Lifeforce

What do you get when you bring the writer of Alien (and Total Recall) and the director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (and Poltergeist) together?  You get Lifeforce, a pseudo zombie/alien/vampire flick.  Right from the beginning you can tell that the type of movie these guys are making was meant for a bigger budget and for a better director but hey that’s life.  Now I don’t want you to write off this movie based on that last sentence because there’s actually a lot of good stuff here.

So we’re immediately thrown into an epic score by Henry Mancini who’s known best for writing The Pink Panther theme.  This is not a jazzy piece like that but instead more militaristic.  This is a score on a mission, a mission to go exploring in space and stumble upon fucking space vampires.  When the title “Lifeforce” comes up it swoops right into the camera with a jet flyby sound effect.  This shit is pumpin’ me up man.  The rest of the credits don’t get any sort of extra sound clip but they are shown over an aerial scrolling shot of what I think is supposed to be Haley’s comet.

When the credits are finished we get a documentary type voiceover of a guy giving us the situation aboard the HMS Churchill.  It’s a joint effort between Britain and America to explore space ‘n shit.  They’re checking out Haley’s comet and notice something it’s carrying, a giant 150 mile long fucking spaceship.  Just to give you a frame of reference this thing is equal to the distance between New York City and Albany.  And of course these guys have to check this thing out so they suit up and explore the ship.

It’s really weird how the “exploring the alien spaceship” scene was put together because it’s done in a montage of fades.  Usually there would be anticipation beforehand of what you would find, a whole build up before actually stepping inside and then you would slowly walk through the entrance meticulously checking out the first things that the explorers see.  But not here.  In this movie it gets glossed over with some voiceovers of the astronauts saying, “oh boy” and “it’s like some sort of giant artery”.  And they must’ve explored those 150 miles pretty quick or they got real fuckin’ lucky ‘cause they find the aliens right away.  They look like giant bats (get it?  (hint: because they’re vampires)).  The team of ‘nauts also find three human bodies asleep (or dead?) incased in what look like crystal coffins (or plastic boxes) and they decide that they have to take them back to the ship to check them out.

Now this whole sequence of them going into the alien ship looks fucking cool.  I mean the constant fades are kinda dumb but the look of the ship and the scale of it comes off really well.  The astronauts are these tiny specs in this gigantic fucked up looking ship.  What’s strange is that no one seems all that surprised or excited.  Well I guess the one British guy that says “oh boy” is having a good time but everyone else acts real professional like this is no big deal.  If I was there I would be freaking the fuck out.  But I guess that’s why these guys get paid the big bucks…or small bucks…or whatever the hell astronauts get paid to go into space and act cool about it.

So they take these “human bodies” back to Earth and examine them but oh shit, one of them awakens and starts murdering people.  I guess I should mention that the main alien is a woman that goes around buck fucking naked for half the movie.  She’s feeds by sucking the life out of her victims and she can also move out of her body taking over someone else’s.  Her victims become all dried out and eventually turn into space vampires/zombies themselves who look for people to feed on.  The main astronaut dude, Carlsen played by Steve Railsback (The Stunt Man), is the only one that can stop her before she destroys the world.  They have a telepathic connection with each other like Valek and Katrina in Vampires so he can see where she is and what she’s doing.  They even have telepathic sex flooded in red light while it’s lightning and thundering and there are these weird screaming noises.

The only real person of note in this is Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation, X-Men (oh and did anyone else see him on Extras?  His idea for a movie about a pervert with superpowers was fucking hilarious)).  He plays a mental hospital director and does just fine.  I guess I never realized this before but I think I really enjoy Patrick Stewart’s acting.  He seems to have such a relaxed but meaningful way of pulling off a performance.  It’s too bad he’s not in very good movies.

The effects look really good for the most part.  The vampires when they’re dried out look especially good as well as the look of their spaceship.  It has an eerie and nasty feel but it’s also pretty simple looking which is effective.  The destruction and havoc that they bring is put together nicely with a good amount of explosions, fire and vampire attacks.

From start to end you’ll notice that this film has such a big scope to it.  The whole outer space beginning, the score, the vampire effects and (Spoiler) by the end all of London is being destroyed by these things.  They just needed bigger stars and a better lead than Railsback.  He supposed to be tortured by the alien woman because he’s in love with her but he’s just not that exciting to watch.  He’s always angry and tries to act tough but I don’t buy it.

Overall this is a real good time.  It’s like O’Bannon and Hooper went pretty far out of their way to not make a straight up vampire, zombie or alien movie.  They wanted to blend them all together and come up with something new.  And it actually works pretty well.  I did think at first, “why didn’t they just have these things be traditional vampires” but by the end they won me over.  There’s a lot of charm in this picture that I think can’t be denied. 

Now I know there’s a consensus out there that Hooper couldn’t (and still can’t) get his shit together since The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and I would have to partly agree with that.  As this point it looks like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a fluke.  A helluva one-off that is arguably the best horror movie ever made.  But he still had some other alright pictures.  I thought The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 wasn’t bad and I strangely enjoyed Salem’s Lot.  Sure they don’t show the masterful eye that was revealed in the original Massacre but they certainly aren’t the work of an incompetent person.  They’re done in more of a lazy fashion.  Yeah, lazy might be the best word to sum up Hooper’s films.

But then there’s Lifeforce.  This picture has ambitious written all over it.  It’s like Hooper finally got excited about something like never before.  There’s a feeling of wanting to craft a story that comes through and it only builds and gets stronger as the movie progresses.  It feels like he went out of his way to bring something fresh to vampire and alien pictures and I think he succeeded for the most part.  I wasn’t expecting this film to amount to anything when I first threw it on but came away pleasantly surprised at not only the amount of effort put into it but also the originality of it.

Maybe I’m over analyzing the movie and maybe nobody gives a shit ‘cause Lifeforce bombed at the box office but I for one appreciate this film.  I mean it’s not as gripping or scary as Alien or as badass or macho as Vampires but it’s trying to find its own niche.  Its own little alien/zombie/naked-chick-turning-dudes-into-space-vampires niche.