Have You Been Watching...? Lifeforce (1985)

 

I first saw “Lifeforce”, the 1985 Canon Group British/US horror movie, back in the 1990s, at some ungodly hour when I was a student. I recall being quite impressed by it. It was certainly unusual.

Fast forward to 2023 and I’ve recently watched it again, this time in glorious High Definition, and I have to admit, having not seen it in years meant I enjoyed it even more this time around.

The movie is based on a novel called “The Space Vampires” which does give the plot away somewhat. In the novel by Colin Wilson, the vampires suck out the victim’s life force/essence, thus making the renaming for the film a good move, it takes away that “spoiler”. The cast features a “who’s who” of cult TV and movie stars. Leading the pack is Patrick Stewart, just a few years away from his Captain Picard days. Joining him is Peter Firth (The Flipside of Dominick Hyde, Another Flip for Dominick, Spooks), Nicholas Ball (Hazell, Red Dwarf as the Justice Simulant, John Hallam (Moonbase 3, Dr Who as Light, Flash Gordon), Nancy Paul (whom I knew as Sara Brogan in Space Precinct) and Steve Railsback (sci-fi fans may remember him as alien abductee Duane Barry setting off a plotline that would run the entire series). The movie is directed by the legendary Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Salem’s Lot, Poltergeist, Invaders from Mars) and the music is by Henry Mancini (The Pink Panther, Breakfast at Tiffanys “Moon River”)

Lifeforce occupies a space in 1980s scifi horror fantasy in which the whole style of it, the cinematography, the special effects and music all combine to make a product of its time. It’s all swishy lights and lightning. Another example of this is the fantasy movie Krull and similarly, Highlander which all came out around the same time. Unfortunately, Lifeforce goes for a very mature audience, which means there’s a LOT of nudity. With a modern viewpoint, that can be a bit uncomfortable as they have no concerns showing female full frontal nudity but the men are spared.

So our story concerns a spaceship finding an alien craft near Halley’s comet (so 1985). They explore and find the remain of an alien culture and 3 humanoid forms in stasis. Later, the humans craft is destroyed and in the blink of an eye, the humanoid forms are now on earth being investigated. Of course, it all goes wrong and they escape to wreck havoc. It transpires that they’ve been here before! Our vampire legends have evolved from them. There are some truly impressive effects for the time, especially the exploration of the alien craft and the act of lifeforce transference, and if you can spot it, watch out for a surprising detail in the eyes of the vampires and their victims. Our heroes are Col. Colin Caine (Firth) and Col. Tom Carlson (Railsback),  It turns out one of our intrepid heroes is linked the space vampires in more ways than one and could be our saviour. Cue a lot of running (and flying) around, vampire shenanigans, gore aplenty, London being raised to the ground by second generation lifeforce vampires and nice characters getting bumped off in gruesome ways. As dramatic and illuminating the final scene is, I’m still not 100% sure how it ended. It runs for 116mins (international cut) and surprisingly doesn’t seem to lag at all. It’s helped along by the fact our space vampire can jump into others’ bodies and the “investigation” of our heroes probably helps keep it flowing.

Lifeforce is not a masterpiece by any margin, especially when it gets to the “apocalypse” phase, but it’s a cracking yarn and actually a lot of fun. There are some decidedly “iffy” moments (the bit on the helicopter is interesting but seems to serve no purpose and you may never see Picard in the same way again). However, if there are no kids around and you don’t mind seeing a bit of “ladyparts”, you’ll quite possibly enjoy this one!

Year: 1985

Availability: Currently streaming on Amazon Freevee (at time of writing), also on Blu Ray from Arrow Video.

Rating: 7/10