The Quatermass Xperiment Review

Review of The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) by screenqueeen: 👍 4/5

This starts out as a typical-feeling '50s jaunt into exploration sci-fi, but then introduces the indescribable and ineffable dread that comes across so strongly in Lovecraft as the primary focus. What this shows is a firm set of convictions that demonstrate a pessimistic view of lifeforms other than our own. This is a recurring theme for the QUATERMASS series.

It's an intriguing combination of things, though -- first a "rocket in space" sci-fi picture, then a turn into disaster politics run by the brilliantly abrasive (and American) Professor Quatermass, but -- it's more importantly a vessel (pardon the pun) for a new kind of creature feature.

Something comes back from the titular XPERIMENT, something that resembles nothing of the life forms mankind has ever known. Over the course of the film it becomes very clear that this helped spark the imaginations of Carpenter and undoubtedly Cronenberg's (Carpenter calls this a "Fungus among us" movie and I couldn't agree more) as there is a shocking suggestion towards body horror more grotesque than Kafka's inching cockroach transmogrificational text.

But the most impressive thing that makes this film get its seriousness across without getting too ridiculous (something the serials didn't get past) is the approach they took to film it, which very much looks and feels in line with newsreels from the same time.

I certainly didn't first compare this to a project of Val Lewton's but John Carpenter put it in my head: "Lewton didn't show anything. [Quatermass Xperiment] It showed everything.