Film Review
After the phenomenal success of
The Quatermass Xperiment
(1955), the film adaptation of Nigel Kneale's landmark BBC TV serial,
Hammer wasted no time in making a follow-up. The company
was not put off when Kneale refused to write a sequel and to give
his permission for the Quatermass character to be reused.
Stepping into Nigel Kneale's shoes, 27-year-old Jimmy Sangster knocked
out a script in next to no time, borrowing ideas from the original
Quatermass story whilst pillaging various previous
B-movies. To this mix was added a liberal dose of
incomprehensible pseudo-science, of the kind that makes the original
Star Trek series look like an Open
University course on advanced physics. This was Sangster's
screenwriting debut and he would go on to do far better work, including
writing and directing some of Hammer's best horror films. Just as
in their earlier
Quatermass
film, Hammer made great virtue of the X-rating that the British Board
of Film Classification gave the film, with the X in the film's title
featuring prominently on all of the publicity.
The film was originally to have been directed by Joseph Losey, who had
recently left Hollywood after being blacklisted for alleged involvement
in Communist activities. The film's lead actor, Dean Jagger, had
extreme anti-Communist views and refused to work with Losey, so the
latter was replaced with Leslie Norman, a far less experienced
director. This was not the end of Losey's association with
Hammer, however; he would return to direct the thriller
The
Damned (1963).
Whilst it is far from perfect,
X:
The Unknown does holds together surprisingly well. It may
not match up to the standards of
The
Quatermass Xperiment, but it compares favourably with comparable
low budget American horror films and does offer one or two genuine
chills. The sequence in which a body melts (literally) before our
eyes is one of the most horrific to appear in any British horror film,
and the nocturnal sequences have that aura of Gothic menace that would
become Hammer's stock in trade in the following decades. It's a
shame that the effect is diminished by some mediocre model shots and
the not very convincing realisation of the creature, which looks like
the Blob's anaemic younger brother. Overall, however, this is not
a bad sci-fi/horror offering from Hammer, giving a foretaste of the
blood curdling treats that were yet to come.
© James Travers 2009
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Soldiers on a training exercise in Scotland are surprised when a
fissure suddenly appears in the ground. One of the soldiers is
instantly killed and another is injured by intense radioactive
burns. Not long afterwards, a young boy dies from similar wounds
after exploring an abandoned water tower in woods nearby. Atomic
energy researcher Dr Adam Royston is called upon to investigate these
mysterious occurrences and makes some terrifying deductions. A
sentient shape-changing creature that has lived for centuries beneath
the Earth's crust has escaped to the surface via the fissure and is now
looking for radioactive material to feed on. As the creature
grows, spreading death and destruction in its wake, Royston works
frantically to find a way to destroy it...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.