Lifeforce (1985)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1985
	Director: Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Death Trap, Salem's Lot, Poltergeist)
	Actors: Steve Railsback (Ed Gein, The Devil's Rejects), Mathilda May, Peter Firth (The Hunt for Red October), Patrick Steward (X-men 1-3, Star Trek VIII: First Contact)
	Country: USA, GB
	Genre: Fantasy, Horror, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 14.10.2016, VOD, 32" TV
Synopsis: The space shuttle Churchill is approaching the Halley Comet when it discovers an alien ship in its wake. The crew decides to enter it and there it finds inexplicable remains. They are then not heard of until they reach Earth orbit.
Review: A classic SF movie from the 80's that I had never seen before, but I think I read references to the title, and I wouldn't be surprised if it had some kind of cult following. First of all the cast and crew are impressive: director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Death Trap, Salem's Lot, and who actually shot Lifeforce right after Poltergeist) that we met at the MotelX2013 festival, actors like the too rare Steve Railsback, the French Mathilda May very sexy and very naked in the movie, Peter Firth (The Hunt for Red October) as a pervert SAS agent and an apparition that I didn't expect by Patrick Steward from both the X-men and Star Trek (the 90's one) franchises. And the movie is scored by Henry Mancini who worked on more than 300 movies including Breakfast at Tiffany's, Hatari! with John Wayne or The Pink Panther (although I didn't really like his work on that movie). Needless to tell you that after one minute of the movie opening credits I was very excited! And right after that and for 116 minutes the movie goes straight to the point. It may start as a realistic SF story with serious visuals reminding of 2001, A Space Odyssey or more importantly Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but quickly includes elements more coming from the B-movie world: nudity, horror and a story which after one hour becomes hard to follow as it picks from many genres. It is indeed a movie hard to like because the story is not totally linear and some important characters come and go, but if you like the Genre and are in the right mind-set it can be extremely pleasant. The movie doesn't usually have good ratings because of this patchwork of genres I guess, but for one I was fascinated by it. I find it original and very ambitious, and Tobe Hooper managed to produce a unique piece of cinema in spite of that ambition in contradiction with limited means at the time. An the characters all have something special, for example Dr. Hans Fallada played by Frank Finlay is a kind of modern Van Helsing (sorry it spoils a bit the story, highlight to read). I am very tempted to read the novel The Space Vampires by Colin Wilson from which it is adapted.
Rating: 7 /10