While exploring Halley’s comet, an expedition of the space shuttle “Churchill” discovers a bizarrely shaped alien ship, and inside – three humanoids in glass sarcophagi, two men and a woman. They take the find aboard and head for Earth. Some time later, the British space agency, having opened the Churchill, which had not responded, finds traces of fire, badly mutilated bodies of the crew and three intact sarcophagi inside. It was a big mistake to take them away for research – soon the woman, having sucked the life force from the guard dry, escapes from the lab, and something inexplicable happens to the bodies of her victims. In the meantime, an escape pod lands in Texas with the captain of the Churchill, the only man capable of shedding light on the hell that is going on in London.
4k movies reviews
In the distant future, a space crew traveling near Halley’s Comet finds a giant ancient ship lost in the vastness of the stars, in the womb of which the bodies of perfect people are stored in anabiosis. The bodies will be taken to Earth, where they will come to their senses and begin the process of taking over our planet, sucking the life juices out of its inhabitants. This sci-fi classic from thrash-movie classic Taub Hooper, based on the famous 1976 novel ‘Space Vampires’ by English writer Colin Wilson, was made nine years after the book was published on a very respectable budget of $25 million, which did not, however, pay off.
I both watched the movie and read the novel, and I can say that the movie, unfortunately, came out a little worse. Of course, it’s a movie from my childhood, a movie I saw a long time ago and evoked a sense of deep nostalgia, so it was a pleasure to review it. But if the novel was primarily a sci-fi detective, strongly written and mesmerizing, where the emphasis was on the investigation and pursuit of space vampires traveling through human bodies, Hooper decided to add some action to it, whereby by the end of the film there are scenes of mass disaster, zombies roaming the flaming London, and one of the main characters running through the streets with some obscure sword in an effort to stab the alien invaders with it.
As a result of the director’s innovations, the film sort of falls apart into three parts. The first, finding the ship and delivering the creatures and awakening them, is the most interesting. The second is the pursuit of the leader of the space vampires, much more boring. Well, and by the finale, the mass action begins. The film lacks harmony, and – sadly – lacks the necessary talent. One opening scene of finding a ship of unprecedented size could have been shot to give the audience goosebumps, but the director crumpled it up and cut it down to the maximum, losing the wonderful atmosphere that reigned in the book. Everything happens too fast, so the viewer just doesn’t have time to get into it.
But there is something in the film that shook me then and impressed me again now. It was the actress who played the role of the vampire leader, Mathilde May, for whom this was her first screen appearance. The director needed to find for the role almost a reference woman, the one whose image will be as close to the dreams of most men, to the ideal of femininity. And he almost succeeded. In any case, the girl found in this picture just looks incomparable, mesmerizing its beauty. And besides, almost the whole movie she walks naked, which can not but rejoice.
Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (75.6 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
English: Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles
English SDH.
