LIFEFORCE
US, 1985, 116, Colour.
Steve Railsback, Frank Finlay, Peter Firth, Mathilda May, Patrick Stewart.
Directed by Tobe Hooper.
Lifeforce is oddball science fantasy. It is based on a novel by Colin Wilson, author, philosopher, commentator: Space Vampires. It was adapted for the screen by Dan O’ Bannon and Don Jakoby. O’ Bannon was responsible for John Carpenter's eccentric Dark Star as well as Alien. He also directed the even more bizarre Return of the Living Dead.
The film takes the advantage of the 1986 arrival of Halley's Comet. An alien spacecraft is in its tail. Space explorers discover humanoids who are in fact vampires needing human energy to come back to life. They cause absolute mayhem in London and take over the city.
The film was produced by the Cannon Group, noted for their capacity for exploitation. While the themes are interesting, there is a great deal of extravagant violence and the emphasis is on sexuality, especially with the nude female anthropoid.
Direction is by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Salem's Lot, The Fun House, Poltergeist).
1. Interesting science fiction? Science fantasy? The timeliness of a story about Halley's comet, for the mid-80s?
2. Production qualities: the effects for the space sequences, the spaceships? Halley's Comet and its tail? The humanoids and their control over humans? The corpses and the revivifying? The vampirising of humans? The energy being drawn out of the people in London? The special effects? Stunt work? Musical score for atmosphere?
3. The title and its sinister irony? The plausibility of the story? The vampires in the tail of Halley's Comet? The way that they came on Earth? Their revivifying themselves with the human life-force? A mutant human life form?
4. The basic situation: the Churchill orbiting and exploring Halley's Comet? The discovery of the ship? The boarding party? The remains of the alien creatures? The humanoid forms? The transfer to the Churchill? The contacts with Earth? The disappearance of the Churchill? No contact? The rescue party? The skeletons of the crew, the delivery of the humanoids to the European Space Research Centre?
5. Tom Carlsen and his leadership, the irony that he had escaped from the Churchill? The irony of his being left alive? His story about the vampires? His contact with the alien girl? The possibility of Scotland Yard using Carlsen for finding out the presence of the girl? Carlsen and the girl, seduction, being taken over by her?
6. The humanoids, vampires, the girl coming to Earth, her wreaking havoc in the space centre, taking over individuals, the ghastliness of the special effects? her wandering London, the sexual encounters, the draining of the life-force? The final confrontation - and its violence?
7. Inspector Caine and Scotland Yard, the old-fashioned style of the Scotland Yard police investigations? Link with Carlsen? Tracking the girl? The confrontation by Caine of them both and his killing them?
8. Fallada and his scientific investigations? His wanting to control humanity by science? His surviving? The vampires turning on him and destroying him?
9. The trappings of the space exploration film? Spaceships, research, communications?
10. The trappings of the horror films - in the Alien vein?
11. How seriously was the film meant to be taken? As science fiction? As science fantasy? As comment on powers from outer space destroying humanity? As horror material?
