No.100: "The Quatermass Xperiment" (1955) (The Quatermass Xperiment (DVD))

Member Name: jbsabbath

Product:	The Quatermass Xperiment (DVD)
Date:	09/08/09 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some well-directed pieces from Val Guest

Disadvantages: Poor casting and lots of not-showing what we're meant to be scared of!

After the success of the TV serial "The Quatermass Experiment" starring Reginald Tate as the British scientist Professor Bernard Quatermass, Hammer Film Productions adapted the story for the big-screen, their first foray into their signature genre of horror and often seen as an important and influential film for 50's sci-fi.

Quatermass (here played by Brian Donlevy) oversees a space program to send astronauts high into space, only his most recent rocket has come crashing down in the English countryside after contact was lost.

Of the three astronauts who went up, two have disappeared, their suits empty, while the third, Victor (Richard Wordsworth), is delirious and unable to talk.

It soon becomes apparent that Victor has been infected and is changing, his body being modified by some unknown agent, and when he begins to leave a trail of bodies sucked of life it turns into a race against time for Quatermass to destroy this alien evil before its spores take over the world!

Directed by Val Guest and filmed in good old black and white, this tame piece of horror suffers from showing too little and relying on a storyline that has been used countless times since - it reminded me of "The Outer Limits" episode with William Shatner where he comes back from a mission to Venus and develops webbed hands for some reason.

The good thing here though is that there are a few solid well-filmed pieces, most notably when Quatermass is reviewing the filmed scenes aboard the spaceship - in complete silence we watch what happened, split up with fuzzy gaps, and it comes across as really convincing.

The way it's filmed harkens back to the silent era with the static camera.

Less convincing, however, is Wordsworth's 'transformation' into the monstrous octapus-like creature he ends up becoming, which is not the actor's fault at all as he puts in a quite respectable Frankenstein's monster-style performance, even adding in a scene where he is frightened by and spares a young girl.

It's the make-up department really, as the first big change to his arm is never really seen clearly, and then we never get to see him again until he's the octapus thing, so god knows what happened in between.

The rest of the film is very cliche, with a by-numbers script and a lacklustre score.

The worst thing is actually the casting of Brian Donlevy as the title character Quatermass, who gives the film no real emotion or effort, cast only so that the film could hopefully break into the American audience.

Donlevy runs around, shouting and ordering everyone about, even spouting "I don't care if you get the best developer in the world - I want that film developed!", something I can't see anyone yelling in Boots.

He seems to have no special knowledge and there appears to be no real reason why he'd be in charge of a space program, but there you are - his best solution is to just blow the crap out of everything, US-style!

"The Quatermass Xperiment" may have been Hammer's first horror, but it is in no way impressive and seems to be more of a safe bet, rather than a chance to do something really different.

Ultimately it has its good points, but sadly these are few and far between.

[The DVD can be purchased from play.com's PlayTrade from £12.99 (including postage and packing), at time of writing]

Summary: Fair and easy effort from Hammer as their first horror, but they went on to do much better