Wordiezett So much average

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Prichards12345 Nigel Kneale's second Quatermass serial is an exciting and fast-moving affair, in which Professor Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) discovers an alien conspiracy at the heart of the British Government. Strange meteors have been arriving from space in unusually large numbers, and our good Rocket Engineer soon discovers they have something inside...The plot has already been recounted very well by other contributors here, so I won't add anything further other than to say Kneale and Director Val Guest superbly condense the t.v. original into a tense and compelling 85 minutes. Donlevy is slightly better this time around then he was in the first movie, and UK viewers can enjoy the sight of Sid James and William Franklyn amongst the cast. Franklyn's character in Dracula A.D. 1972 dies in exactly the same way as he does here!The story, of course, has a slight resemblance to Invasion of The Bodysnatchers; but this appears to be a case of parallel development rather than any borrowing. Kneale's work is often concerned with dehumanisation, and never more so than here. The monsters at the end are a bit comical, and Kneale and Guest probably wisely omitted the outer space sequence from the original t.v. show - Hammer's special effects (and budget) would have struggled to depict this convincingly.Although Hammer would wait a decade to film the third Kneale Quatermass opus, in many ways the best was yet to come...

AaronCapenBanner Director Val Guest and actor Brian Donlevy returned for this sequel. Bernard Quatermmass has a plan to build a moon colony, but is called upon to investigate the mysterious landing of meteorites in the English countryside, near a village. He is startled to discover that a factory has been built nearby, where most of the villagers work, that is heavily guarded. He is told that it produces synthetic food, but comes to learn that it is really controlled by alien invaders who plan on world conquest. How can he and Inspector Lomax(now played by John Longden) stop this insidious plan? Worthy sequel with some violent and intense scenes, though the miscasting of the too-abrasive Brian Donlevy is again a big detriment. Too bad Patrick Troughton wasn't cast in this(and the first) instead!

Spikeopath The Quatermass Xperiment had been a major success for Hammer upon its release in 1955, becoming the company's biggest grossing film up to that time. Moving quickly to capitalise, Hammer Film Productions put together the elements for the sequel, Quatermass 2 (AKA Enemy From Space). Val Guest once again directs and co writes with Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale, Brian Donlevy returns as the irrepressible professor Quatermass, James Bernard scores and Anthony Hinds is again on production duties. Joining Donlevy in the cast are John Longden, Sid James, Bryan Forbes, William Franklyn & Vera Day. The plot sees Quatermass investigating meteorites that have been falling at Winnerden Flats. Whilst up in the Winnerden Valley, Quatermass and his colleague, Marsh, discover a huge power plant complex that looks suspiciously like the model Quatermass has been working on as part of a potential colonisation of the Moon. When Marsh is burnt by one of the meteorites, guards appear from nowhere and take him away down in the valley. Just what is going on at this strange plant? Quartermass intends to find out, but Winnerden has many secrets, secrets that could spell doom for mankind.A sequel that is at least the equal of its predecessor, Quatermass 2 deals in politico paranoia and chilly alien invasion hysteria. Similar to Don Siegel's excellent Invasion Of The Body Snatchers from the previous year, the film doesn't rely on shlonky shocks to make its heart beat. There's much sci-fi discussion and jobs-worth like characters that are easy to follow, but all serve a purpose as Winnerden's secret starts to show its cards. As Quatermass' trail leads to the higher echelons of power, the paranoiac feel of the piece really kicks in, with the mood greatly enhanced by Gerald Gibbs' monochrome photography and Guest's imaginative use of hand held cameras for certain scenes. The effects work is clever and does its job, while the cast work hard to make the effective story work. Tho the film made good money it was overshadowed by the huge success of Hammer's release of The Curse Of Frankenstein the same year, while the film wasn't given much promotional help from Kneale who was very critical of the finished product. With much of his scorn directed towards Donlevy who he always felt was wrong for the role of the intrepid boffin. With that in mind, it's perhaps unsurprising to find the film still today is very divisive among critics and sci-fi fans alike. So you take your chance then. Personally I think it's one of the best sci-fi movies to have come out of Britian. As was the first film, and as was Quatermass And The Pit from 1967. Pretty great trilogy actually. 8/10

screenman As a follow-up the the creep-fest 'Xperiment' came 'Quatermass 2'.Brian Donlevy reprises his role as the flamboyant but rather odious Professor. Though in this outing Donlevy portrays him as a much more vulnerable individual. He is frequently talked down, shoved about, and at one point gets a rifle-butt in the face.This movie hits the screen running. We begin with an erratically-driven sportscar that contains a courting couple, the young man has sustained a strange burn-like scar under bizarre circumstances. The car almost runs Quatermass off the road. From that moment on, the plot never lets up. Story, script and - in particular - editing, set a relentless pace. Every take moves the plot on in some way. There is almost no digression whatsoever. Interestingly; there is no romance amongst the characters. No emotional baggage or personal angst and 'issues' interfere with the parts they play. Everybody just gets on with it. I am reminded of Carpenter's 'The Thing'.In a nutshell, a small asteroid has got into geo-stationary orbit around the Earth (but see the 'Goofs' section). It is being used as a platform from which to bomb some little corner of England with projectiles, each containing a leech-sized invader. If they get onto your skin, they penetrate and take you over, leaving a V-shaped scar.Quatermass's rocket facility has discovered their descent and has been tracking them on radar. I'll leave it at that. If you've seen the movie; you know what comes next. If not, you're in for a treat.Viewed from the perspective of generation CGI, the giant blob-monsters seem a wee bit hokey, but for their time they were as good as you got. Any criticism is therefor quite unfair. There are some extremely grim details, especially the aliens' use of live humans as a plug to bung-up a pipe! Remember; this is 1957.If I have a grumble it concerns English geography. Frankly, it's all over the place. The rocket-base plot appears to place the projectile descent near the east coast, whereas Quatermass would have them near Carlisle. And he gads about England between there, his base and central London as if they were all more or less round the block from each other. Even today, my TomTom lists London to Carlilse as a distance of 307 miles using non-motorway routes (there were no motorways in 1957). That would have been a very arduous full-day's drive back then, even allowing for the much lighter traffic. Niggles aside, it's still a gripping horror story tied to a suspenseful conspiracy theory. Both mesh in a well-rounded plot that bears-up even today.Donlevy is excellent, as indeed are a host of other eminent British character actors that include a pre-'Carry On' Syd James and pre-Schweppes William Franklin. There's plenty of great location-work employing Shell's Essex refinery to mesmerising effect. And it's rightly filmed in Black&white.I think this movie compares very favourably with the similarly vintaged 'Them' and 'Night Of The Demon'. Is it a classic? You decide. I watched it for the first time last night after many years and was thoroughly entertained despite the silly hour.