Retro Raunch Revisit

LIFEFORCE (1985)
Steve Railsback, Mathilda May, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, Patrick Stewart, Michael Gothard, Chris Jagger
Directed by Tobe Hooper
Released June 21, 1985 (Happy 40th Anniversary)
Exploring deep in the outer reaches of space is the space shuttle HMS Churchill, comprised of a joint UK/US crew of astronauts. Inside the dust tail of Halley's Comet which they've intercepted as part of their program, the radar spots an enormous needle-shaped alien spaceship in a hidden gas cloud which a small team then board. After finding hundreds of grotesque frozen bat-like carcasses in the cavernous structure, they are stunned to come across the bodies of 3 nude people (1 female, 2 males) preserved in crystalized glass sleep chambers. Still in their suspended state of hibernation, the trio and one bat are brought back to the Churchill for the return to Earth. On the way home however, radio communication is lost for a month and in the frantic attempt to regain contact, mission control at NASA dispatches the Columbia space shuttle on a rescue mission. The Churchill is found gutted by fire with its charred astronauts dead from the blaze. The 3 sealed caskets with their humanoid occupants are found untouched and are taken by the rescuers for extraterrestrial study. Once back in the London HQ of The European Research Space Centre and just before a planned autopsy, the femalien unexpectedly wakes up and she kills a weak guard (with a kiss) and other staff before escaping the Compound. Enter the arrival of arrogantly calm SAS (British Army 'Special Air Service') Col. Colin Caine who quickly launches a womanhunt to capture her. When the guard's shriveled corpse is medically examined, he too in resurrection administers the same fate to a pathologist, and the witnessing doctors are astonished at the confused guard's fully restored health. One week later over in Texas, a crashed escape pod from the Churchill is located containing Col. Tom Carlsen, an American air force officer who is the sole survivor. Carlsen is sent to London as part of a secret British investigation where he gives his account to baffled scientists and national security of the strange discovery. He explains why the crew was found "drained" and how it was he who set the fire afterwards to stop the alien trio, fearful of what would be in store for mankind if they ever set foot on our planet.

Under hypnosis, Carlsen shares a psychic/telepathic link to the femalien and is able to see through her eyes, as she assumes the host body of a nurse, Ellen Donaldson. This naughty nurse however is seen as a redheaded temptress in green poncho who seduces a man in his car. [Again, British girls hiking up their skirts in a fashion lifted from the school of Benny Hill]. Tracking her movements through visions, this leads Carlsen and Caine to The Thorlstone Psychiatric Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Yorkshire. Along with them is a 3rd colleague, Dr. Hans Fallada who is a thanatologist (one who studies death). Reminiscent of Dr. Van Helsing, Fallada says the trio may be the source of earthly vampire legend. Carlsen and Caine think they trap femalien who has absorbed the body of Dr. Armstrong, the hospital manager, while Ellen is revealed to be strongly into S&M and therefore slapped around without any reservations or protest when interrogated for information. But unbeknownst to the pursuers is that they have been set-up in a trick to lure them out of London. As a drug-injected Dr. Armstrong is transported back to London by helicopter, he dies from a hemorrhaging bloodstream leaving his body which materializes into our girl's form (giving a whole new meaning to bloodclot) who escapes again when she spills into a vomit-burst splash(!) By now, the Capital City has been infected with a catastrophic plague resulting in martial law. The 2 male aliens who rose from their siesta and were earlier thought dead from being shot in a fire fight and hit with grenades, have escaped the Lab Facility disguised as soldiers. The seemingly indestructible duo immediately set about turning the population into rampaging soul-suckers who proliferate the cycle of widespread virus into contagion. The outbreak has caused panic and triggered burning, rioting & chaos throughout the city, and not even the Prime Minister (or his secretary for that matter) is safe. And with the military overwhelmed and government collapsed, NASA seriously considers nuking England as a drastic means of quarantine to save the world.

The accumulated "lifeforces" taken by the 2 males are cerebrally siphoned (acting as conduits) to the femalien, who then funnels the massive gathering of nourishing & rejuvenating energy to their huge spaceship which makes its way pronto to hover in orbit directly above London like a beacon. (In a parallel, this is not unlike the docking of the Russian ship, Demeter, in Bram Stoker's Dracula). Dr. Fallada impales one of the males with an ancient sword of leaded iron, and Carlsen tells Caine that back on the Churchill, he was drawn with desire beyond his control to the femalien while she was in her sleep chamber. She is tracked to St. Paul's Cathedral where in a basement crypt, she lies on top an altar; the weaponized Queen feeding her harvesting alien vessel. After telling a shocked and stripped nude Carlsen that they mentally bumped uglies in space (giving a whole new meaning to the cosmic mile high club), like raging hormoned teenagers they makeout like gangbusters. As Caine kills the other male, horny Carlsen in self sacrifice goes for double penetration by impaling himself to femalien with the über sword but she is only wounded. From a rising energy column still surging and reaching high into the sky like a tentacle (with the scene more than a little borrowed from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK), a huge explosion blows the dome off the Cathedral. With the femalien and Carlsen each still embraced together in lover's union, they are beamed on board the craft with the presumption of he now having fully merged with "the feminine in his mind." Caine is left looking upward as the ship ventures back into space towards Halley's Comet. Based on the 1976 novel 'The Space Vampires' by Colin Wilson, some may remember back in the day how LIFEFORCE was quite commonly and most often referred to as "that naked space vampire chick movie." From every video rental recommendation citing the hot babe with hairy bush whose near entire role is almost completely in the buff (and in rampant full frontal), to top shelf publications, it was an alternative title not undeserving as the voluptuous boobie parade remains the most mentioned and taboo feature characteristic that everybody who sees it will recall.

The femalien is a trance-inducing, gliding literal opiate who is first introduced as sleeping beauty, and debilitates helpless victims with lust before they succumb to ghoulish terror. She can shapeshift by bodyjumping, and like her 2 male companions, can transfer consciousness and blast out any obstacle in their path without breaking a sweat. Her specialty is mesmerizing anyone into a kind of erotic fever dream that renders powerlessness in an aura of phantasmagoria(!) The victims from all 3 are physically depleted of the very essence of their spirit that looks like electric blue sparks of static lightning. Such discharge for the unfortunately damned means their fatal emaciation into a mummified husk of a skeletal zombie-vampiric creature who likewise "drain" in order to sustain themselves. An aspiring French ballet dancer, very attractive 20yr old Mathilda May resembled Alyssa Milano and her subsequent filmography often featured nudity (with one 1994 movie called THE TIT AND THE MOON figuring prominently on the namesake breasts). For a young woman with barely any lines in a mainstream picture to saunter about gracefully in complete undress is blunt, bold & brave, and it's no wonder that May, probably overnight, gained a countless legion of male fans. The 2 boys in Hyde Park who hope to witness the femalien in some lesbian action, are highly & smirkingly representative of any hetero guy's mindset (juvenile or mature) instantly transfixed by a gorgeous bombshell confidently walking around in her birthday suit. Remember nubile Natasha Henstridge strutting around in SPECIES? May is clearly her titillating exotic predecessor. As for sullen overacting Railsback, he's made a career in brooding performances as tormented types teetering on the edge of obsession and instability bordering on full madness. At the time of filming he was best known for playing Charles Manson in the 1976 TV miniseries, HELTER SKELTER.

While it failed in the theatres and was despised by critics (Wilson himself called it "a textbook example of how to make a bad movie"), LIFEFORCE actually stands as one of Tobe Hooper's most exciting offerings, and he clearly went to town. The film's nostalgic popularity amongst the vcr crowd's loyal audience can't be denied. It's slight blend of the first ALIEN mixed with some of the QUATERMASS films also incorporates amazing sfx from John Dykstra (best known for his work on STAR WARS) and solid cinematography. At one point an impressive cast of John Gielgud, Klaus Kinski, Olivia Hussey, and George Peppard had all been tapped for parts but all 4 dropped out. Co-written by Dan O'Bannon, and with grandiose music composed by Henry Mancini, the beginning of the movie also has a basis in reality for Halley's Comet (visible every 75-76yrs) was due to return to our solar system as it did in March 1986. LIFEFORCE is slammed for being somewhat incoherent and inconsistent with its swerving mood swings of mystery into mayhem, but the transitioning territorial havoc and climactic frenzy unleashed by the trio who run amuck isn't really that difficult to follow as the unfolding events (and May's every footstep) are just brought in different subgenre styles. While it doesn't sound like it should, everything meshes well. For all the head-scratching weirdness, imperfections or negative complaints of switching narratives being too complicated, this is a straight-up comic book presented in graphically garish and gross-out live action, rife with a fetish for voyeurism. Some reviewers have analyzed that the diseased "draining" is a subversive dreadful metaphor for both homosexuality and the 1980's AIDS epidemic. Ultimately, the picture overall is an alluring & lurid, high-spirited nightmarish romp of a sci-fi horror yarn spilled into sudden apocalyptic invasion. And in total, has more than enough 'go for broke' ingredients to be a very enjoyable crazy yet cool movie.