A heady Hammer hullabaloo of horror!
Director Roy Ward Baker’s first Hammer film is a doozy! Released in America under the title “Five Million Years to Earth”, I later saw it on broadcast television and loved the grand yet disparate ideas that the story wove together. While the film was favorably received, I’ve rarely seen it mentioned in discussions of horror or science fiction, which is a shame because “Quatermass and The Pit” is a dusky gem. The special effects might seem cheesy to modern eyes, but the inventive story and distinctive characters provide superb support, making the film an ominous and thrilling delight throughout.
Adapted from a previous BBC television serial of the same name which was also penned by screenwriter Nigel Kneale, “Quatermass and The Pit” is a mesmerizing mélange of mysticism, the supernatural, apocryphal evolutionary theory and extraterrestrial speculation. Construction workers excavating a new tunnel for the London Underground unearth what appear to be human bones that are inexplicably millions of years old, far more ancient than any ever discovered. Then a large and very strange object reveals itself, which is first surmised to be a World War II missile.
Professor Quatermass is brought in to examine the object and advance his theories, all of which are snidely dismissed by the British Army Colonel assigned to deal with the now potentially perilous situation. Now determined to be comprised of no material known to modern science, the skin of the object proves impervious to even the most powerful drills. When a secret chamber inside opens by itself, frightful visions are experienced and soon London and the entire world are threatened by sinister signs of a second apocalypse.
To give any further details on the titillating twists and turns that the story takes would be a cardinal cinematic sin. Suffice to say that “Quatermass and The Pit” has a grandiose vision and achieves it remarkably well given the modest budget and production values. The cast does a wonderful job with their respective characters, and the snappy pacing keeps your wide-eyed attention glued to the screen, waiting with bated breath for the next cosmos-encompassing revelation of doom.
Keep calm and carry on!
