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Title: Quatermass and the Pit
| Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi, Horror, Thriller, TV Movie |
Year: 1958 |
Country: UK |
Rating:  |
Starring: André Morell, Cec Linder, Anthony Bushell, John Stratton, Christine Finn
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Director: Rudolph Cartier
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My Review: Quatermass and the Pit was a British television sci-fi serial transmitted live by BBC Television in December 1958 and January 1959. It was the third and last of the BBC's Quatermass serials; the character reappeared in a 1979 ITV production called Quatermass. Like its predecessors, Quatermass and the Pit was written by Nigel Kneale.
The serial has been cited as an influence on Stephen King and the film director John Carpenter. It is featured in 'the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes' compiled by the British Film Institute in 2000, where it was described as "completely gripping". In 2005 the BBC's own website declared it "simply the first finest thing the BBC ever made. It justifies licence fees to this day."
An amazing movie that I've been searching for. I finally found a copy! I saw this movie many, many, many moons ago. When I was a wee tike, sneaking upstairs in the dead of night. I would quietly head for the living room in order to watch TV late at night - After my parents had gone to sleep. Watching these late night scary movies was NOT permitted! My delicate mind might become unhinged if I watched too much of the late night creature features on late night TV! The show I most watched/remember was 'T.J. and The ANT' on WLUK (Channel 11). The show aired from 1977-1982, featuring Doug Heim as "T.J." (Television Jockey). The 12:10am timeslot (on Friday nights) was quite late, but I would often set my alarm in order to watch the Creature Features that aired on T.J. & The Ant. My best friends and I would often watch the shows at the same time, and then discuss them afterwards.
One particular show I watched on the late night Chiller Theater was something called 'Quatermass and the Pit' - The American title was 'Five Million Years to Earth'. This particular movie was burned into my memory - Filled with eerie music, dark sets, chilling sound effects and a five million year old alien space ship, there's no way I could ever forget this classic. I searched for this movie for many years - Checking the shelves of independent video rentals, only to be disappointed. With the advent of eBay and Amazon, I've finally located a copy of this late night thriller. Thanks to Amazon, I was finally able to locate a copy of my own. For $15.99, I can encamp in the living room with a blanket drapped around my shoulders and a bowl of popcorn to enjoy that classic sci-fi horror flick.
The copy I purchased from Amazon is not the 1967 'film' produced by Hammer Films'. It's a re-recording of the original BBC serials. Originally produced for television by the BBC, this 'serial' was released in six parts during 1958 and 1959. This DVD contains all six of those originally aired television episodes. Knitted together as a single 'movie' the third Quatermass serial makes an thrilling 'Creature Feature'.
Here's an eclectic horror mix. It's part mystery, part history, part supernatural, part sci-fi. A far cry from any slick production filled with fancy special effects. This movie relies solely on a rich imaginative story guaranteed to keep you glued to your seat.
Spoiler warning...
While excavating a new subway line in the ‘Hobbes End’ part of London, the construction crew comes across some rather unusual finds; some human remains. The local archaeologist is called in. A strange type of human ancestor is reconstructed. The workers keep digging. That's when they discover a 'bomb'. The military is called in, along with a 'rocket scientist' (Quatermass).
Eventually the entire bomb is excavated. What was originally thought to be a missile is actually a five million year old space ship! Is it a hoax or an unbelievably important discovery? Clearly an alien space-craft, the thing looks like something from an H.R. Giger drawing (well before anyone had ever heard of H.R. Giger). After an abortive attempt to open a sealed compartment, the metal dissolves on it's own in an unusual metallic fire effect. Inside the sealed compartment are insectoid creatures, which quickly begin to deteriorate when exposed to our atmosphere.
At the end of the day, a worker goes back to the site to retrieve his tools. Alone in the dark tunnel, the worker is overcome by psychic impressions emanating from the craft. As Dr. Quatermass and his assistant research the supernatural events surrounding the site of the alien craft, the military man bungles the PR job, by declaring the area 'all clear'. Reporters and curiosity seekers are soon exposed to strange levitating objects and possession by the awoken spirits of the aliens.
As the crowd is driven mad and flees, we see the space ship levitating, writhing, and pulsing with power. It's almost as if the vessel itself is alive. Coursing with power, it begins to affect the humans living in the vicinity. In the meantime, Professor Quatermass and a colleague connect a possessed citizen to a 'thought imaging' device. The results are shocking (bad special effects are dismissed as static filled visions of a possessed mind). We see scenes of alien insectoid creatures engaged in a great war. The slaughter lays waste to millions of the creatures, and may go some distance towards an explanation.
Did these creatures flee their dying home world? Did they escape a genocidal war by genetically modifying primitive humans? Did they augment the DNA of our ancient ancestors with their own? Are we the result of an extraterrestrial genetics experiment? They couldn't survive in our atmosphere, so they transferred their racial memory into our species by grafting their genetic material onto our genome. In the end, an alien invasion, by way of psychic proxy, is thwarted when Professor Quatermass disrupts the psychic projector (The image of a giant shimmering insectoid is hovering over the city and slowly converting the populace into a disturbed slave race) using a large conductive mass of metal (a construction crane).
There was a lot going on in this movie, and it affected me on many levels. The themes in this movie have been seen throughout the years in many of the sci-fi classics we see today. The ideas were far-reaching, sophisticated, and thought provoking. Filled with tense, thrilling terror, excellent music, some good special effects and a story that seems believable and fantastic, this film keeps you watching, waiting for the next amazing revelation. While the acting is poor, and the production sub-par, the writing, pacing and screen-play are so good that you can’t deny the enduring nature of this film. The music helped sustain a feeling of dread and uncertainty as the alien creatures attempted to assert dominion from beyond the flesh and beyond time. This one gave me nightmares like a young mind can’t imagine.
In August of 2013, I finally found (of the original television production - Not the Hammer Films 'remake') a copy for sale. I bought it immediately. A must have horror classic that chills you to the primal spine, a story of genetic manipulation, psychic conscience, alien origins and frightening consequences for our civilization. I give it a 5 out of 5.
Summary: When a skull is found during building works at Knightsbridge, London, the work is halted in order that a full archaeological dig can proceed. The diggers delve deeper, finding more skulls, but also finding some form of tube-like shell made of a ceramic like material. The Ministry of Defence believe it to be an un-exploded bomb, but when they manage to dig inside the shell, dead insect-like creatures are found. The MOD continue with their story, but Professor Quatermass's theory that the insects are Martians who visited Earth over five million years ago is proved to be correct with drastic consequences.
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