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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Life Force

at the scarwash

00:30 / 29.10.02

Have you seen Life Force? My god it rocks! Well, as much as any movie about space vampires ridden with heavy heroin symbolism ("It's shaped like a giant needle...") can rock. Pat Stewart is one of the few survivors on the acting side of this thing, playing the director of an asylum for the criminally insane posessed by the Queen of the Space-Damned. Behind the camera, however are Tobe Hooper, Dan O'Bannon, John Dykstra, and Henri Mancini, who fared much better than most of the cast, apparently. And it's all based on a novel by Colin Wilson, hence full of Jungian blah blah blah, alchemical sex, and the Outsider.

00:46 / 29.10.02

I remember this from high school, where it was known simply as Naked Vampires In Space. Never saw the whold thing - my friend that had a copy was pretty itchy on the fast-forward button, always hitting the nekkid bits.

07:13 / 29.10.02

Yes, I rmember Lifeforce. I thought it was hilarious. Had no idea Tobe Hooper was involved.

And it nicked the ending of Quatermass and the Pit

yawn - thing's buddy

09:49 / 29.10.02

Life Force!

Ahhh, Mathilda May wandering naked throughout the whole film and the bombed out streets of London.

This film does indeed Rock. I remember staggering back to my folks house one summer (1991, I reckon). I was drunk and stoned and pleased to see some amazing special effects on the tv. Massive space coffins and nebulae and spacescapes kinda like the ones from sci-fi book albums from the seventies (yknow –Spacecraft, 2000-2100AD – that sort of publication).

Then the film took this dramatic turn away from Space Opera and into Hammer House freakery – the asylum scenes reminded me of that film…..’Asylum’ funnily enough. The one with Hebert Lom in.

There was a really bizarre effect which stays with me: Mathilda the space vampire being constructed from the blood which was draining away from some unfortunate extra in the back of a Helicopter: a potential precursor to Terminator 2 helicopter liquid robot scene which in turn was ripped off by the Matrix.

Anyone notice the special effects got progressively worse? The scenes of London on fire were of ‘Children’s Film Foundation’ quality. In other words, shite. Budget blown early on, then?

Anyway – it remains a favourite, for its sheer absurdity, if anything.

And by the spunk of Andromeda, she was such a babe.

I only recently found out it was Colin Wilson who wrote it – from an Idler interview in fact. – this freaks me out.

11:35 / 29.10.02

Heh, yes it was moderately shite but I still remember the line "Evacuate London!" as being quite spooky. I seem to remember it vaguely as the Sweeney vs the Space Vampires, what with badly fitting suits and car chases.
It was almost bad enough to have David Warner in a cameo role

11:59 / 29.10.02

Assuming this is the film I think it is, doesn't it have some straightfaced military guy saying stuff like;

"Don't worry Doctor, a naked girl won't be getting out of *this* base unchallenged."

That whole kind of completely psychotic Dr. Who-meets-Troma vibe .. what a strange, rocking film..

04:25 / 01.11.02

Mmmm... Naked space vampires...

Yea, I think I still have this one on VHS somewhere. I enjoyed the hell out of it in High School.