Very Cool!!!

Absolutely Brilliant!

The movie is wildly uneven but lively and timely - in its own surreal way

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Nigel Kneale's second Quatermass serial is an exciting and fast-moving affair, in which Professor Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) discovers an alien conspiracy at the heart of the British Government. Strange meteors have been arriving from space in unusually large numbers, and our good Rocket Engineer soon discovers they have something inside...The plot has already been recounted very well by other contributors here, so I won't add anything further other than to say Kneale and Director Val Guest superbly condense the t.v. original into a tense and compelling 85 minutes. Donlevy is slightly better this time around then he was in the first movie, and UK viewers can enjoy the sight of Sid James and William Franklyn amongst the cast. Franklyn's character in Dracula A.D. 1972 dies in exactly the same way as he does here!The story, of course, has a slight resemblance to Invasion of The Bodysnatchers; but this appears to be a case of parallel development rather than any borrowing. Kneale's work is often concerned with dehumanisation, and never more so than here. The monsters at the end are a bit comical, and Kneale and Guest probably wisely omitted the outer space sequence from the original t.v. show - Hammer's special effects (and budget) would have struggled to depict this convincingly.Although Hammer would wait a decade to film the third Kneale Quatermass opus, in many ways the best was yet to come...

In 1957 1 shilling and 9 pence was the price of one of the better seats in a cinema. I was too young to be allowed to see the film at the time of its release and the recent screening on BBC 2 is the first time I've seen it - 50+ years after its release - perhaps the first time it has been screened on British television? Its high rating of 7 and many enthusiastic reviews from the US confirm that it is an important British film of the time with a wide - and lasting - appeal.The opening is something of a teaser but the pace flags somewhat after that for the first 10 minutes or so then with the revelation of the unlimited seriousness of the problem, the pace gets faster and faster and film more and more gripping.Not as polished as "Invasion of the Body-Snatchers" but Nigel Kneale's creative ideas and screenplay ensure, not first time, that even nearly 60 years on this is still a rocket ride.

The Quatermass Xperiment had been a major success for Hammer upon its release in 1955, becoming the company's biggest grossing film up to that time. Moving quickly to capitalise, Hammer Film Productions put together the elements for the sequel, Quatermass 2 (AKA Enemy From Space). Val Guest once again directs and co writes with Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale, Brian Donlevy returns as the irrepressible professor Quatermass, James Bernard scores and Anthony Hinds is again on production duties. Joining Donlevy in the cast are John Longden, Sid James, Bryan Forbes, William Franklyn & Vera Day. The plot sees Quatermass investigating meteorites that have been falling at Winnerden Flats. Whilst up in the Winnerden Valley, Quatermass and his colleague, Marsh, discover a huge power plant complex that looks suspiciously like the model Quatermass has been working on as part of a potential colonisation of the Moon. When Marsh is burnt by one of the meteorites, guards appear from nowhere and take him away down in the valley. Just what is going on at this strange plant? Quartermass intends to find out, but Winnerden has many secrets, secrets that could spell doom for mankind.A sequel that is at least the equal of its predecessor, Quatermass 2 deals in politico paranoia and chilly alien invasion hysteria. Similar to Don Siegel's excellent Invasion Of The Body Snatchers from the previous year, the film doesn't rely on shlonky shocks to make its heart beat. There's much sci-fi discussion and jobs-worth like characters that are easy to follow, but all serve a purpose as Winnerden's secret starts to show its cards. As Quatermass' trail leads to the higher echelons of power, the paranoiac feel of the piece really kicks in, with the mood greatly enhanced by Gerald Gibbs' monochrome photography and Guest's imaginative use of hand held cameras for certain scenes. The effects work is clever and does its job, while the cast work hard to make the effective story work. Tho the film made good money it was overshadowed by the huge success of Hammer's release of The Curse Of Frankenstein the same year, while the film wasn't given much promotional help from Kneale who was very critical of the finished product. With much of his scorn directed towards Donlevy who he always felt was wrong for the role of the intrepid boffin. With that in mind, it's perhaps unsurprising to find the film still today is very divisive among critics and sci-fi fans alike. So you take your chance then. Personally I think it's one of the best sci-fi movies to have come out of Britian. As was the first film, and as was Quatermass And The Pit from 1967. Pretty great trilogy actually. 8/10

Just like its predecessor, this is a movie that surprises within its genre. '50's science-fiction/horror wasn't exactly known for its class or greatness but some of the exception from the '50's to this were also some great classic ones at the same time. Just think about "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "The Thing From Another World" for instance. What those movies all did was taking its genre serious and approach it from a scientific and also more classic horror approach. So instead of having straight forward monsters we have an actual build-up, with solid written story and characters to like and feel for."Quatermass 2" is also a movie that approaches the genre with some more class than many of its fellow genre pieces from the same time period. It's a movie that mostly relies on its mysterious build up and eerie atmosphere. It has some great moments in, though it also is being quite ridicules at times. But this also has to do with the fact that of course by todays standards the '50's science-fiction flicks look all so terribly outdated now days.It's an Hammer film from the period that the Hammer studios were not only solely known for its horror productions. The movie also does have some of the, what later would be, typical Hammer film moments in it. Basically Hammer films were all some early exploitation flicks but in its beginning period it still showed some more class and also had some obviously more serious intentions still with its movies.The acting in the movie is really great. Brian Donlevy reprises his Dr. Quatermass role again and he was great to watch again. The role of Lomax is this time being played by John Longden, who also did a real great job.It's a good looking movie with its atmosphere. The movie is shot in black & white, which enhances the mystery and also tension of the entire movie. It's a movie that really is build on its atmosphere and mystery. It does use some special effects but it does this to a minimum. It's really not the type of science-fiction movie you would expect from one that got made during the '50's.Just like its predecessor, a great little '50's gem.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/