I’m a big sucker—pun most certainly intended—for vampire movies. I’ve always enjoyed the vampire mythos, and find them to be terrifyingly fascinating villains (or anti-heroes). The concept of immortality in a fallen, ever-changing world is itself a haunting prospect, one filled both with opportunity and, ultimately, hopelessness.
I also love science-fiction movies, notably those that take place in space. The sense of boundless adventure and the thrill of exploration combine with high-tech gobbledygook to make for some fun stories. Sci-fi, like horror, also has the ability to be among the best social commentary put to paper.
With 1985’s Lifeforce, those two genres are combined in a pleasing, memorable way. Indeed, the film is based on a novel called The Space Vampires, which gives the game away on the front cover. The vampires of the film and the novel are energy vampires, sucking the lifeforce from their victims, luring them in by shapeshifting into the guise of what the human victim most desires in a mate. In doing so, they turn their victims in ravenous husks who must feed on the energy of others to survive. If they don’t, they explode into a puff of dust and ash.
Lifeforce apparently did very poorly at the box office and with critics, but I found the film to be immensely entertaining. Again, it combines two of my favorite motifs—vampires and space exploration—into one package, but the space- and globe-trotting story was quite fun, too.
The film begins with the Anglo-American crew of The Churchill making an expedition to Halley’s Comet, which is making one of its once-in-a-lifetime passes near Earth. In the coma of the comet, the crew detect a massive, needle-shaped vessel with an umbrella-like aperture: an alien derelict floating in space. Inside the derelict they find three naked humans—two men and one woman—in clear, plastic coffins, whom they take aboard their ship. They also discover hundreds of desiccated corpses of a bat-like alien race.
When The Churchill returns to Earth, its entire crew is dead—save one survivor, Colonel Tom Carlsen. The three humanoid bodies are taken to a space research center in London for dissection. Before the autopsy on the woman-alien can begin, however, she wakes up, instantly seducing the orderly. When she kisses him, he quickly turns into a desiccated husk.
From there, a plague of vampirism spreads throughout London, with Carlsen eventually revealing what happened about The Churchill: the woman and the two men consumed everyone aboard, saving Tom due to his uncanny bond with and attraction to the woman. Carlsen and a military investigator jet helicopter all around London, finding that even the Prime Minister has become an energy-devouring husk when he consumes his secretary.
They find that the woman vampire alien has taken up in a cathedral in central London, where she is using as a transmitter for the lifeforce sucked from the thousands of the city’s victims. The cathedral acts as a conduit to send drained lifeforce to the ship, presumably to reawaken the bat aliens on board.
Like Viy, which I reviewed a few weeks ago, what I loved about Lifeforce were the creature effects. You don’t see the vampire-aliens in their bat form too frequently, but it’s quite terrifying. What the film does show—and it’s even more terrifying than the giant sentient shapeshifting bats—are plenty of desiccated people, drained down to nearly skeletal husks. The way these victims look when they’re on the verge of death is haunting—and sad.
In one memorable scene, the orderly that succumbed to the female vampire’s kiss finds himself locked behind a chain-link barrier. He has become so starved for lifeforce, he charges the group of scientists observing him. In doing so, he runs into the fence, immediately bursting into a cloud of dust and ash. What a way to go!
The film can drag a bit at points, and the frantic efforts to find the shapeshifting female vampire make the plot a bit convoluted sometimes, but it’s fun watching the characters desperately try to stop the spread of extraterrestrial vampirism throughout England. The final scenes in London, in which everyone is fleeing frantically from energy suckers, gives a sense for the chaos and terror the aliens have wrought.
In all, I very much enjoyed Lifeforce. It’s been several weeks since I have watched it—I’ve been sitting on this review for some time—but I’ve been excited to write about it. Sure, I can’t remember the names of most of the characters, but it’s not really that kind of movie. The characterization is secondary to the plot, which is all about attempting to thwart hyper-deadly space vampires.
Really, “hyper-deadly space vampires” is all you need to know!
The Portly Politico 
Thanks Tyler. I may give this one a look.
My favourite vampire movie is 30 Days of Night. I hear it has a terrible sequel but it didn’t need one, just as many great horror firsts didn’t need more. One of my favourite things about that film is the isolation. Not just the literal but the metaphorical absence. If you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I mean. If you haven’t, give it a watch.
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I will check it out, Pontiac! If I have seen it, I don’t recall, which means I probably have NOT seen it.
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I may have to wander around and see if I can find Lifeforce.
The title, Lifeforce, reminded me of Flatliners (the original with Keifer Sutherland and Julia Roberts). Don’t ask me what one has to do with other – it’s just the frightening way my mind works. LOL! Creepy, creepy movie and believable considering the age of the characters and their environment. Worth a look if you haven’t seen it.
Also – The Seventh Sign, with Demi Moore and Jurgen Prochnow (he’s awesome in this!). Very odd and disturbing. Is the Prochnow character the returning Jesus? Hmmm – you may want to watch the movie and figure it out.
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‘You seem to have vandered into bus-i-ness that doesn’t concern you. That vos a mistake.’ I can’t think of Jurgen Prochnow without my mind conjuring up that line (Beverley Hills Cop 2).
We watched a film a few years ago that had the same sort of unsettling isolation as 30 Days of Night, though vastly different. In Fear, I believe it was called, starring Allan Leech (Tom Branson from Downton fame). I do love a film that makes you feel as cut off and enclosed as the characters. If you watch a horror movie that doesn’t leave you with a distinct chill on the spine, it wasn’t worth it.
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Love your accent, lol!!! That was beautiful, lol.
The Silence. I was so deep in that movie, I found myself not making noise in the house. Hilarious! That’s another movie that just sort of wafts around your head until you realize you can’t see anything anymore. Shudder.
30 Days of Night sounds familiar – I’ll check it out.
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So many excellent recommendations today, Audre & Ponty! I’ll add _The Silence_ to the list.
Now I’m just waiting for Alys to come along, sighing aloofly at our peasant tastes for schlock ‘n’ shock, and pine wistfully for a bonnet-filled period piece. I actually WILL review one of those… just as soon as I watch one! But it’s October now, so it’s just spooky movies for the next few weeks.
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“If you watch a horror movie that doesn’t leave you with a distinct chill on the spine, it wasn’t worth it.” I very much agree, although I’ve watched quite a bit of schlock (which, I suppose, means I have wasted a great deal of time!).
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I will check out both flicks, Audre, if I can find them. _Lifeforce_ is on Shudder, but might be available on other streaming services, too.
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Just checked out The Silence and the premise sounds exactly like A Quiet Place, which was excellent.
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When I thought of the movie, I thought the title was Quiet, and looked it up to verify it was the same movie. I read the write-up on A Quiet Place and this is not that, as they say.
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You should definitely watch _A Quiet Place_ and its sequel—a rare example of a _good_ sequel to a horror film.
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Yeah, they seem similar in their premises.
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Port – “… (which, I suppose, means I have wasted a great deal of time!).” Think of it more as ‘honing your craft’. There! That sounds MUCH better, doesn’t it???
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Yes, I like that better! Or in parlance Ponty would appreciate, I’ve been gaining experience points (XP) watching low-level movies, haha.
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‘You should definitely watch _A Quiet Place_ and its sequel—a rare example of a _good_ sequel to a horror film.’
A Quiet Place 2 is not a sequel but a direct follow on from the first. A lot of people make that mistake but that’s a whole new discussion. A follow up would be part of a saga rather than a second film, different story with the same/similar characters which is a sequel.
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Yeah, good point. It really does pick up where the events of the first film leave off.
In that regard, wouldn’t _Halloween 2_ be considered a direct follow on, rather than a sequel?
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I agree. It’s like that with a lot of movies, classed as sequels rather than follow ons – much different. Season of the Witch, I wouldn’t class as anything. It didn’t belong to the Halloween category and was absolute pants.
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Yeah, I kind of enjoyed _Halloween III: Season of the Witch_ as its own movie, NOT as a _Halloween_ movie. It really should have just been called _Season of the Witch_.
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Port – this is MY favorite Season of the Witch – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU35oCHGhJ0
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Such a fun song. I listened to that while grading during last period planning.
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Are you familiar with Donovan?
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I’m familiar with that song, but not the artist himself.
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Two little songs I love and still remember the words (thank goodness for long -term memory, lol). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cGWTAe3M6U and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12JWq92fNR4.
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39! Laughing out loud! What in the world does this mean? “… was absolute pants.” There’s that ‘foreign’ English again, lol.
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[…] Monday Morning Movie Review: Lifeforce (1985) […]
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Thanks for the reblog! —TPP
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That’s a film that escaped me. I’m a fan of 80s science fiction horror and this was a film I always wanted to see. I did see a few reviews and knew of the basic story. From the few scenes I saw it does seem to have interesting visuals and the space theme makes it an interesting take on the vampire genre
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I definitely recommend checking it out. I really enjoyed it, but I also love this kind of schlock. The visuals are quite impressive, and the concept of space-faring, shapeshifting energy vampires is too good to pass up.
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