11 out of 12 people found the following review helpful:

About Time This Was Released Here!

James Dowling from Wolverhampton, England, 26th September, 2004

A classic. Andrew Keir is superb as Professor Quatermass, Julian Glover in good form as Colonel Breen, James Donald as Professor Shelley.

I've had this on DVD since 1999 when I picked it up in the US. That it should be so long until it has been released here is disgraceful.

An essential purchase, as is any work by Nigel Kneale. The man is a modern day prophet!

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5 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent concept

A Customer from Birmingham, UK, 16th March, 2005

There is a gap of about then years between this film and the previous outing in the Quatermass trilogy, so it is the first Quatermass film in colour and Andrew Keir replaces Brain Donlevy as Professor Quatermass. Although Keir plays a more aggressive and less smooth character than Donlevy he makes Quatermass into a much more likeable character. The acting throughout the film is tight and excellent use is made of the limited budget for sfx. The storyline is cracking - when I first saw this film in the early 1970s it influenced my dreams on more than one occasion! The only letdown is the indifferent quality of the film transfer itself and the lack of extras - I believe that there is another release of this film which has more background material.

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3 out of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Good build-up, but poor ending.

A Customer from Saffron Walden, England, 15th November, 2004

The fist three quarters of this film is excellent. Apart from some very dodgy martian corpses, it's almost faultless. Fantastic story, acting and special effects (for the time). And the atmosphere and tension are brilliant.

However it all falls apart at the end. It's like the ending was written by someone else based on the first thing that came into their head. It makes little sense (in a bad way - I'm all for confusing endings if the're done well) and almost spoilt the whole film for me.

The disc isn't too good either - just the film, no extras. The picture's also been letter-boxed down the sides, so on a 4x3 screen, there's a fair amount of black all round the central picture, not just at the top and bottom.

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3 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Crud

Ian Jones from london, 24th September, 2006

I supposed once upon a time there may have been a reason to make this absolute crud. I certainly cant see one now, nor any reason to watch it. File under the 'Iliked it when I saw it as a kid' category.

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Fresh as ever

spock140 from , 15th February, 2010

This is a true classic. British Horror may not have reached the 'heights' of American CGI type effects, but the acting, simple effects and the use of physchological terror more than make up for cinematic lapses. The discovery of something in London that defies rational explanation has the scientists thinking one thing and the Government / Military thinking quite another! Is the object of our time, of our making or even of our planet? Does media exposure really make a better scienitist and for that matter does media coverage really upset a Government? (We all know the answer to that one!!) Truly a great film - watch it and still get those not quite so nice feelings and thoughts as the story unfolds.

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Great film, shame about the end

NormB from , 7th January, 2010

I saw this film when I was young. It is a classic, maybe because it is in an everyday tube station and old terraced houses. No glamour here, special effects very good for the time it was made. Everyone should watch it. My only complaint was the ending, I am sure a better ending could have been found. Not giving it away so not going to contain a spoiler.

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classic british sci fi

A Customer from Grangemouth, 15th September, 2009

I rented this, mostly for nostalgic purposes as i remember seeing it when i was very young as my father had recorded it from the television. I could only remember parts of the film but thought seeing as it shows up on alot of british sci fi film lists it give it a watch again. I have to say i was rather impressed at not only how much i remembered from the film but also the film itself. You have to remember that yes there are dodgy alien corpses and the special effects are ropy at points but for the time they are very good. Its god a fantastic plot great ideas and some really good acting too but i have to agree with one of the other reviews. That just as your getting to the end its as if somone else picked up the duty of writing the script and theres a change very quickly with a rather odd ending. But that being said its still a good scifi film and i can see why its still listed in the best british scifi films made.

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They don't make em like this now!

renee from , 23rd August, 2009

I loved it. the science is dated but still thought provoking. Probably not one for the younger audience - no body parts or gory bits.

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