Konterr Brilliant and touching

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

NateWatchesCoolMovies Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce is the most dementedly unique horror SciFi mashup you'll get. Based on a novel that's literally titled 'The Space Vampires', the film is exactly that and more. It's so out of it's mind that at a certain point you have to surrender and bask in it, and grab the sides of the cart as it veers between all kinds of increasingly bonkers plot points. When a strange, rice kernel shaped object shows up in earth's atmosphere, a team of exploratory astronauts led by intrepid Steve Railsback goes on up to investigate. What they find up there eclipses any weirdness aboard the Nostromo, Millennium Falcon or Event Horizon. Intergalactic vampires lie in creepy cryo suspension, just waiting for unlucky hosts to come along. Soon they're exposed to earth and it's a gory mad dash all over London to stope them from turning every earthling into zombies. Yes, that's actually the plot, and despite how it sounds on paper, they really make it work. That's mostly thanks to the screen shattering, ridiculously good special effects, especially in the opening aboard the alien's strange, baroque vessel which is one of the most otherworldly and atmospheric sequences in any horror film ever. Once the action shifts back to earth it's a pure shit show and near comedy of errors, with Railsback's frenzied cosmonaut teaming up with a peppy British intelligence agent (Peter Firth), and even Patrick Stewart comes out to play as some vague scientific bro. There's boundless imagination at work here, carried by sheer movie magic to contribute lasting, impressive images and create an entirely unique horror experience. Plus, how could a flick about space vampires not be amazing (we will not speak of Dracula 3000). A sci-Fi horror classic, an under-sung jewel of visual flights of fancy and practical effects laden nightmares.

Woodyanders A race of space vampires run amok in London, England and threaten to destroy the human race. It's up to hysterical astronaut Colonel Tom Carlsen (Steve Railsback at his most manic and intense) to stop them before it's too late.Director Tobe Hooper, working from a positively loopy script by Dan O'Bannon and Dan Jacoby, treats the delightfully bent, batty, and berserk story with utmost (often unintentionally sidesplitting)seriousness, puts a fresh and wacky sci-fi spin on the standard vampire premise (these deadly beings suck energy instead of blood), cuts loose with all kinds of funky special effects, and pulls out all exciting stops for a truly insane apocalyptic grand finale with shriveled-up zombies rampaging through a burning London. The fact that such respectable thespians as Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, Michael Gothard, Patrick Stewart, and Aubrey Morris play their silly parts with admirable straight faces further enhances this film's considerable kitschy appeal. Best of all, voluptuous brunette knockout Mathilda May as the dangerously seductive space girl spends the bulk of her screen time in her spectacularly sumptuous birthday suit. The hilariously clunky dialogue boasts a wealth of gut-busting tin-eared howlers (choice cruddy line: "Collect the pieces and watch them"). Alan Hume's handsome cinematography makes exquisite use of the widescreen format. Henry Mancini's rich'n'robust orchestral score hits the rousing spot. An astounding camp classic.

Steve-war Truly one of the worst films ever made. Words cannot possibly describe how bad it is. Dialogue straight out of Thunderbirds, acting that would embarrass Ed Wood and Henry Mancini's score sounds like he wrote it while having a stroke. I'm not done yet - it's laughably miscast, the first ten minutes seem to have been badly edited down from at least thirty minutes and some of the dubbing is amateurish at best. It's truly ghastly, tacky, cheap-looking rubbish. And yet...and yet.... The special effects are great for the time, often filmed bravely in bright light. No CGI here, it's all prosthetics. The lead alien is as beautiful as the movie is bad, I mean she's gorgeous. And the action doesn't let up for a second. Slam bang from start to finish. And somehow the abiding atmosphere is strangely haunting. You will love this movie at the exact same time you are hating it.

Joxerlives Such a wonderful film, every time you think you've got the handle on it they throw in something new that totally takes you by surprise. I can see why it wasn't a success (partly I think because of the useless eye-over-Earth poster, you have a film with the gorgeous naked Mathilda May, apocalyptic London and huge spaceships and you don't put them on the poster? Indeed most of the advertising art for Lifeforce seems to be for a different film altogether and never appears on screen) but surely it deserved to be?What's great about it? EVERYTHING! Mathilda May is just the most beautiful woman ever, she's sexier than Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman and Eliza Dushku as the dominatrix and that's really saying something. On the whole the perversion in this mainstream film really has to be seen to be believed, Aubrey Morris as the Home Secretary seems to be constantly salivating over it all like the customer at a porno show and you feel that many in the audience will be feeling the same way. Amidst exploding zombie corpses and naked spacegirls constructed from her victim's blood the scene that really stands out to you is the heroes slapping the beautiful red-headed nurse around for information but saying that's OK because she's 'an extreme masochist' and is loving every second of it. Even in today's world of extreme gorno I don't think you'd get away with that any more in a mainstream film (interesting rewatching that scene and looking at the posters on the wall behind her, her as a little girl being hugged by her father and a sticker saying 'Head over heels in love'?). Some great performances from Peter Firth (Colonel Caine, SAS)and Frank Finlay (obstensibly a bio-chemist but his real interest is death), watching these characters dealing best they can with a situation totally beyond their control. A few great lines of dialogue and some wonderful set-pieces, absolutely love Caine heroically fighting his way through zombie infested London to Henry Mancini's amazing orchestral score to save the day and Carlsen's valiant act of self-sacrifice (again, the last thing you're expecting, you think he'll stab her but it's a shock when he impales himself too).Many questions that are never really answered. Are Carlsen and the spacegirl dead or are they preserved in the spaceship crystal coffins as before? What happened to all the human souls, did they go free, are they trapped on the ship or have they been used to revive the vampire race? Was Fallada genuinely trying to help Caine stop the vamps or was he leading him astray knowing that he was going to try to drain him? Where did he get the sword and how did he know how to use it? All told it will never win any Oscars but it is truly fantastic in every sense of the word.