A British mission to rendezvous with Halley's comet happen upon a derelict spaceship. The crew find the remains of huge bat like creatures, and then come across two seemingly human males and a beautiful female (Mathilda May). They take the bodies back to the shuttle craft and one by one the crew goes mad, destroying the ship's communication systems. When a rescue mission finds the shuttle they discover the charred remains of the crew, and 3 humanoids encased in glass. They are taken back to Earth, where the the aliens regain life, sucking energy from anyone in close proximity. Each time they take the life-force from a human, the contagion spreads, turning corpses into vampires who in turn rise and search for energy to restore their life.

Lifeforce is a real enigma of a film; made in 1985 with a budget of $25 million, it badly flopped at the box office and ended up being criminally neglected. Most of the characters are horribly miscast, the script is dire, the acting on the whole is naff, but it's great! A truly entertaining sci-fi/horror epic. It has a wonderful score by Henry Mancini, Frank Finlay's portrayal of Dr Fallada is the most amazingly hammy performance, there's  Peter Firth,  Patrick Stewart, and it was directed by the great Tobe Hooper! Of course we can't forget the delightful Mathilda May, who is quite naked for most of the film. Lovely.  S.J.T.

Lifeforce. 1985

Directed by Tobe Hooper

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