Lifeforce is one of those films that at first glance, you haven't got a clue as to what the hell is going on, but you cannot look away because there is so much stuff happening that you find yourself glued to the screen to see what else they can come up with next, but the more you watch it the more you realise that it is in fact a great unexpected film, Well I watched Lifeforce for the 4th time this morning and I still found it very very enjoyable so I wrote some words which you check out after the jump...
I
have to admit that as a horror fan, i'm probably in the very small
minority of people who dislike Tobe Hooper's 'classic' horror, Texas
Chainsaw Massacre, I just don't get the love for it. I enjoyed TCM2
because it was a little more mental and seeing Dennis Hopper rocking
about 4 chainsaws is a pretty badass sight, I love Poltergeist, it's
a horror flick but has way too much of a Spielberg stamp on it which
has created some theories of whether Spielberg took over from Hooper,
LifeForce on the other hand if just a great big dollop of 80s
insanity, aliens, Zombies, Vampires and a mini apocalypse all rolled
into one with a hot french chick spending the majority of the film
stark naked. What's not to dislike? Well it wasn't entirely embraced
upon it's release with movie goers opting to go and see the new Rambo
film and according to the late Roger Ebert, was yanked from theaters
after only a few weeks. That suggests Lifeforce is a bad film but
it's far from it, it has it's cheesy moments and WTF scenes and with
Mathilda May strutting around with her bush on display might have
hurt it, not that there's a problem with Mathilda May's bush, but
when you go up against a film like fuckin' RAMBO, or to be precise
First Blood Part II, your film's gonna have a hard time competing for
audiences. It has a great cast, some diamond special FX courtesy of
John Dykstra (Star Wars: A New Hope) and a fantastic musical score
from the legendary Henry Mancini (The Pink Panther), Hooper's
direction is pretty good and the practical VFX are spot on, so it
makes you wonder why with all these great elements did the film flop,
and it flopped big time. The plot can be a bit confusing first time
around and this may have been a problem from the majority of
cinema-goers back in '85 and Hooper's name attached may have been a
reason as he was coming of the disaster that was his remake of the
50s sci-fi flick, Invaders From Mars, so having his name may have
played a major factor in it's failure. But as with most films that
flop, with time Lifeforce has gained a reputation as a cult flick and
is now adored by fans for it's sheer audacity in how it presents the
viewer with an insane attack of originality. I say originality but to
be honest, the film is based on a book called The Space Vampires by
prolific British author Colin Wilson, but the way the film is
presented is definitely original, it's not like i've seen anything
like this since. The book was adapted by genre legend Dan O'Bannon
(Alien/Total Recall) and Don Jakoby (John Carpenter's Vampires) so
theres another reason this film should not have failed. Lets take a
look at the plot of Lifeforce...
During
a space mission to Haley's comet, a group of astronauts captained by
Col. Tom Carlson (Steve Railsback: Turkey Shoot/The Stuntman)
discover a needle like ship within the tail of the comet. When
Carlson and three of his fellow crew members enter the ship they find
hundreds of dead bat like creatures and three perfectly preserved
humanoids encased in a sort of perspex coffin. The decide to take one
of the bat like creatures and the three coffins back to earth but on
their return shit goes down and everyone ends up dead. As their
shuttle is entering Earth's orbit, it is spining out of control so a
second shuttle is sent up to intercept it and find out if everything
is all good in the hood. It's not but the new spacemen discover the
three coffins in the cargo hold, perfectly fine but their
surroundings are burnt to a crisp. Returning to earth, to London, the
female wakes up and starts sucking the lifeforce out of people as she
makes her escape from the facility she is being held at. They receive
news that Carlson has just crash landed in an escape pod in Texas,
then blamo, he's in london and being hypnotized. He reveals he has a
connection with the female and joins an SAS officer in the hunt for
the butt naked sexy space vampire who is sucking the souls out of
everyone she comes into contact with, even Jean-Luc Picard (well not
really, she's stolen his body as a vessel).
See
that damn premise is sooooooo hard to actually write down, but when
you watch the film it's very easy to follow, I think these words
should easily condense the plot for you...
- Space
- Space Vampires
- Emaciated people
- zombies
- Steve Railsback
- Professor X's face bleeding
- Life Force
- SAS officer
- Plague in London
Lifeforce's
cast is pretty impressive, you've got Steve Railsback, Peter Firth
off of Spooks, Patrick Stewart, Frank Finley and french actress
Mathilda May. Railsback and Firth spend the majority of the second
half of the film on the chase for the space vampire while Finley, who
sounds like a cross between Peter O'Tool and Ian McKellen stays back
at their base of operations trying to work some shit out. Patrick
Stewart shows up for around 18 minutes and he's pretty good as the
suspicious head of an mental hospital. All the cast a pretty good and
it's always good to see a sci-fi film set in the U.K with the
upperclass army officers sounding like they've just come from a game
of polo, I don't know where the idea of every british soldier being
posh came from, the majority of “squadies” probably have cockney,
geordie or what ever regional accent they have, it's bizarre, but it
does bring back memories of watching things like 70s Doctor who and
Quatermass.
Hooper's
direction is good, he gets some pretty good shots and I like the use
of of a fish eye lense in some parts, for me it's the best film he's
shot, obviously i'm not counting Poltergeist because I am of the
belief that a higher percentage of that film was shot by Spielberg. I
still don't rate him high enough as a director because the majority
of his directorial efforts of the past 20 years have been shit but
for Lifeforce and TCM2, I think the man hit his peak with those two.
The editing could have done with some fine tuning and I can guess
that quite a bit was cut before the film hit theaters, maybe one day
he can go back and make a directors cut and flesh out the characters
and the plot a bit more even though the film as it stands in its
current state runs at just under 2hrs.
Overall,
the film is flawed but it's still vastly more enjoyable than a lot of
other films of that era, the cast do a good job, Hooper does a pretty
impressive job directing, the special VFX and Make-Up FX are good,
especially the practical stuff and the film doesn't seem to drag,
maybe this is because there is so much going on that it constantly
has your attention and I don't think i've ever seen a film with a
main star who sweats as much as Railsback. Lifeforce is great
underrated sci-fi flick that might not be for everyone but it earns
it's place next to Buckeroo Banzai as one of the 80s best oddities.
Shout Factory has released a Blu-Ray of this in the U.S and Arrow
Video will be releasing a Blu-Ray in the U.K in the very near future,
well in a couple of months. Do your self a favour and check this
bizarre film out, you never know, you might like it...
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