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.
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