Lifeforce (1985)

Though it was flop when it was released and a lot of those retarded IMDB-users seem to make fun of it just because they heard it's bad (and Tobe Hooper is the director, and it's tradition to bash all his work), I must say that Lifeforce is one of my favorite science fiction-movies and I've seen it at least once a year the last ten years.

The story in short: A huge "ship" is found in the tail of Halleys Comet. A group of astronauts enters the mysterious object and found the remains of a bat-like species and three human bodies. And then shit hits the fan and somehow these human bodies comes back to earth and starts to infect people to vampire-like monsters that suck the lifeforce from their victims! 

Dosen't it sound cool? And yes, it's cool. This is also a movie where they spent a fuckload of money, around 25 million dollars - and in 1985, that was a lot! Every penny is visible on the screen to, from John Dykstra's amazing visual effects to a lof of cool physical stuff with animatronics, some minor gore, miniatures and huge sets. But the coolest thing is that it's so british. There's no clue that it's been directed by a guy from Texas or produced by a couple of crazy israelis. This is UK all over it, from the actors and slightly melodramatic dialogue, the visual style with restrained camera movements and colors. Maybe that was a reason for it's fiasco? It didn't want to become another overblown american action-spectacular, but rather a tasteful british overblown mega-spectacular? 

The finale is one of the best every filmed. The huge spaceship (or whatever) is hanging in space over London and attracts the souls of all people that are infected thru a huge blue beam. At the same time the infection is spreading like a joint among friends at George Michaels apartment and turns every single soul in London to a zombie-like vampire-monster! Watch out for mass-scenes of crazy people destroying London, landmarks being blown to pieces, zombie-attacks and in the middle of this a trippy sex-scene in a church! Wow, this is great.

It's just a pity that the dvds that are out is so crappy. They are the longer cut, which is the best, and in widescreen, but that's the only good things. The picture looks like shit and no extras. It deserves a special edition, a release taken from a new and fresh print and high resolution. Maybe one day...