Lifeforce (1985)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

Lifeforce (1985) – T. Hooper

Tobe Hooper’s follow-up to Poltergeist (1982) requires more than your usual suspension of disbelief (to put it mildly) – this is bizarro cult fare that somehow manages to keep its plotline coherent (okay, more or less) all the way until the end.  We jump straight into the action in outer space where Steve Railsback and his crew are investigating a derelict ship orbiting Halley’s comet (now making a return near Earth). They discover some dead giant bats but also three perfectly preserved (and naked) humanoids in glass cases. The next thing we know the ship is splash-landing back on Earth with all of the crew dead, the escape pod missing, and the three humanoids still perfectly preserved.  When the military surgeon begins an autopsy on the female, she awakens, sucks the lifeforce out of him, and escapes naked into the space center (note: actress Mathilda May spends nearly the entire film stark naked). Soon Railsback returns and, together with colleague Peter Firth, spends the rest of the film tracking down May with whom he can telepathically communicate (even as she leaps to other bodies, including a later Star Trek icon). Turns out that sucking the lifeforce out of someone turns them into a kind of zombie space vampire and soon all of London is full of them (the story echoes both Stoker’s Dracula and any of the rampaging zombie films that preceded this one). The special effects seem quaint (and some of the animatronic zombies might give you nightmares: think Creepshow) – indeed, the film is from another era, unlikely to be seen again. Perhaps that’s a good thing? Perfect, if you want to get your delirium going.