Hammer was as much a brand name as it was a studio, its output distinguished by a uniform attention to style, atmosphere, and high drama influenced by the more 'serious' melodramas of the day. Though its mark would truly be made with its color horror movies like Horror of Dracula and Curse of the Werewolf, The Quatermass Experiment displays everything that the studio would become known for, so it's kind of curious that the studio is releasing it as a stand-alone film, rather than as part of a set the way Val Lewton's classics were. It certainly deserves more fanfare than this.
A rocket returns to Earth carrying only one astronaut (Richard Wordsworth); it had left carrying three. Quatermass (Brian Donlevy), the scientist behind the whole experiment, immediately quarantines the man, who is barely able to speak and generally odd and distant in his behavior. The authorities suspect that he may have murdered his companions, but Quatermass is more intrigued by other anomalies, such as the way the man's fingerprints take on new form, and the way his flesh changes shape in a rapid and frightening way. Soon, it becomes clear to everyone that isn't a total idiot that what they're dealing with isn't a man, but a monster, come to Earth with an appetite for anything that crosses its path.
The budget limitations of the early Hammer pictures are clear here, with the monster, when revealed, seen from something of a distance, and many of the sets looking less distinct and ornate than they would later become. But the high art sensibility that insists even the most ridiculous proceedings be treated with the dignity one would afford a chamber room melodrama is very much here, particularly in the performance of Donlevy as Quatermass. Hammer has a rich enough library, and a colorful enough aesthetic, that one would have hoped that this would have been released as part of a box set, along with Quatermass and the Pit, and a few other of their early efforts, and a little more in the way of extras. As is, it feels like scant treatment for a film and an era with so much to offer.
BONUS FEATURES
The trailer is included.
"The Quatermass Xperiment" is on sale October 25, 2011 and is not rated. Sci-Fi. Directed by Val Guest. Written by Richard H. Landau, Val Guest. Starring Brian Donlevy, Richard Wordsworth, Jack Warner, Margia Dean.
