Review of Lifeforce (1985) by Keenan S — 14 Jun 2014

Vampires...in space! That thought alone is already something that makes me love this ridiculous film, but combining that with the fact that it also has most of the hallmarks of wonderful 80's cheesy goodness contained within it makes me love it even more. Sadly, Lifeforce is mostly forgotten in this day and age, even though it should be more highly regarded as a cult classic. It's also an interesting departure from the usual works of Tobe Hooper, who directed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1 & 2 and Poltergeist. Plus, combining his work with that of Dan O'Bannon who worked on films like Alien, Heavy Metal, Return Of The Living Dead, and Dead & Buried and you know you're in for one weird film.

During a joint British-American space expedition to study Halley's Comet, the crew of the ship discovers a spacecraft floating within the comet, so they decide to explore it. There, they discover a lot dead bat-like creatures and three seemingly human creatures (Two males, one female) perfectly preserved in containers made of an unknown material.

So, the crew takes the three nude humans and one of the dead bat creatures back to the ship to study them which turns out to be a huge mistake when their ship is discovered floating towards Earth haphazardly and they're not responding to contacts. It's discovered that all the crew members (Except one who is not accounted for) are dead, the ship is burned, and the three human creatures are still perfectly intact.

So, while the British and American governments try to figure out what happened on the ship, the three humans are taken to be studied, and all hell breaks loose soon afterward when the female wakes up. When she does, she seduces the man who is studying her with her stunning nude body and pheromones she produces to seduce her prey. She proceeds to suck him dry of his energy through her deadly kiss and manages to escape the facility, seducing and killing a number of people during her deadly rampage.

After her escape, the missing astronaut is found and it turns out the people the female vampire killed are starting to turn and require energy every two hours in order to survive. Now, Carlsen (The missing astronaut) and government agents must find this woman and stop her and her fellow vampires from destroying the world in any way they can, while also discovering just how far her powers extend (Including possession).

The story is incredibly wacky, but also strangely compelling at the same time. It has a lot interesting ideas, especially with all the powers the space vampires seem to possess, though these also lead to some pretty wacky scenes like when Patrick Stewart's character turns out to be possessed by the female vampire. During the course of this scene, she proceeds to seduce Carlsen and makes him kiss her...while she's in the body of Patrick Stewart, which was absolutely hilarious to watch as Carlsen fights her seduction before kissing Stewart. The film is chock full of all sorts of bizarre scenes, making the film feel uneven at times as it clashes with serious horror with downright ridiculous moments.

Naturally, as this is an 80's flick, the acting is quite campy most of the time. You can tell that the actors are trying to take this seriously, but the script and direction forces them to deliver their lines in the most nonsensical manner possible. But, the acting certainly isn't boring, that's for sure. It was entertaining, even if for the wrong reasons.

What really makes this film, however, is the strange blend of various elements like sci-fi, horror, gore, nudity, and B-movie elements. There's a lot of gore, plenty of action scenes (Especially when the vampires start wreaking havoc in London), lots of nudity, bizarre plot twists, and a whole lot more. It's all very entertaining to watch as all these scenes unfold, making for a very fun experience.

In the end, Lifeforce is no masterpiece of horror, but it's still a damn entertaining piece of 80's cheese. If you love cheesy 80's horror flicks, and you also enjoyed the works of Tobe Hooper and Dan O'Bannon, you might find something to love here.