Quatermass and the Pit (1967)

Director: Roy Ward Baker

Starring: James Donald, Andrew Keir, Barbara Shelley, Julian Glover, Duncan Lamont, Bryan Marshall

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Force more powerful than 1,000 H-Bombs unleashed to devastate earth! World in panic! Cities in flames!

Plot: Workers excavating at an underground station in London uncover the skeletal remains of ancient apes with large skulls. Further digging reveals what is at first believed to be an unexploded German bomb from World War II. Missile expert Colonel Breen is brought in to investigate, accompanied by Professor Bernard Quartermass. When the interior of the "missile" is exposed, a dead locust-like creature that resembles the devil is found. It is determined by Quartermass that these "locusts" are evil Martians who altered the brains of our simian ancestors to eventually lay claim to the Earth. When Quartermass's suspicion that the missile can reactivate the dormant evil in humans is confirmed, all hell breaks loose.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Probably not. Once was fine.

#35 on Hammer Horror (1957-1976)

The Quatermass stories began on British TV in the 50s. Hammer Studios picked up the ball and ran with the first of their three theatrical films, THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (1955). They had a huge hit so two years later it was QUATERMASS II (1957). It had quite the catchy title. It took another ten years before this third film was released. All three films are good sci-fi. They're not heavy on action (that's Hammer for you) but they all have really good ideas, great atmosphere, acting, music, VERY cool looking space ship and so on. It's nice to have Andrew Keir in the titular role instead of the American, Donlevy - a MAJOR improvement. It's also nice having James Donaldson and Barbara Shelley. It's a very well paced, slow build to the final 25 minutes where it goes off the charts with on long shit-hits-the-fan sequence. I liked it. I wanted to love it, but I liked it.