of today's CGI special effects at their disposal. Nevertheless, Nigel Kneale's story about an alien invasion including a conspiracy at the top level of government is awesome, has great appeal and still creates a genuine sense of alarm thanks to the direction of Val Guest. Brian Donlevy was never better than here as Quatermass as he battles his way not only against Britain's senior politicians, the Yard and the sceptisism of the folk in the New Town neighbouring the plant. Viewers will also delight in the appearance of Carry On legend, Sid James, here appearing in a role intended for light relief as a drunken journalist whose help the Professor enlists in order to try and get the conspiracy known to the public via his newspaper.

This sequel to 'The Quatermass experiment' has a few details in common with it (professor Quatermass and evil aliens), but that's about it. Here, an important location was provided by oil company Shell, so don't look surprised if the monsters turn out to be looking like giant mobile oil-spills.The story is very doable, the atmosphere and locations are pretty nice once again, and there are plenty of not so much scary, but certainly fun enough monsters. This one does lack a character like Victor Carroon, but I suppose you can't always have it all.A good 7 out of 10.

Director Val Guest and actor Brian Donlevy returned for this sequel. Bernard Quatermmass has a plan to build a moon colony, but is called upon to investigate the mysterious landing of meteorites in the English countryside, near a village. He is startled to discover that a factory has been built nearby, where most of the villagers work, that is heavily guarded. He is told that it produces synthetic food, but comes to learn that it is really controlled by alien invaders who plan on world conquest. How can he and Inspector Lomax(now played by John Longden) stop this insidious plan? Worthy sequel with some violent and intense scenes, though the miscasting of the too-abrasive Brian Donlevy is again a big detriment. Too bad Patrick Troughton wasn't cast in this(and the first) instead!

As a follow-up the the creep-fest 'Xperiment' came 'Quatermass 2'.Brian Donlevy reprises his role as the flamboyant but rather odious Professor. Though in this outing Donlevy portrays him as a much more vulnerable individual. He is frequently talked down, shoved about, and at one point gets a rifle-butt in the face.This movie hits the screen running. We begin with an erratically-driven sportscar that contains a courting couple, the young man has sustained a strange burn-like scar under bizarre circumstances. The car almost runs Quatermass off the road. From that moment on, the plot never lets up. Story, script and - in particular - editing, set a relentless pace. Every take moves the plot on in some way. There is almost no digression whatsoever. Interestingly; there is no romance amongst the characters. No emotional baggage or personal angst and 'issues' interfere with the parts they play. Everybody just gets on with it. I am reminded of Carpenter's 'The Thing'.In a nutshell, a small asteroid has got into geo-stationary orbit around the Earth (but see the 'Goofs' section). It is being used as a platform from which to bomb some little corner of England with projectiles, each containing a leech-sized invader. If they get onto your skin, they penetrate and take you over, leaving a V-shaped scar.Quatermass's rocket facility has discovered their descent and has been tracking them on radar. I'll leave it at that. If you've seen the movie; you know what comes next. If not, you're in for a treat.Viewed from the perspective of generation CGI, the giant blob-monsters seem a wee bit hokey, but for their time they were as good as you got. Any criticism is therefor quite unfair. There are some extremely grim details, especially the aliens' use of live humans as a plug to bung-up a pipe! Remember; this is 1957.If I have a grumble it concerns English geography. Frankly, it's all over the place. The rocket-base plot appears to place the projectile descent near the east coast, whereas Quatermass would have them near Carlisle. And he gads about England between there, his base and central London as if they were all more or less round the block from each other. Even today, my TomTom lists London to Carlilse as a distance of 307 miles using non-motorway routes (there were no motorways in 1957). That would have been a very arduous full-day's drive back then, even allowing for the much lighter traffic. Niggles aside, it's still a gripping horror story tied to a suspenseful conspiracy theory. Both mesh in a well-rounded plot that bears-up even today.Donlevy is excellent, as indeed are a host of other eminent British character actors that include a pre-'Carry On' Syd James and pre-Schweppes William Franklin. There's plenty of great location-work employing Shell's Essex refinery to mesmerising effect. And it's rightly filmed in Black&white.I think this movie compares very favourably with the similarly vintaged 'Them' and 'Night Of The Demon'. Is it a classic? You decide. I watched it for the first time last night after many years and was thoroughly entertained despite the silly hour.