One way to measure the success of a television programme
or movie is to see how much it influences future productions. Sometimes this
influence is subtle and organic but more usually it comes from deliberate copying.
Certainly there is a tendancy for companies to pattern their productions on
past success, attempting to recapture the elements that previously brought in
acclaim or more importantly money. If the makers personally admired the original
then their new work is described as a homage. When Hammer Films bought the rights
to make a film of the BBC's Quatermass Experiment, it was because producer
Anthony Hinds recognised a commercial success when he saw one. Quite apart form
their artistic merits, the resulting three films are historically very important.
Not only did they lead to the creation of the famous Hammer Horror movies, they
also introduced the Professor to the United States and beyond.
Obviously which films can be included as descendants of Quatermass are partly
up to personal opinion. In compiling this article I've discarded quite a few
possibilities as being too tenuous or because their similarities due to coincidence.
Apart from the Quatermass films themselves I've either chosen films where the
makers have explicitly said in interviews that Kneale's stories were an influence
or which contain a large amount of common factors in front of or behind the
camera. So you probably will not agree with all of the following selection of
titles and I'd be curious to know if you think there are any serious omissions.
The common thread running through them all is humanity's fearful encounters
with the hostile unknown. The paranormal threat is usually countered by scientific
investigation which ultimately requires an act selfless heroism to put the knowledge
into victorious effect.
"No terror ever like..."
The Quatermass Xperiment aka The Creeping Unknown (1955) was startlingly
original for a British film in the same way that the original series had broken
new barriers within the BBC. The exaggerated 'X' in the title did not just announce
that this was a frightening film, it gloried in such a horror status. Made in
an almost documentary style and marvellously photographed by Walter Harvey,
it remains fresh and chilling to this day. Its storyline follows that of the
television series fairly closely although many of the sub-plots and lengthy
exposition necessary for a live TV broadcast were jettisoned. Richard Landau
handled the initial screenplay adaption. It was this unavoidable simplification
however that infuriated Nigel Kneale. He felt that the film was the very kind
of pulp sci-fi monster movie that he had worked so hard to avoid and ever since
its opening he has complained about it. His other source of irritation was the
casting of American actor Brian Donlevy as the Professor. Originally it had
been planned that the American lead would have been Brisco, the Professor's
assistant, a USAF flight surgeon seconded to the Rocket Group. The Professor
himself would have been a younger man and his title changed to Doctor. But when
Donlevy came on board Val Guest, an accomplished writer whose credits included
Oh! Mr Porter, rewrote the script to make the Professor the American
and Brisco a British doctor. A well-regarded character actor in Hollywood, Donlevy
portrays the Professor in a much more abrasive, aggressive manner than any other
actor but in the fairly bleak context of his two films it actually works. True
his brusque mannerisms encouraged some of the changes in tone of the first two
films. They become more like crime thrillers then intellectual SF speculating.
How damaging this is depends on what you want the films to be. An authentic
record of the TV series they are not but on their own terms they are superior
examples of fifties SF cinema. So while the climax of Xperiment lacks
the emotional, spiritual depths of the TV version in which the remaining shreds
of humanity within the monster respond to the Professor's pleas and destroy
themselves; the finale we do have is equally haunting in a more direct fashion.
Within Westminster Abbey the Professor orders arranges for the monster to be
electrocuted. As it burns the creature utters a long, undeniably human scream.
The Professor silently walks away ignoring the question and the charred remains.
Outside his assistant asks, "What are you going to do?" The scientist simply
walks away along a shadowy street with grim answer, "Start again". The picture
fades to that of a new rocket launching. Science, with all its unknown dangers,
marches on. The climatic appearance of the monster in Westminster Abbey was
achieved this time not with a rubber glove covered in weeds but with a pound
of shaped tripe and rubber solution, courtesy of Hammer's resident special effects
wizard Les Bowie. Oddly it is the addition of a single reptilian eye that really
makes the monster seem so disturbing.
"Can anything escape its TERROR?"
Appropriately Hammer itself made the first Quatermass clone, X - The Unknown
(1956). Impressed by the splendid returns on their first SF/horror entry the
studio not only set to work on the sequel but asked one of its staff, Jimmy
Sangster, to pen an original story in the same realistic, contemporary style
which could be realised in the meantime. Set in the gothic Scottish moors, the
film features another globular menace, an energy being from the Earth's core
embodied in radioactive mud. Dean Jagger plays an ersatz Professor Quatermass
called Doctor Adam Royston with quiet authority and a good deal more human warmth
than Donlevy's Professor. Under director Leslie Norman's hand this is a highly
enjoyable monster movie played commendably straight by a cast which includes
a young Leo McKern and an even younger Frazer Hines. Michael Ripper is also
on hand playing a practically identical sergeant to the one he would in Quatermass
and the Pit. Special mention must be made for Gerald Gibbs whose stunning
cinematography gives the proceedings an ascetic look that adds to the gloomy
atmosphere and makes the most of a medium budget. An extensive amount of night
filming also affords the film a glossier appearance than you might guess for
its budget. The film begins marvellously with an eerie landscape and a soldier
moving across waving a gieger counter. It is soon revealed that this is only
a training exercise but for one of the soldiers, the test becomes frighteningly
real as his counter goes off the scale and X consumes him. Also the sequence
where one of the scientists is lowered into the monster lair, only to be attacked
is very memorable thanks to the lighting and James Bernard's urgent music.
"The Thriller from Outer Space!"
Quatermass 2 aka Enemy from Space (1957) is even better than its
predecessor in my opinion, even though it is a follow up rather than a pioneer
in the way Xperiment was. This is partly due to its grim, paranoid storyline
which suits Donlevy's more aggressive Professor much better. The script also
allows the Professor a greater range of involvement, bringing out more of his
humanity and less of the driven scientist. This time Kneale was slightly more
involved in the production this time, co-writing the script with Val Guest.
Storywise it is reasonably close to the televised story except at the climax.
When the refinery domes are destroyed, two huge, gelatinous aliens emerge and
crash Godzilla-like about the refinery. But soon the two monsters collapse and
die, unable to live in Earth's atmosphere. Watching the burning ruins the Professor
wonders if the threat is truly defeated. Although the ending to the TV version
is more sophisticated, this conclusion fits the film adequately, thanks in part
to haunting music which underpins it. Once again the Shellhaven refinery provided
the location for the refinery and the film makers were able to make more extensive
use of it than the BBC had. Guest's documentary style approach to filming has
even more impact this time, particularly in the refinery sequences. An incidental
pleasure is seeing Sid James as the reporter Jimmy Hall in his character acting
days before Carry On fame. Kneale owns joint rights in the film and at one time
considered pulling the film out of circulation because he was so unhappy with
it. He was eventually dissuaded, partly by Joe Dante and John John Carpenter
when they were working with him in the eighties.
"Demon-prowler of mountain shadows. Dreaded man-beast of Tibet. The terror
of all that is human!!"
Unsurprisingly Hammer were interested in adapting other Kneale fantasy scripts.
His BBC play The Creature came to the cinema as The Abominable Snowman
aka The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas (1957) with Kneale successfully
adapting his own teleplay while Val Guest was once again in the director's chair.
Kneale's main task was to cut down his 'soapbox' dialogue about environmental
dangers in order to make the story faster paced. In another Hammer triumph of
expertise over resources Bray Studios were convincingly redressed as a Tibetan
monastry while a second unit flew to Greenland to capture location footage with
stand-ins for the actors. A team of explorers set out to track down the Yeti.
Peter Cushing plays Dr Rollason, the scientist who simply wants to study the
creatures while Forrest Tucker is Friend, a big game hunter who wants to make
his fortune exhibiting the animal. But as their expedition becomes more hazardous
they realize that the Yeti are far more than mere animals or even primitive
apemen. They are sophisticated beings who have evolved alongside humanity. Eventually
Cushing is the only survivor. Then he meets the Yeti. The Abominable Snowman
continues the Quatermass theme of the consequences of science and man's response
to the unknown. Probably its most haunting moment comes when the men shoot their
first Yeti and as they stand over it they hear the mournful cries of its brothers
echoing around the mountain. Extremely atmospheric, this is far more than a
mere escapist fifties creature-feature. The film is populated by well-defined
interesting characters or in the case of Friend a deliberately shallow personality
that becomes more dangerous as the odds mount up. The Yeti have often been criticised
as unimpressive but I find their surprisingly un-apelike, alien faces and shadowy
giant figures rather eerie.
The great success of Xperiment was not lost on other British filmmakers
who wanted to jump aboard the fifties SF boom. Anglo-Amalgamated produced First
Man Into Space aka Satellite of Blood (1959) which copied the style
and story formula of Hammer's films but with far lesser results. In this feature
the first British astronaut returns to Earth encased in slime following a meteor
storm. The alien substance kills it's host but animates the corpse which escapes
and becomes a vampiric monster. Eventually the scientist in charge of the space
project manages to lure the creature into a decompression chamber and destroys
it. This is a pretty tedious film filled with cardboard characters and much
psueso-scientific waffle. Its only other point of note is a brief appearance
by Roger Delgardo as a South American ambassador very similar to his Master
character in Doctor Who.
Hammer delayed filming Quatermass and the Pit aka Five Million Years
to Earth (1967) for quite a while but when it finally reached the screen
it proved worth the wait. Not only is it the best of the Quatermass films, it
is amongst the most enduring films to emerge from the famous studio. This time
Kneale alone wrote the script, a fact noticeable in the large amount of dialogue
identical to the TV version. Perhaps that is why this film is his favourite
of the three. Its story is as close to the original as 97 minutes can allow,
the only major difference being the change in location from a street to a new
underground station. Kneale was also very complementary about actor who took
up the role of the Professor. An old hand at Hammer films, Andrew Keir is highly
convincing, bringing reassurence, a scholarly nature and an essential integrity
to the character. Surprisingly though he was considered a decidedly second-best
choice by director Roy Ward Baker who had been keen to get Kenneth More. According
to Keir, Baker had made him feel unwelcome from the outset. "Normally I enjoy
going to my work every day. But for seven and a half weeks, it was hell." Furthermore
he commented that Baker was not very good at directing actors, largely leaving
them to their own devices which proved a problem for some like Barbara Shelley,
for whom this was one of her first films in a major role. Yet Baker himself
says he only has good memories of making the film and recalls a happy atmosphere.
Meanwhile Julian Glover had his own problems, namely having to perform Breen's
death scene which involved wearing uncomfortable blistered skin make-up and
then plunging into the very deep Pit. "Not exactly nice, but there was something
to fall onto." Hammer didn't pay for frills like stunt-doubles unless it was
unavoidable! The production is extremely good-looking, owing in part to the
happy accident of MGM's Borehamwood soundstages being available at the time,
allowing some impressive London sets to be constructed. Les Bowie provided some
marvellous special effects, particularly towards the end when 'Hob' rises spectrally
above the rooftops. The Martian spacecraft is strange collection of curves and
fluting that make make it resemble an underwater creature. Compared to the television
original, the film lacks its depth and grimness. The slow, grinding build-up
of tension as the pieces in the mystery of Hobb's Lane fit together is a definite
loss. Most of the characters have been softened, especially Dr Roney and Colonel
Breen, while the startling ideas are namechecked rather than explored. Nevertheless
compared to the majority of SF movies surrounding it at the time, this is a
remarkably intelligent film, full of real SF ideas rather than a generic adventure
dressed in futuristic trappings. The filmmakers successfully melded the scripts
high concepts with thrilling visuals and excitement, presenting the climatic
Wild Hunt on a more spectacular scale than television could hope to achieve.
It is interesting that a year later, the ultimate 'highbrow' SF movie was released,
2001:A Space Odyssey which took the same basic idea of alien intervention
in human evolution but presented it in a far more positive light. The film remains
very highly regarded in the USA.
"The night no one comes home!"
In 1982 John Landis was preparing a remake of The Creature from the Black
Lagoon. Being a fan of Kneale's work he rang the author to ask if he would
like to write it. Flattered by Landis's knowledge of his writing, Kneale and
his wife moved into a suite at the Sheraton Hotel, Hollywood. Together Kneale
and Landis produced a script which involved two creatures and a lot more humour.
Unfortunately the film was shelved due to budget problems and the appearance
of a watery rival, Jaws 3. But in the meantime Kneale had been introduced
to several famous names in the SF movie genre. Several of the so called 'movie
brats' were great fans of the original Quatermass films. Two of them, Joe Dante
and John Carpenter were currently looking for ideas for the second sequel to
Halloween. Anxious to move away from the formula of the first two entries,
Dante suggested asking Kneale to write the script and John Carpenter enthusiastically
agreed, having bought the Penguin paperback scripts while promoting Assault
on Precinct 13 in England and been extremely impressed by their quality.
At first Kneale was unsure about writing a Halloween film, especially
after watching the first one but he was reassured by Dante that he could have
a free hand with the story as long as it involved Halloween. Observing America's
huge Halloween novelty industry and reaching back into the Celtic origins of
the festival, he came up with the idea of 'microchip witchcraft'. Instead of
hexing a victim personally, a modern witch could implant a spell in a silicon
chip, hide it in a Halloween toy and then activate it remotely via a television
signal. John Carpenter loved the concept and commissioned a script though in
the interim Dante had been replaced as director by Tommy Lee Wallace. Kneale
confidently delivered Halloween III - Season of the Witch (1983) within
a few weeks since the plan was to have film ready for the coming Halloween.
Unfortunately when John Carpenter and Wallace read the script they thought that
whilst the ideas were good, the overall feel was too old-fashioned. Co-producer
Debra Hill agreed and also suggested that the project should drop the Halloween
part of the title since it had no connection to the preceeding films. But the
studio would not have allowed that. In fact their executive producer Dino De
Laurentiis did not understand the story at all and told John Carpenter to recycle
the same slash n' stalk formula that had worked before. Eventually John Carpenter
and Wallace wrote a compromise script. Kneale was very upset when he read their
revised draft, complaining that they had turned his script into a gory exploitation
exercise when he had meant it to be a psychological horror along the lines of
Psycho. Despite their appeals he took his name off the film and publicly
lambasted them in the press. "Any story that attempts to explain something or
set up characters isn't going to interest them...All they're worried about is
money!" Eventually Tommy Lee Wallace took the sole writing credit although he
says that there is still a substantial amount of Kneale and John Carpenter's
work left in the final screenplay. The whole sorry history left Kneale feeling
very bitter about Hollywood and movie writing in general. Yet despite (or maybe
because of) all this behind the scenes drama Halloween III is actually
an enjoyable piece of work. Lightweight, popcorn horror it may be but it's a
cut above most of its kind. An evil toymaker named Conal Cochran, played with
chilling restraint by Dan O'Herlihy, plans to bring back the original Celtic
celebration of darkness to America with his demonic masks. Each contains a supernaturally
powered microchip. Dr Challis, a hospital doctor and his reporter girlfriend
stumble across this conspiracy and infiltrate the factory town dominated by
Cochran in order to foil it. Reminiscent of Quatermass 2. Certainly there
is a lot to find fault with. Wallace's direction is crude, chiefly relying on
shock appearances to generate horror. The plotting is also frequently weak,
how on earth do you steal a Stonehenge monolith? Too often coincidence is abused
to move the action from A to B. At the climax Dr Challis is required to become
a superman in order to defeat the villains which stretch the film's credibility
to snapping point. However the basic idea is original and there is an amusing
vein of satire running throughout. Cochran's dapper but lethal androids are
chilling as well as providing a paranoid Invasion of the Bodysnatchers
sub-plot. While the final twist in the tale seconds before the credits appear
certainly delivers an ironic chill.
"In the blink of an eye, the terror begins."
Lifeforce (1985) is almost a perfect lesson of how not to make SF chiller.
Despite its $25 million budget, nifty optical effects and an unquestionably
impressive looking climax on the streets of a devastated London, this is frankly
one dumb movie. A pity because the opening space sequence promises so much.
The story involves the discovery of an alien spacecraft in the tail of Halley's
comet. Inside are three naked people sharing the ship with dead giant bats.
Once this trio is brought back to England they escape from a hospital and set
about draining passers-by of their energy while their victims become vampiric
refugees from Michael Jackson's Thriller video. Finally the captain of the original
space expedition, who has a psychic link with the female space vampire, tracks
her down St Paul's Cathedral where she is channelling London's lifeforce back
to spaceship. His SAS companion then destroys the alien horror with a well placed
iron stake, recalling Dr Roney's solution back in Quatermass and the Pit.
Other references to that superior movie include the use of an underground station
and more cockney soldiers assisting the scientists. The film is adapted from
"The Space Vampires" by Colin Wilson which was not intended as a Quatermass
homage of any kind. Life-farce desperately tries to ape the style of
sixties horror films and Quatermass in particular but completely misses
their engaging qualities. Such as halfway believable characters, realistic dialogue
or an imaginative idea carefully unveiled and its consequences explored. Instead
we have purest pulp SF scripting. Scriptwriters Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby
aim for Kneale's mixture of SF and the occult by revealing that our gothic vampire
myths were inspired by parasitic shape-changers who periodically visit Earth.
To hammer (excuse the pun) the point home we have a dream sequence in which
the chief vampire appears in cloak-swirling traditional style inside a graveyard.
Frank Finlay, a fine actor usually, plays the surrogate Professor in a manner
that suggests he is half-asleep while Patrick Stewart is unintentionally hilarious
as the head of an asylum. Irritatingly the film seems to just come to a stop
rather than arrive at a climax, with the vampires' ship abruptly sailing off
into space as the credits roll.
"Before man walked the earth. It slept for centuries It is evil. It is real.
It is awakening."
Despite the disappointments of Halloween III, John Carpenter returned
to the films which had so inspired him as a youngster with a fully-fledged Quatermass
film, Prince of Darkness. Talking about Kneale the director enthused,
"I think his style as a writer and his power are unique". Originally the intention
was to go all the way and set the film in the fifties but the cost of the necessary
period dressings was considered prohibitive. Although John Carpenter himself
wrote the screenplay he credited it to the imaginary Martin Quatermass who was
described in the press book as the brother of Bernard Quatermass. His biography
went on to state that Martin was a graduate of Kneale University with a degree
in theoretical physics and had previously written a pair of SF novels. John
Carpenter had intended this credit as an affectionate dedication to his hero
Kneale but sadly the Manxman did not see the joke. Instead he wrote an indignant
letter to "The Observer". Disclaiming any connection with the film he went on
to say, "It sounds pretty bad. If this is homage who needs insults?" He concluded
by suggesting that the phoney credit was a kind of whimsical riposite for removing
his name form Halloween III! But despite Kneale's rancour Prince of
Darkness is certainly not without some merit. Victor Wong plays the Professor
role this time out. He and his students are invited by a doubting priest to
investigate a mysterious canister of churning liquid within an abandoned church
that has been guarded for hundreds of years by a secret Catholic sect. Before
long the scientists discover that the canister is alien, is very alive and is
seeking to bring the Devil into our universe through a quantum gateway. Meanwhile
an army of zombified vagrants holds the church to siege as the scientists' numbers
are dwindling fatally. The quantum physics theories that inspire the plot are
intriguing; the idea of an evil anti-god is a clever combination of science
and myth; so is the realisation that the scientists' prophetic dreams of a dark
figure emerging from the church are in fact tachyon transmissions from the future.
They have been receiving a camcorder recording of a future where the alien devil
did arrive. These dreams provide the foundation for the spine-chilling epilogue.
But sadly elsewhere the film is slow-moving and uninvolving for large stretches.
The characters are all two-dimensional, providing little more than fodder for
the alien menace, though the reliable Donald Pleasence brings some gravitas
to his role of the priest. However John Carpenter and Alan Howarth's music score
is superb, particularly the use of choral fanfares to accompany the activities
of the demonic force.
Joe Dante is fond of filling his films with fan in-jokes. During Gremlins
II: The New Batch (1990) he paid tribute to Hammer Films not only by casting
Christopher Lee as a sinister biochemist but on one of the laboratory doors
is an office nameplate for Professor Bernard Quatermass.
All through its tenure Doctor Who, a programme which incidentally Kneale
has always been disdainful of because of its "sledgehammer" approach, has borrowed
ideas from its venerable predecessor. The stories which most explicitly ape
the Quatermass style are "Spearhead from Space", "Ambassadors of Death" and
"Image of the Fendahl". Meanwhile the Professor was mentioned off-handedly during
"Remembrance of the Daleks".
"A terrifying descent into evil!"
Stephen King paid his own homage to Quatermass and the Pit in his novel
of alien possession The Tommyknockers (1993) which was adapted as a four
hour mini-series for US television and subsequently released on video in this
country. A writer discovers a peculiar structure buried in the woods near her
home. Before long the artefact is transforming nearly everyone in the town of
Haven, striking them with a bolt of energy that appears to enhance their intelligence
and scientific prowess. But really they have been taken over by an alien power
which requires a slave workforce to excavate what turns out to be an ancient
spacecraft. Once again it takes a heroic act of self-sacrifice by an 'uncontaminated'
man to stop the unearthly threat. Although similar on the surface to Kneale's
work, the series lacks the depth of the original because the threat comes solely
from outside humanity whereas the Martian powers were an integral part of ourselves.
Hence the solution is simply to destroy the Tommyknockers (more violence) rather
the more difficult path than dealing with our own violence. On the plus side
however the aliens themselves are marvellously realised and it is a pity they
only make a brief appearance at the finale. Jimmy Smits, Joanna Cassidy and
E G Marshall's performances also raise this series out of the usual bland TV
Movie rut.
For the last story of the revitalised Tomorrow People (1995) Lee Pressman
wrote an excellent tale of alien possession called "The Living Stones". Deliberately
or not the story owed more than a little to Quatermass 2 with strange
meteors striking an English village which disgorge parasitic alien seeds. Their
victims become slaves and soon are creating a colony for the extraterrestrial
invaders. As usual the military and government representatives either refuse
to believe in stories about aliens or turn out to possessed humans. At the climax
these gestalt aliens mould themselves together in to gigantic, whirling creature
but before civilisation as we know it is wiped out the three 'homo superiors'
destroy it. An entertaining SF adventure, frequently very witty and a good example
of how far the Quatermass style has permeated today's British SF.
"Reality isn't what it used to be."
Once again John John Carpenter tipped his hat towards Quatermass during his
Lovecrofthian horror movie In the Mouth of Madness (1995). The story
concerns an insurance agent who becomes trapped inside a bestselling horror
author's fantasy world, the mythical town of Hobb's End! It is also worth pointing
out that near the climax of the movie alien/demon monsters emerge and remake
our civilisation in their own grotesque image. Sound familiar?
There were rumoured remakes of Xperiment and Quatermass and the Pit
(retitled Legacy since the name Quatermass does not really signify anything
to US audiences.) The former was announced as part of the revitalisation of
Hammer Films, along with Vlad the Impaler. Dan O'Bannon wrote a script
for it that was reportedly very close to the BBC original, stressing the story's
intellectual qualities and the fact that the creature was a combination of personalities.
The Professor was to be the grandson of the original. Although Kneale was pleased
with the script, the project seems to have died. Similarly no more has been
said about Legacy, other than the location was to be moved from London
to Washington DC and that the Professor himself may not appear. Kneale threatened
to take his name off the film if the story was altered too much. Hammer chairman
Roy Skeggs has been behind both these proposed remakes.
"The classic horror film told in comics!"
Merchandise for the three Hammer films naturally includes their rare, sought
after cinema posters and lobby cards. But the only mainstream items are the
comic-strip adaptions of the first two films, published in "The House of Hammer",
the groundbreaking publication of editor Dez Skinn which began in 1976. Issues
eight and nine contain Xperiment, drawn by Brian Lewis and scripted by
Les Lilley and Ben Aldrich. The former also has a feature on Hammer's SF output
while the latter features a marvellous artwork cover for the story, a 'making
of' article on the film and reproduces the posters for Xperiment and
Quatermass 2 on the back cover. Although it condenses the script severely,
this version is not without merit, particularly when it comes to depicting the
revolting alien creature. Lewis' likenesses of the cast are very good as is
the heavy, film noir shading. The strip was reprinted in the 1982 Winter Special.
Due to the success of this comic-strip, an adaptation of Quatermass 2
was commissioned which appeared in issue 23. By now the magazine had been retitled
"Hammer's Halls of Horror". Oddly this adaptation used the US title "Enemy From
Space". This time the artwork was from David Lloyd and the script from Steve
Parkhouse. Lloyd's artwork is extremely moody and faithful to the film but for
some reason the famous view of the dome's interior is missed out; as is the
climatic emergence of the giant aliens; two scenes which would have benefitted
from the freedom of artwork. Sadly the magazine never attempted Quatermass
and the Pit but a five part newspaper strip version was created by Brian
Lewis as part of the promotions for the film. Squeezing the film into approximately
twenty-four small panels meant it was more like an illustrated synopsis than
a true comic-strip. In any case it is unclear whether any newspapers actually
ran the strip.
Silva Screen released a soundtrack album collecting together music from all
three films. The British poster artwork was also amongst a selection of Hammer
posters published as postcards. In 1995 the third movie was released on VHS
by Lumiere as part of their "Hammer Classics" range with a photo of Andrew Keir
on the cover. Later it was re-released with the British poster artwork instead.
Quatermass 2 and Quatermass and the Pit are available on Region 1
DVD as part of Anchor Bay's "The Hammer Collection". Both have been transferred
excellently from great film prints, especially Pit. Quatermass 2
is accompanined by a commentary by Kneale and Val Guest who have obviously been
interviewed seperately, plus the US trailer and the "Sci-Fi" episode of World
of Hammer. Quatermass and the Pit enjoys more features, namely a
commentary by Kneale and Roy Ward Baker, UK and US trailers, US TV spots and
disappointingly the same episode of World of Hammer. The Abominable
Snowman is also available as part of the same series. DD Video have released
The Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass 2 on Region 2 DVD.
Xperiment features an interview with Val Guest, the World of Hammer
"Sci-Fi" episode and a 24 page booklet on the making of the film.
This is the final part of my Quatermass series. Before finishing I would just
like to say a big thank you to all the people who have read these articles and
passed on such generous compliments and feedback. In particular I must say thanks
to Colin for featuring them in Circus and to Paul Redfearn for his marvellous
pieces of art which have illustrated the series. It's been a pleasure.
Gareth Preston
Professor Quatermass: Andrew Keir
Doctor Roney: James Donald
Barbara Judd: Barbara Shelley
Colonel Breen: Julian Glover
Script: Nigel Kneale
Music: Tristram Cary
Producer: Anthony Nelson-Keys
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Sources
Most of the information for this article was drawn from the UK Starburst Magazine.
Additional information came from Space Voyager, Hammer Horror, House of Horror
and the Aurum Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies.
Back to the Quatermass Page.