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Review: Lifeforce (1985)

Monkey Fist December 18, 2013 Reviews No Comments on Review: Lifeforce (1985)

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Review by: Monkey Fist

SCUM Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

28 Days Later was not the first film to feature running zombies. That honour belongs to Lifeforce, which is, of course, one of the greatest, if not the greatest naked space vampire zombies from Halley’s Comet running amok in London end-of-the-world movie ever made. Tobe Hooper may have made a lot of crap, but for this deliriously epic sci-fi horror he deserves a place among the greats. In addition, it offers sultry space vampire Mathilda May, spending the entire movie running around in the buff!  Regardless Lifeforce is exciting, suspenseful, and always a lot of fun, thanks to the intriguing story and top-notch special effects.

The film begins with a joint British/American crew aboard the shuttle Churchill studying Halley’s Comet when they discover a huge contraption hidden within the coma’s comet. Knowing this will be their only chance to board this enigma, they suit up and enter this contraption. Inside, they discover thousands of frozen, giant bat-like creatures, and just as interesting, three humanoids (one female and two males) encased in crystal-like containers. They decide to take the humanoids and one bat back to the ship with them.

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Thirty days go by and London has lost complete contact with the crew. So another shuttle is sent, and they discover the remains of the Churchill crew, but all three humanoids are still intact. Bringing them back to London for examination, the female one awakens, displaying the ability to drain the lifeforce out of a human being, and escapes out of the compound. Now here’s the catch, whoever the vampiress kills will eventually rise to drain someone else’s lifeforce and very soon this escalates into an uncontrollable epidemic (very much like the Rage Virus in 28 Days Later)! Enter Steve Railsback and Peter Firth, who star, respectively, as the sole survivor of the Churchill and an agent out to stop this space vampiress from spreading the “infection”. Acting’s probably what you would expect, with Peter Firth delivering a pretty decent performance as Agent Caine. Steve Railsback as his partner who’s being seduced by the vampiress in his dreams is much less impressive, sweating and overacting to amusing extents, but never coming across as very convincing. Aside from that, I enjoyed this thoroughly as a lad and would consider this a gem from the 80s!

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About The Author

Monkey Fist’s fascination with film began in the late ‘70s when he was first introduced to B-classics such as 'The Car', 'Konga' and 'The Incredible Melting Man'. Life might have been very different if he had heeded his mom’s advice to read Enid Blyton novels instead. Seriously, he’s just glad he didn’t! Instead, a lot of time was spent checking out the latest flicks in local theaters or getting updates from the 'Movie News' mag. It wasn’t long before he delved into Japanese anime and Tokusatsu gems like Voltron, Gatchaman and Kamen Rider. Today, he continues exploring and collecting classics from the reel world!

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