Tobe Hooper’s LIFEFORCE (1985) Turns 40: Nude Space Vampires & The Apocalypse!!

LIFEFORCE (1985) d. Tobe Hooper (USA/UK)

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Based on Colin Wilson’s novel, The Space Vampires, a team of astronauts encounter a ship lodged within the head of Halley’s Comet and discover three impossibly beautiful humanoid creatures, two male, one female, encased in coffin-like crystalline blocks. And, as any genre film fan can predict, as soon as they get these strange creatures back to earth, blocks are going to crack and heads are going to roll.

Working with a spirited screenplay by Dan O’Bannon (Alien, Return of the Living Dead) and fellow sci-fi vet Don Jakoby (Arachnophobia, John Carpenter's Vampires), Hooper does a fine job keeping the action moving as U.S. astronaut Steve Railsback and SIS agent Peter Firth attempt to track down and contain the interstellar menace. The insane scenes of panic and mayhem as the population of greater London is bled dry of their precious electrical blue fizzies and zombified are great fun, as is watching a young Patrick Stewart strut his stuff as a histrionic asylum official.

But, for a good many viewers, regardless of age or sexual orientation, Lifeforce’s primary appeal lies in the glory that is French ballet dancer Mathilda May’s stunning Vampire Girl. At a time when female nudity was employed in an exploitative and often sleazy manner, May transcends being a mere dazzling bit of eye candy, projecting a genuinely otherworldly and alien presence through her physical, and mostly nonverbal, performance.

With grand and gorgeous production design and Nick Maley's terrific makeup effects and animatronics dancing in step with Hooper’s unique vision and O’Bannon and Jakoby’s cheeky, chatty and occasionally campy twist to classic vampire mythos, Lifeforce is a film like no other, both a product of its time and a timeless cult classic.

Join AC and his awesome panel of guests (Fraser Coffeen, Cati Glidewell, John Kenneth Muir, Ryan Olson) as we celebrate 40 years of LIFEFORCE!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVmbHT2tuws

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