Quatermass and the Pit

Title - Quatermass and the pit  (five million years to earth)
Language - English
Genre - Horror, Sci-Fi

Quatermass and the pit is the third Quatermass film, the first in colour and the last one by Hammer horror.

The film starts with a team of workers digging to extend the ‘Hobb’s end’ tube station in the London underground when they discover a number of skulls and skeletons.  The site is then handed over to Dr Mathew Roney who believes that the skulls belong to an ancestor of man who roamed the earth five million years ago.  The excavation is halted when the team discover a strange item that is believed to be a bomb of some type.

At the same time Professor Quatermass has been called in to a meeting with Colonel Breen who tells him that his rocket/moon project is now being controlled by the military, Quatermass is not happy about this.  The meeting is interrupted by a message to Colonel Breen asking for him to go to the Hobbs end site with bomb disposal to examine the object they have found.

The object is said to be safe so it is fully uncovered.  The team find an entrance and, once inside they find a room full of what appears to be giant insects.  Breen believes that is an old experimental German V weapon and the creatures are fake, put there to scare British during the war but Quatermass and the archaeological team believe it is something else and that is is tied to all the tales of haunting that have been reported around Hobbs end all through history.

Out of the four films Quatermass and the Pit the most different, the other three concern themselves with an alien threat that has come from beyond the stars and, even though the first two take some influence from horror as well as sci-fi Quatermass and the pit is, at it’s core a horror film with leanings towards Sci-Fi.

There seems to be an anti military message in Quatermass and the pit.  this is first evident when Quatermass finds out that his project is going to be taken over by the military, he is outraged as he sees the colonization of other planets as a way of leaving our old warlike  behind.  The theme is carried on by the way the army is portrayed.  Both  Quatermass & Breen  refuse to believe that any of the supernatural events are connected to the find at hobbs end, in fact both refuse to believe in the supernatural at all, but as the film goes on  Quatermass begins to accept that there is something odd happening and that it is connected to the aliens whereas Breen just becomes more and more stubborn and un-receptive to anything other than his own theory.  There is also a hint of an army with the aliens/ possessed human as they go ahead with the racial cull.

The Aliens in this film seem to be better developed that in the previous two films, they have a better back story and more of a reason to want to conquer us although this does cause a problem with the effects.  This is overcome well though, the scenes on Mars are always seen through grainy footage and the alien corps’ are meant to be degrading so they are not seen for long.

The intertwining of Sci-Fi and horror is also handled well, the way the memories of the aliens have become change over time to become our devils is used well and the explanation that phenomenon such as ghosts and poltergeists are actually caused by latent psychic power inherited from the Martians is interesting.  It is interesting to note that there a similar theories about poltergeists in the real word, minus the aliens of course.

I feel that Quatermass and the pit is best of the four films, it has a strong story and a good mix of horror and Sci-Fi and is definitely well worth a watch.

Quatermass 2

Title - Quatermass 2, (the  enemy from space)
Language - English
Genre - Sci-Fi

Set a few years after the <Quatermass Xperiment> we find professor Quatermass  working on a project to set up a base on the moon.  He has a new rocket which has been fitted with an atomic engine which is unstable and the ministry he is working for has just pulled the funding for his work.  Whilst returning from a meeting Quatermass nearly crashes into another driver who is trying to get her boyfriend to hospital  after he had been burned whilst looking at something that had fallen out of the sky.  At the same time Quatermass’ assistants are tracking a number of objects that are falling from the sky.  Finding that the object that had hit  the man in the car was hollow Quatermass hands it to his lab for further testing and goes to investigate where the others fell.  Finding the village of Winnerden Flats destroyed and replaced with a facility that looks alot like his own moon base Quatermass begins to investigate what is going on and what the connection is with the meteor showers.

Like the Quatermass xperiment, Quatermass 2 lets the sense of threat build.  We have the two mysteries; what is the facility at Winnerden Flats and what are the meteors.  The two are linked quite quickly when Quatermass finds the ground around Winnerden Flats littered with broken meteors but it is a while before we find out how dangerous each is.

The size of the threat of the Winnerden Flats site is not known until the end of the film, partly because the site is believed to be manufacturing a synthetic food and what the meteors contain is thought  to be some kind of an infection.

Quatermass 2 seems to be about conspiracy.  At first Quatermass believes that the Winnerden Flats site is a rival project  and probably why his  funding was cut.  As the film progresses the function of the site is covered up  adding to the mystery so that when it is revealed to be a plant for making synthetic food people don't believe them causing Quatermass to investigate further.  Quatermass’ own theory about the site, that is an alien invasion is also treated with some doubt.  Other characters think that his theories are wild and he is only spreading tales because it does look like someone else has a more advanced version of his moon base project.  The conspiracy is heightened by the meteors, as soon as they land the plant guards are out looking for them, they are dressed in protective suits complete with gas masks and they won’t speak to anyone.  Anyone who handles one of the meteors when they first fall is take ill and then take away by the guards, by force if necessary and it is these actions that help convince people the plant and it’s guards are more of a threat then first seen.

In my review of the first Quatermass film (<the quatermass Xperiment>) I compared the film to Frankenstein and, in the same way Quatermass 2 has elements of the early Zombie films.  The Pre ‘night of the living dead’ zombie films i have seen have the zombies more as servants than a brain eating hoard and that can be said of the people who are infected by the meteors, the guards appear to be mindless shells who only protect the plant and look for the other meteors, this may explain why they open a gate to let their vehicles through even though there is a mob of angry villagers already there, trying to get in.  Those possessed by the meteor aliens also have a mark, a v shaped cut on them which seems unnecessary, if the alien is a kind of infection then it would enter via the mouth or nose, the injuries could be seen as a throwback to zombie movies.  Of course these similarities can be drawn to most of the ‘body snatcher’  genre of film.

One of the main things that make the move is the Winnerden Flats plant, the whole thing seems unearthly but has a very real feel to it. this is down to the fact that is it filmed  at a Shell Oil refinery which is a huge industrial site with odd shaped buildings and piping everywhere.  It looks other worldly now so it must have been even more effect back in 1957 when this was made.

I don’t think that Quatermass 2 is the best of the series but it doesn't suffer in the same way as a lot of other number 2 films do I believe that this is due to the stories being relatively unconnected, they are both sci-fi and have alien invasion but it’s different aliens and a different plan.  The creature effect are not quite as good as the creature from the first film  but it doesn't detract from the film 

The Quatermass Xperiment

Title - The Quatermass Xperiment (The creeping unknown )
Language - English
Genre - Horror, Sci-Fi

The Quatermass Xperiment is the first  of four films following the adventures of the British scientist Professor Quatermass.  The film started life as a BBC series but most of the episodes have been lost.  It was later made into a film by Hammer Horror as one of their first films.

The film starts with a rocket crash landing on a farm.  The rocket was part of a government experiment for the first manned flight into space.  The project was headed by Professor Quatermass who is in trouble for launching the rocket early.  The rocket had a crew of three but when it is opened there is only one person aboard, Victor Carroon.  The space suit's of the other astronauts are still intact and the door has not been opened.  As the rocket has been in space there is no where the other astronauts could have gone.

Victor is very ill and is kept at Quatermass' lab.  At the same time Scotland Yard begin an investigator to find out what has happened to the other men, this is led by Inspector Lomax. Quatermass thinks the investigation is a waste of time as no one at Scotland Yard is qualified to investigate anything that happens in space.

Victor is moved to a hospital when it is decided that there is not enough medical equipment in Quatermass' lab.  Victor's wife, Judith tries  to break him out of the hospital but, in the few minuets he is left alone Victor pushes his hand into a cactus and he kills the man who was helping  her.  As Victor goes on a killing spree he slowly changes into something else and Quatermass and Lomax realise they are dealing with an alien invasion.

The Quatermass Xperiment was released in 1955 and, in my opinion it still holds up now. Admittedly  some of the technology is a bit dated but, as Quatermass' lab is mentioned to be quite hi tec it's not that bad.  The film does not rely to heavily on special effects and the creature at the end is not seem much so this does not go against it.  It has a good story and characters.

Quatermass starts wanting to be in control of everything and he finds the involvement of Scotland Yard nothing but an annoyance.  As the film progresses he begins to realise that, even though he has the most knowledge on the rocket and space side he is not equipped to deal with the situation.  He begins to release some control of the situation when he is convinced to let Victor go to a hospital and, once Victor is on the loose he knows that he needs the police to help track him down.  It does seem to annoy Quatermass that he is equipped to deal with everything and this is evident at the end of the film when he takes control of the situation ignoring every done else to stop the creature.

Inspector Lomax is almost the other side of the coin to Quatermass.   He realises from the beginning that he is ill equipped to deal with the situation but he knows that he has a job to do.  There are a couple of scenes at the start of the film where Lomax could have become the comic relief as a bumbling detective who is out of his depth but this is cut short when he goes to Quatermass offering to help him in stead of trying to handle everything himself.

Victor, as the monster is handled well.  As I have said the film is not effects heavy.  For most of the time we see Victor as a normal man although his features are drawn out .  Most of the transformation is kept to his arm which he keeps hidden for a lot of the film.  Victor is portrayed as scared and in pain for most of the film, needing to feed but fighting for his humanity.  This is most apparent in a scene where he meets a little girl by a river.  The scene has a striking similarity’s it to a scene in Frankenstein.  In both tales the monster meets a little girl by a river but in Frankenstein the monster kills the girl by accident and this helps the creature realise what he is and that he does not want to live, making him more human.  In the Quatermass Xperiment Victor does not kill the girl and goes on to become  ore monstrous, loosing his humanity.   In a way the character of Victor is almost a reverse of Frankenstein monster, the monster starts as a none human creation and becomes more human where as Victor starts out human and becomes more monstrous. The similarity are only heighten by the creature in the Quatermass Xperiment bearing the name of the man who d created the monster in Frankenstein.

The monster at the end of the film is not shown much.  When we do see it we get the feeling that it is some kind of plant jellyfish,  it is resting so not moving much which is good because if they had put to much movement into it I think it would have looked dated now.

By the standards of today's films the Quatermass Xperiment is not too scary.  When it was first released in the UK it was given an X rating (an 18 in today's ratings) but modern releases have been dropped to a pig (children can watch with there parents).  There are some creepy parts to the film but it does rely on its story and characters.

Well worth a watch in my opinion but if you don't fancy it in black and white the series was remade in 2002 and this is also worth a watch.