JinRoz
For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
Freaktana
A Major Disappointment
Mathilde the Guild
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Michael O'Keefe
The first time I saw this was as a kid on a Saturday morning triple feature at the theater; recently was able to watch this again and it makes more sense. Wonder why? Professor Bernard Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) puts a manned rocket into space and makes big news all over Europe, when it crashes into a countryside outside of London. The news cameras are rolling and Quatermass is concerned about the three astronauts that left on the journey. As the door is opened, only one traveler is found inside. Astronaut Victor Carroon (Richard Wordsworth) seems senseless and unable to communicate. After being taken to a private clinic, his wife (Margia Dean), manages to have him smuggled out. Scotland Yard and Quatermass start a manhunt to find they are now hunting a monster that is killing animals and people. Still, what happened to the other two astronauts?Uncanny and tense early Sci-Fi. At the movies all those years ago, I couldn't hit pause in order to get another root beer and popcorn. If you get a chance: don't pass this one up.Also starring are: David King-Wood, Jack Warner, Lionel Jeffries, Gordon Jackson and Harold Lang.
gavin6942
Professor Bernard Quatermass is in charge of a manned rocket mission that has gone awry. They lost contact with the spaceship at one point and have no idea how far into space it may have traveled. When the rocket crash lands in a farmer's field they find that only one of the three occupants, Victor Carroon, is on board; the others have simply vanished.Somehow when you say "1950s science fiction", this film tends to be overlooked. Often for more American films, some of which are better and many of which are worse. Why? And most interestingly, this comes from Hammer, the fines folks who brought life back to Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein. They are not really known for their science fiction, but maybe they should be.Jeff Szpirglas calls Kino Lorber's Blu-ray release "well worth the wait" Americans had to endure. Indeed, beyond the crisp picture, we get some nice interviews: John Carpenter and Ernest Dickerson, as well as director Val Guest. The latter, of course, is a real treat, but for me Dickerson is the hidden treasure. He has not yet received the attention he deserves.
Rainey Dawn
This movie is also known under it's US title 'The Creeping Unknown'. The Quatermass Xperiment is quite an interesting film especially the beginning of it (which is really the best part of the movie to me). I enjoyed the mystery of not knowing what happened to the astronauts - the wondering. Once it became clear as to what happened to the astronauts, the movie really became more of a stereo typical sci-fi horror of the 1950's, a creature feature if you will.I quite like this movie - and I think that quite a few sci-fi and horror fans would enjoy it.I will agree with some that has reviewed this movie that Prof. Bernard Quatermass is very much of a business man but he is also a scientist. What he found in this Xperiment is quite an interesting discovery - one that I will not mention because I will not spoil the movie for those that have not seen the film.7/10
tomgillespie2002
After the enormous success of the BBC mini-series of the same name, Hammer Studios, which at the time were specialising in supporting features, swooped in to action a feature film adaptation. This being the first horror film they produced, The Quatermass Xperiment can be labelled as the birth of Hammer horror, and for that we are truly thankful. The surprising thing is, for all it's B-movie clunkiness and 1950's science-babble, Quatermass has stood the test of time. It's a serious, occasionally thrilling, and undeniably entertaining little picture.After a rocket ship holding three astronauts crash-lands in the English countryside, Professor Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) arrives with his troupe of investigators and fellow scientists. After they open the hatch, they find two of the pilots vanished, and only one - Victor Carroon (Richard Wordsworth) - barely survived. He is taken in for treatment, and watched over by Dr. Briscoe (David King-Wood), who notices his skin taking an oily form. But Carroon's wife wants her husband back and smuggles him out of the hospital, where he escapes into London, absorbing any lifeforms he comes across.Writer Nigel Kneale apparently disapproved of Donlevy's rather prickly performance as Quatermass, but I feel Donlevy (who was apparently sozzled throughout the entire shoot) is the reason Quatermass works so well. Rather than simply being your average scientist, Quatermass is a subtle madman, waving away procedure and safety in the name of science, playing God because he has the brains to do so. The film also works thanks to some impressive special-effects work, and a stoic Wordsworth in a performance and role that surely became the framework for Christopher Lee's Monster in Hammer's The Curse of Frankenstein (1957).It's a short, snappy piece that moves along nicely, never getting too caught up in the science and wholeheartedly embracing the fiction. There's also a fine humour that prevails throughout the film, especially in the scenes involving Jack Warner's brilliantly sarcastic Inspector Lomax. It seems silly now to think that the film received the dreaded 'X' certificate back in 1955, but Hammer deliberately aimed the have the film stamped with this rating (as reflected in the 'Xperiment' of the title). This willingness to dare the audience to be scared had them flocking to see it, and, of course, the rest is history.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com
