Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Red-Barracuda I first encountered The Quatermass Xperiment in the long defunct magazine 'Halls of Horror' when they published it in comic format. Brilliantly drawn by Brian Lewis it made the film look very evocative and scary. It wasn't until many years later that I finally caught up with the film proper when it played on late night TV and, while it turned out to be less violent and salacious than the comic adaption, it certainly turned out to be a very impressive bit of 50's sci-fi. Adapted from a BBC mini-series written by Nigel Neale, it tells the story of a rocket which crash lands in the UK after a deep space mission, the one surviving astronaut emerges from the craft in a near comatose state. It transpires that he has been infected by a mysterious space organism which is slowly mutating him into a deadly creature. He escapes and begins a murderous rampage which involves him literally sucking the life from various lifeforms…plant, animal, human.This film was unusual in that it was a very rare example where producers submitted a movie to the censors with a cut specifically designed to obtain an X rating. Most tried to avoid this as it limited their audience considerably and when you consider that up to this point science fiction was aimed at young audiences, it seems pretty clear that The Quatermass Xperiment heralded a very new approach to the genre, one which presented a sci-fi premise where the consequences were very horrific. But perhaps the most significant thing about this film was that it was the movie where the b-movie producers Hammer hit upon the idea that they may have a knack for horror and the rest, as they say, is history…This is a commendably quite dark and pessimistic bit of 50's sci-fi. It has a rich atmosphere helped quite a bit from the gloomy post-war British setting. The lead character adds to this a bit with Professor Quatermass a very misanthropic individual for a main 'hero' in a movie. Brian Donlevy does a good job on the character, ramping up his monomaniacal characteristics. Richard Wordsworth impresses too as the doomed astronaut; it's a wordless performance where he gives off considerable menace by looks and small gestures. There is a nod to Frankenstein (1931) where he interacts with a young girl (incidentally played by future beauty Jane Asher!), which is a scene which shows his performance was certainly in Boris Karloff territory. The film eventually winds up with a memorable finale at Westminster Abbey where we see the final creature, this is followed by an impressively downbeat ending where Quatermass delivers a brilliantly cold line – a perfect ending to one of the best sci-fi films of the 50's.

punishmentpark A very nice British sc-fi horror oldie, that may very well have some of the first body horror stuff in it, though I'm no expert. I saw part two years before, and I can say it makes no difference which one you watch first, story-wise.Although I thought there was quite some silliness in here (why would a rocket on fire be too hot to put water on, why is immediately opening a rocket door fatal, but a couple of minutes later safe, etc.?), but 'The Quatermass experiments' has a couple of important things going for it. The (body) horror I mentioned before may be minimal, but it is quite well done, there are plenty of terrific locations and settings used (Westminster Abbey even) and, finally, Richard Wordsworth's appearance and acting as the doomed spaceman Victor Carroon are pretty damn good.The story may have its fair share of silly details, but on the whole it works, and it is reasonably fast paced.A big 7 out of 10.

AaronCapenBanner Val Guest directed this science fiction tale based on a Nigel Kneale TV miniseries that stars Brian Donlevy as American rocket scientist Bernard Quatermass, who is called to the English countryside to investigate a rocket ship of his that has crashed. Two of the crew have disappeared, and the third is injured and uncommunicative. It turns out that the crew came into contact with an unknown life form in space that infected them, and now threatens to break loose upon the world, unless Quatermass and Inspector Lomax(played by Jack Warner) can stop it... Well directed and written thriller has nice atmosphere, but hurt by the miscasting of American Donlevy playing a British scientist, and the monster itself(at the climax) isn't that impressive, but otherwise this is a passable version.

trashgang I guess Hammer doesn't need any introduction to horror geeks. They were known for their Gothic horrors and also for their horrors containing nudity. But before Dracula and Frankenstein were summon Hammer did a few flicks based on a television play concerning Professor Quatermass.I was a bit afraid to put it into the DVD player because flicks from that era were low on everything but what a surprise it was to see that they used some effects that looked great. That the effects worked was shown once it hit the theaters. One man died in the US by heart attack due watching this flick. Soon words were spread that you could die watching it.It takes a while before things go awry with the one survivor of a missile which was launched by Quatermass. Slowly he turns into a creature that couldn't be helped. It reminded me a bit of The Fly (1958) and The Thing From Another World (1951). At the end, at the church, you could see wires used to move the arms of the creature.Low on everything but still you keep watching it because the metamorphosis goes on and on. Recommended for the Hammer freaks because you could see by some effects (sucking out of a body) that they would become a trademark.Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5