LIFEFORCE

Directed by Tobe Hooper
Produced by Menahem Golan & Yoram Globus
Written by Dan O'Bannon & Don Jakoby
Photography by Alan Hume
Music by Henry Mancini
Cast: Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay & Mathilda May

1985/116 mins/Color/5.1 DD
2.35:1/English/England/NTSC Region 1

Review from the MGM DVD

Based on Colin Wilson's The Space Vampires novel (also the shooting title of the film), LIFEFORCE was Tobe Hooper next film after the successful 1982 semi-classic, POLTERGEIST. While on a space mission, the spaceship crew decide to pay a little visit to the Halley comet!! To their surprise they find out that something is hidden inside the comet... something that looks like an organic spaceship or should i say, something right out of Giger's ALIEN (take note that one of the screenwriter of LIFEFORCE, Dan O'Bannon, is responsable for writting ALIEN). At first they find gigantic sleeping bats, the crew decide to look further. They later find 3 naked bodies, two man and a female. They seem to be frozen or something. The crew take them with them to Earth. Upon arriving to Earth we learn that all of the spaceship crew are dead except for one man, Commander Tom Carlson (played by Steve Railsback).

The three naked body are taken to a military base where they will be examined but the female (played by the gorgeous french actress Mathilda May) awakes before her autopsy and drain the lifeforce out of the guard who was there to watch her. From there a vampire like plague spread itself in London. The army has to stop it before it takes over the world. The alien spacecraft leaves Halley's comet and goes to earth. The two male "vampires" wakes up and go on a rampage, draining more lifeforce from innoncents. The only man who can do something about all of this is Commander Tom Carlson.

I won't spoil the ending of the film for you but LIFEFORCE is a good little sci-fi flick and surely Tobe Hooper's last good film! I mean the guy directed one of horror best known classic, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE but couldn't get back to making such a great film again. SALEM'S LOT, EATEN ALIVE, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 and POLTERGEIST all have their moments but they just can't compare to the original TCM. LIFEFORCE had a budget of $23 millions which was a lot back in 85. The film shot in 35mm was blown up to 70mm scope prints on release, for maximum impact!

MGM's DVD is a good one, there's some grains and scratches ever now and then but it still looks good. The film is presented in it's original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The audio has been remixed to a very good 5.1 DD track. The best thing about this DVD is without a doubt the fact that 15 minutes that were cut in the theatrical version are now back in the film! The DVD also has English, French and Spanish subtitles, the theatrical trailer, a very cool and informative 8 pages booklet and comes in the usual MGM keep case. The menu's presentation is ok and the film is separated in 32 chapters. Now if only Hooper will do a good film...

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Review by Kim Dubuisson. All Right Reserved. 2003. ©