Quatermass 2, 1957.
Directed by Val Guest.
Starring Brian Donlevy, John Longdon, Sidney James, Bryan Forbes, Vera Day, Michael Ripper, John Van Eyssen, Charles Lloyd Pack.
SYNOPSIS:
Professor Quatermass, trying to gather support for his Lunar colonisation project, discovers that the British government are streets ahead of him and that the alien threat is already amongst us.
You have to hand it to Hammer Films, for when they release a collector’s edition it really is a package for collectors. Having mined the vaults for every piece of material they could find for last month’s 4K UHD release of The Quatermass Xperiment – right down to Super 8 edited cuts and BBFC censor cards – they return this month with that movie’s sequel, Quatermass 2, in an equally lavish package that is as exhausting to get through as it is gorgeous to look at on your shelf.
Professor Bernard Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) is desperately trying to get support from the government for a moon colonisation project he is working on, but he gets distracted by reports of strange pieces of rock falling from the sky that produce a gas that burns the skin if exposed to it, leaving a weird V-shaped scar. When Quatermass and his colleague investigate one of the falling meteorites on a secret government installation that looks uncannily like the model of Qutermass’s planned project, his colleague is burned and Quatermass is assaulted and ordered to leave the site by armed goons who all sport similar scars, prompting the professor to seek help from the highest authorities, but when he spots scars on government officials Quatermass has to be careful who he can trust.
Written by Nigel Kneale and based on the 1955 TV serial, Quatermass 2 immediately draws comparison to Invasion of the Body Snatchers from the previous year, with its central alien invasion theme being a metaphor for Cold War paranoia and the incoming threat of communism, along with the usual government cover-ups and not knowing who to trust. All of this is convincingly conveyed by Brian Donlevy as Professor Quatermass, who is not a man of good humour and takes the absurd situations he finds himself in very seriously, which makes said absurd situations all the more entertaining. It is a stylistic choice that later filmmakers such as Stuart Gordon would employ, his Herbert West character being deadly serious amidst all the reanimated corpses going on the attack in Re-Animator making the grosser elements of the movie even more ridiculous, but in a good way.
But here in Quatermass 2 it is the build-up to the inevitable revealing of the monster that is the most engrossing, as the good professor and his trusted colleagues go to the government installation on an official visit where the tour guide – played by Hammer regular John Van Eyssen, giving his best plummy English accent – explains that the facility is there to grow and process food. Not having any of it, Quatermass’s colleague slips away to investigate one of the giant golden domes and provides the first proper horror moment when he emerges covered in a black goo that is burning his flesh (Ridley Scott must have seen this movie, too).
Unfortunately, it is after this moment where Quatermass 2 starts to slip into predictable territory, the conspiracy plot losing its gravitas and the final act becoming stock sci-fi action as our heroes take on a giant bin bag covered in oil and leaves (George A. Romero and Stephen King also probably took note) that slithers its way past several fake backgrounds. It is quite well shot and was probably quite shocking to 1957 audiences but given how well the shady government setup was constructed it feels a little bit like a cop out ending.
However, as these collector’s editions have proved, it isn’t necessarily the quality of the main feature that is the big selling point and for this stacked edition Hammer have scraped every last morsel of Quatermass 2-related material they can from their vaults. The five-disc set comprises of two 4K UHD discs and three standard Blu-rays, featuring no less than three versions of the main movie, those being the 1.66:1 UK Theatrical Cut, the fullscreen 1.37:1 As-Filmed Version and the widescreen 1.85:1 US Theatrical Version, so take your pick of your preferred version.
You also get the second part of The Legend of Nigel Kneale: Enemy from Space (the first was on The Quatermass Xperiment disc) where Toby Hadoke continues his look at the legendary writer, Doubling Down: Uncovering Quatermass 2 featurette about the making of the movie, a short documentary about Brian Donlevy, several archive interviews with director Val Guest, all six episodes of the Quatermass II TV serial, a brand new audio commentary with Toby Hadoke, Nigel Kneale’s biographer Andy Murray and artist/film historian Stephen R. Bissett, archive audio commentaries from Val Guest, Nigel Kneale, Hammer experts Marcus Hearne, Ted Newsom and Constantine Nasr, and writer/producer Dr. Steve Haberman, a 176-page book featuring reproductions of original publicity materials and articles, art cards, posters and a stunning leather-look digipak to house it all in. Plus, you also get the usual trailers, BBFC cards and Super 8 edits, so it really is the last word when it comes to making a fan-pleasing package.
So, whether you wish to shell out for such an extensive set is entirely down to – as well as your wallet – your love for Hammer and how much you really need a muted Super 8 version of a movie you can watch on a sparkly 4K UHD disc. As a movie on its own, Quatermass 2 is enjoyable and provides enough entertainment to make it worth watching, but it does run out of steam in the third act and resorts to generic sci-fi tropes to wrap itself up. If you are collecting these sets then it is a no-brainer – especially if you bought The Quatermass Experiment – and trawling through the special features is certainly interesting, but how often are you likely to crack open the box just to watch a foreign trailer or a 1950s BBFC censor card?
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★/ Movie: ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
