It's hot out there. The last few weeks of Summer seem to last forever and the skies overhead bring a another searing day without cloud coverage. There's no apparent sign of the big thunder storm I've been hearing out. So what is to be done, maybe some feel good adventure films and family rated stories about heroic action? Perhaps it's finally time to just go outside, or to hit the beach. The coastal waters are calling... Well I guess that could be a nice idea. But the only sane choice is to get through a series of films about monsters, aliens and serial killers.
To get things off to a suitable start let's talk about Tobe Hooper's 1985 science fiction horror mashup Lifeforce. What an enigmatic title. But the original story was called 'The Space Vampires' which explains everything you need to know here. Along with many story elements taken right from Dracula, there are a lot of familiar inclusions. It has the feel of a classic Hammer picture, perhaps something from the Quatermass series with the London scenery and a number of British cast members - including a brief appearance from Patrick Stewart.
But the central duo are US astronaut Colonel Carlsen (Steve Railsbeck who was Dwayne Barry from The X-Files) who teams up with SAS member Colonel Caine (Peter Firth). After mysterious human looking creatures are brought back from space mission to a comet, they must attempt to stop everyone in London from being turned into grisly emaciated zombies that steal life energy from their victims. It's a moody affair, and for a Cannon Films release this incredibly slick looking. There's a lot of vampiric attraction and a lot of resulting sexual undercurrents along the way... some of it works and some of it doesn't.
For the most part the story plays out with a pretty standard B-movie feeling which was probably unavoidable given the subject matter. Dan O'Bannon is on writing duties, but not everything can be Alien. It does at least have some fancy visuals courtesy of John Dykstra from the vampire spacecraft to the apocalyptic city finale. There's also a rather dramatic score by Henry Mancini (which may seem strangely familiar to X-Men 2 fans) and it feels appropriately bombastic in the face of so much otherworldly cheese. Much of this feels like it's aiming above what the storyline deserves, but production values elevating the material is something that does happen several times in this little marathon.
While we're on the subject of Tobe Hooper and Dan O'Bannon, the 1986 remake of Invaders From Mars is certainly worth a mention. It feels a lot more in tune with the era it comes from with several creature effects by Stan Winston and a plot about a school boy (Hunter Carson) encountering a spaceship as found in many other '80s releases (although of course this it is a retread of the original story). There's also a great scenery chewing human villain in the shape of Louise Fletcher as a scary teacher. Genre fans will also enjoy a fun performance from Karen Black as the school nurse who gets roped into all the madness.
It's impossible to take seriously at all but has some memorable moments as people in the town come under alien control following a ship landing on the outskirts. But while the sinister locals are pretty effect the Martian leader that looks like a certain Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles villain and some of the other creatures are just as cartoonish. It also loses any atmospheric mood quite early on as the pace quickly turns from eerie invader suspense to military action. Not all the effects are effective but it's still enjoyable for what it is.
Moving into a more traditional science fiction setting and away from all the monster horror, 1986's Outland again brings far higher production quality that the story demands. At the core this is essentially a crime plot on a space station complete with crazed drug addicts and outnumbered cops. Elsewhere in the tenuous links there some visuals that are very reminiscent of Alien. The comparison is also helped by a solid Jerry Goldsmith score. It's all pretty very impressive. But the story itself is basically tale of a Western sheriff taking on frontier corruption, albeit one with a sci-fi mega-corporation twist on things.
Characterisation is a little light weight at times and while outpost Marshal O'Neil (Sean Connery) is a suitable stubborn hero, he often feels kind of underwritten. The subplot about his family in particular comes across as rushed. But it does have a lot of tension along the way and some fun if predictable set pieces thanks to the setting. It helps that the isolation of this location (a titanium mine inside Jupiter's moon Io) builds on the setup in which nobody wants to do the right thing and a blind eye is being turned to make money on the side. It's not ground breaking but like the others here it's enjoyable as the sum of these parts.
There are some far less impressive examples of sci-fi production design to be found in Battle Beyond the Stars, although it does have a fledgling James Cameron working in the art department. But the cheapness of everything is all to obvious once the recycled space footage begins... and it doesn't just happen once or twice. The plot itself is just The Seven Samurai, repurposed in the same way several other films have done over the years. It has the same eclectic band of characters you'd expect from that storyline, though of course they are now aliens.
The problem is that they never do enough with the main character Shad (Richard Thomas) who comes off as flat, particular in contrast with all the mercenary allies he collects. In the fight against the raiders led by Sador (John Saxon) the outlandish heroes and the big bad himself should have been given more screen time. Sador essentially has his own Death Star to threaten Shad's poor farming world with, but it seems like he's absent for too long even if the plot requires this. The low budget charm only goes so far and they should have focused more on elements which don't require special effects.
PART TWO - PART THREE
