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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - June 21st

"LIFEFORCE" released in 1985

What if vampires weren't the stereotypical blood-sucking costumed creatures with their own creepy castle in the Carpathian mountains that can change into bats, but were rather the remnants of a race of intergalactic vampires (who can also turn into bats!) who feed on "energy" - not blood - who have been exiled in their ship in outer space, by occasionally travel to Earth to feed? With that, we give you Lifeforce!

Watch the Lifeforce trailer!

Check out our video supplemental at the bottom of today's blog 

for more clips and behind the scenes videos!

When the crew of the space shuttle Churchill, a joint American/European space mission, encounter a 150-mile long spaceship hidden in the corona of Halley's Comet, a team led by mission commander Colonel Tom Carlsen (Steve Railsback) investigate. Inside they find hundreds of dead, shrivelled bat-like creatures - and three naked humanoid bodies encased in a glass suspended animation container. They return to the Churchill with the bodies and one of the dead creatures, and subsequently mission control loses all contact with the ship. A rescue shuttle docks with the Churchill to find most of the crew dead and humanoids still in their capsules, which they return to earth to be studied by Dr. Leonard Bukovski (Michael Gothard) and Dr. Hans Fallada (Finlay Frank Finlay). Once there, the Female Vampire (Mathilda May) and her two mates (Chris Jagger and Bill Malin) awaken and escape, draining the "life force" out of the guards, thus turning them into space vampires themselves. SAS Col. Colin Caine (Peter Firth) teams with Carlsen (who has been found in his escape pod) to hunt them down and destroy them, before they unleash an apocalypse down on London!

Originally titled Space Vampires, based on the 1976 novel of the same name by Colin Wilson, legendary schlock movie producers Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan disliked the title as it sounded too much like another of Cannon Films typical low budget exploitation films. As a result, the title was changed to Lifeforce, referring to the spiritual energy the space vampires drain from their victims. Directed by Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist)  in the first of his three picture deal with Cannon (the remaining films to be Invaders from Mars (1986) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)), Lifeforce was adapted by Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby, changing the time setting from the mid-21st century to the present day and the alien being discovered in an asteroid belt to being hidden in the tail of Halley's Comet; the comet itself was due to pass Earth the following year. 

Joining Railsback, Firth, May, and Finlay was a mostly British cast including, Patrick Stewart (as Dr. Armstrong), Nicholas Ball (Roger Derebridge), and Aubrey Morris playing Sir Percy Heseltine. Providing the visual effects was legendary Academy Award winner John Dykstra, with another Academy Award winner, Henry Mancini, composing the score. The initial cut of Lifeforce as edited by Tobe Hooper was 128 mins long, and subsequently most of the footage aboard the Churchill was cut to get the time down to an acceptable 116 mins. 

Despite Lifeforce receiving mixed to decent reviews from critics, it performed negatively at the box office - as did most Cannon films of the 1980's.  Michael Wilmington in the New York Times said the movie was "such a peculiar movie that it's difficult to get a handle on it.", while Leonard Maltin had no such problem, calling the film "completely crazy," and said it was "ridiculous, but so bizarre, it's fascinating." Mathilda May's performance was perhaps the most memorable of the entire film, maybe because for the entire 7 mins of screen-time May had she was completely naked!

With so much talent onscreen and behind the scenes, it is a pity Lifeforce was not as appreciated as it maybe should have been. Thankfully, like so many movies before it, Lifeforce found a larger audience and success once it was released on laserdisc in 1994, and DVD/Bluray in 2013. 

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:    Not Available

Lifeforce - Video Supplemental

Clip - Space Girl Escapes

The Making of "Lifeforce"