Movie review: Lifeforce

As Halley’s Comet comes traveling toward earth the deep space shuttle Churchill, on a joint British-American venture, is sent to observe but in the tail of the comet they find an unusual ship. Investigating, they find the ships vampire looking inhabitants all dead but, they also find 3 humans in seemingly perfect condition in suspended animation. After bringing the 2 men and a woman aboard their shuttle and eventually back to earth things start going very wrong when the female awakens. As the death toll mounts life on earth is threatened and the British government scrambles to fix things.

Steve Railsback (Col. Tom), Peter Firth (Col. Colin), Frank Finlay (Dr. Hans), Mathilda May (Space Girl), Patrick Stewart (Dr. Armstrong).

How can you go wrong when you take a beautiful naked woman (May) and let her walk around throughout the movie, toss in some sci-fi space science fiction, add interstellar vampires and top it off with some very nice special effects? You can’t! Although the acting is a bit flat in this one, and the special effects are a bit clumsy and outdated at this point, this is still a wonderful film and the creature effects when people are changed are lovely. I’ve seen this one a couple of times and although the ending is a bit corny and uneventful, the film overall is great. The mix of different genres into one film along with a plot that ties things together nicely is a joy.

As mentioned, acting is a bit flat in parts and could benefit from some energy between the characters. Plot was nicely one and moves along pretty well. Dialogue is appropriate and not overdone however, sound is not well done at all. Music volume increases dramatically during action scenes requiring you to lower the volume just to have to turn it back up later when the action is over. Sets (this was done in 1985 remember) are well done as are most special effects.

This is a very enjoyable film and well worth watching if you can remember it was made over 20 years ago. If you have a need for the most cutting edge effects then pass it over as you will be disappointed.

Plenty of nudity in this one is the only thing keeping it from teens and below.

Released: 1985
Reviewed: 3.28.16
Star rating: 4 out of 5
Genre: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi Horror, Alien Sci-Fi, Alien horror, Zombies

copyright ©2016 Dave Riedel