Claudio Carvalho In the countryside of London, a rocket crashes on a farm and Professor Bernard Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) and Scotland Yard Inspector Lomax (Jack Warner) arrive in the spot. The rocket was launched by Prof. Quatermass with the astronauts Victor Carroon (Richard Wordsworth), Greene and Reichebheim; however only Carroon is found very sick in the cabin. He is transported to a private clinic to stay under observation despite the protests of his wife Mrs. Judith Carroon (Margia Dean). She bribes a nurse to bring Carroon to her and she finds that he is transforming into a monster. Carroon escapes killing people and animals during his metamorphosis while the Scotland Yard is hunting him down and Dr. Quatermass discovers that his process is an alien invasion."The Quatermass Xperiment" is an early sci-fi from Hammer with a creepy alien invasion. Despite the low-budget, the screenplay is very well written and the film entertains, specially fans of sci-fi from the 50's. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Terror que Mata" ("Terror that Kills")

gavin6942 Professor Bernard Quatermass is in charge of a manned rocket mission that has gone awry. They lost contact with the spaceship at one point and have no idea how far into space it may have traveled. When the rocket crash lands in a farmer's field they find that only one of the three occupants, Victor Carroon, is on board; the others have simply vanished.Somehow when you say "1950s science fiction", this film tends to be overlooked. Often for more American films, some of which are better and many of which are worse. Why? And most interestingly, this comes from Hammer, the fines folks who brought life back to Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein. They are not really known for their science fiction, but maybe they should be.Jeff Szpirglas calls Kino Lorber's Blu-ray release "well worth the wait" Americans had to endure. Indeed, beyond the crisp picture, we get some nice interviews: John Carpenter and Ernest Dickerson, as well as director Val Guest. The latter, of course, is a real treat, but for me Dickerson is the hidden treasure. He has not yet received the attention he deserves.

AaronCapenBanner Val Guest directed this science fiction tale based on a Nigel Kneale TV miniseries that stars Brian Donlevy as American rocket scientist Bernard Quatermass, who is called to the English countryside to investigate a rocket ship of his that has crashed. Two of the crew have disappeared, and the third is injured and uncommunicative. It turns out that the crew came into contact with an unknown life form in space that infected them, and now threatens to break loose upon the world, unless Quatermass and Inspector Lomax(played by Jack Warner) can stop it... Well directed and written thriller has nice atmosphere, but hurt by the miscasting of American Donlevy playing a British scientist, and the monster itself(at the climax) isn't that impressive, but otherwise this is a passable version.

Michael_Elliott Quatermass Xperiment, The (1955) *** (out of 4) Effective sci-fi tale from Hammer has Professor Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) sending a rocket into space with three astronauts but when it crashes back to Earth there's only one alive with the other two missing. The one who survived, Victor Carroon (Richard Wordsworth) soon starts to transform into some sort of monster and before long he's stalking London. I'll be honest and admit that I'm really not a huge fan of British cinema and especially some of the science fiction that came from them during the 50s and 60s. With that said, THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT is without question one of the best of its genre simply because the film goes for the "less is more" approach and this really adds a level of creepiness that's hard to find in a genre picture from this era. Just take a look at the opening sequence as lovers are in a field making out only to heard a loud noise, which sends them running into the house and seconds later there's a crash. The sci-fi genre has had countless spaceship crashes but I really can't think of one more effective than what's on display here. We never really get to see anything but it's the direction of Val Guest that really puts us on the edge of our seats. This strong direction continues in the next major scene when they go to open up the spacecraft to see what's inside. The screenplay is actually very well-written and offers up several good twists and turns as the film moves along. One such example is a scene where the wife of the astronaut tries to sneak him out of a hospital and things don't go as planned. As for the monster, it's quite effective and again it's because of the less is more approach. We really never get a good look at the monster and as it deforms more we just see bits and pieces of it. When we first see what's happened to the hand it's just a few seconds that we get to see but the effect is quite chilling. The performances are another major plus with Donlevy doing an excellent job as the scientist only interested in the future and not caring what's going on in current times. Donlevy manages to be a guy you love to hate and this serves the film well. Wordsworth is very effective in his scenes dealing with his mental breakdown and Jack Warner is fun as the Inspector. THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT has become a cult favorite over the years and it's easy to see why. This genre gave us so many bad movies that it's always hard trying to find one that actually works. It's clear not too much money was spent on the production but everyone involved took the material and raised it up to the levels of a classic.