The green blood of demons
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The green blood of demons |
| Original title | Quatermass and the Pit |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1967 |
| length | 98 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Roy Ward Baker |
| script | Nigel Kneale |
| production | Anthony Nelson-Keys |
| music | Tristram Cary |
| camera | Arthur Grant |
| cut |
James Needs Spencer Reeve |
| occupation | |
| |
The green blood of demons (original title: Quatermass and the Pit , alternative title in the USA: Five Million Years to Earth ) is a British science fiction film from 1967. After shock (1955) and enemies out of nowhere (1957 ) this is the third part of the Quatermass trilogy by the Hammer film company . Nigel Kneale wrote the script as described for the same name, in 1958, launched BBC - TV series , directed by Roy Ward Baker .
Five million year old remains of an unknown early human race and a spaceship are found during construction work on the London Underground network . Professor Quatermass and a team of scientists discover that the spaceship still poses an acute danger.
action
During excavations for the London Underground , skeletons of an unknown early human race are found. The paleontologist Roney, who was consulted, estimates the age of the finds at five million years. During further excavations, the workers come across an object that is initially mistaken for a dud from the Second World War . Instead of the expected bomb, a unit of the military exposes an unknown flying object and notifies Colonel Breen and Professor Quatermass from the state space agency. Another early human skeleton is discovered in a cavity in the missile, which means that the age of the flight object can also be estimated at five million years. Quatermass believes the find is a spaceship, while Breen suspects an unknown secret weapon from the Third Reich .
After several unsuccessful attempts to penetrate the object's shell, a partition opens and reveals a group of rapidly decaying, locust-like creatures. Roney's team and Quatermass come to the conclusion after an investigation that the missile and the beings in it come from Mars . At the same time they notice the similarity of the creatures to old depictions of the devil . Research in old chronicles shows that demonic apparitions have repeatedly been reported around the site. Sladden, a worker involved in the excavation, suddenly develops destructive telekinetic powers. Afterwards he reports to have seen hordes of the creatures found in the spaceship. Quatermass suspects a memory image from the collective unconscious . With the help of an apparatus developed by Roney's team that can record visual impressions buried in the human psyche , Quatermass and Roney want to bring more of these subconscious images to light. At the excavation site, first Quatermass, then Roney's assistant, Barbara Judd, who is more receptive to telepathic signals, are connected to the apparatus.
Quatermass shows Colonel Green and representatives from politics the images that Roney's machine recorded in the memories of his assistant. These show hordes of locust-like creatures fighting and killing each other. Quatermass and Roney are convinced that the Martians, when their world died, abandoned " highly bred " early humans on earth in order to preserve part of their genetic heritage. Your theory is brusquely rejected by the rest of the audience. Despite the warning from the scientists, a press conference is scheduled for the evening at the excavation site.
High-ranking politicians, Colonel Breen, Roney, his assistant Barbara and Quatermass are at the evening press conference. In addition to the numerous press represented, a camera team is also present for a live broadcast. A technician is accidentally killed by a high voltage shock. The spaceship begins to send out a telepathic signal that plunges the people in the area into headless panic or turns them into indiscriminate killers. The force field grows in strength, and finally an oversized, devil-like Martian face rises over London. Roney is convinced that the extraterrestrial energy can be diverted into the ground and steers the arm of a construction crane into the appearance . This disappears with a huge electrical discharge, Roney is killed. Quatermass and Barbara stand in the ruins of a devastated city.
background
The Green Blood of Demons was the first film in the series to be shot in color. One of the themes in Nigel Kneale's script is the influence of extraterrestrial intelligence on human, or more precisely, human evolution that is controlled and facilitated by extraterrestrial intervention . How say Phil Hardy and Michael Weldon, this topic is also where a year later published in 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick treated.
The green blood of the demons opened in British cinemas on November 9, 1967 and in German cinemas on February 8, 1968 . While the film was approved by the FSK for ages 16 and over in Germany , the film received an “X” (absolute youth ban) from the British censorship authority BBFC in its country of origin, Great Britain . In later years, the UK age rating was lowered to 15, then 12.
In the USA , The Green Blood of Demons was launched in the spring of 1968 under the title Five Million Years to Earth . This practice was already in shock! and enemies from nowhere been applied: The Quatermass Xperiment became The Creeping Unknown renamed, Quatermass 2 to Enemy From Space .
In 1980 a fourth Quatermass film was released, The Quatermass Conclusion (alternatively Quatermass IV ). This was a cut from a four-part TV series with the simple title Quatermass , which was broadcast in October 1979 on the British broadcaster ITV . The series was produced by Thames Television, the screenplay was again written by Nigel Kneale and directed by Piers Haggard.
Reviews
“Good actors, great twists in the script, full of suspense, and a nice example of what can be gotten out of a low budget. [ The green blood of the demons is] superior to the previous Quatermass films. "
"The third and most interesting of Nigel Kneale's Quatermass parables [...] an allusive network of occult, anthropological, religious and extraterrestrial speculations."
"The best of the series and one of the better science fiction films ever."
"[The film] lacks the intensity of enemies out of nowhere [...] Baker's staging is limp [...] Nonetheless, some of the sequences are impressive."
"Carefully staged, quite exciting mixture of utopia and horror, which ties in with two earlier Quatermass adventures (cf. shock or enemies from nowhere ), but whose specific kind of trivial entertainment does not know how to revive."
“Notable B-movie about extraterrestrials in modern London; subtle, exciting entertainment. "
DVD publications
The green blood of the demons is currently available under the original title Quatermass and the Pit as a British Blu-ray and DVD from Optimum / Studio Canal. The older American (Anchor Bay) and German DVD releases (EMS) are no longer available.
Web links
- Quatermass and the Pit in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- List of film music releases on Soundtrackcollector.com
- Hans Schmid: We are the Martians Article on Heise.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Phil Hardy (ed.), The Aurum Film Encyclopedia - Science Fiction , Aurum Press, London 1991.
- ↑ Michael Weldon: The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film , Plexus, London 1989.
- ↑ a b The green blood of the demons in the Internet Movie Database .
- ↑ a b The green blood of demons in the lexicon of international films
- ↑ The green blood of the demons on the British Board of Film Classification
- ↑ On February 16, 1968 according to the Internet Movie Database, on March 27, 1968 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. according to the directory of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences .
- ^ "Good cast, great story complications, and suspense in fine example of what can be done on meager budget. […] Superior to the earlier Quatermass films […]. "- Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide , Signet / New American Library, New York 2007.
- ↑ "The third and most interesting of Nigel Kneale's Quatermass parables [...] richly allusive web of occult, anthropological, religious and extraterrestraial speculation [...]." - Time Out Film Guide, Seventh Edition 1999 , Penguin, London 1998.
- ^ "[...] the best of the series and one of the better science-fiction movies ever made." - Michael Weldon: The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film , Plexus, London 1989.
- ↑ "[...] it lacks the intensity of Quatermass II [...] Baker's direction is limp [...] Nonetheless, some of the individual sequences are impressive [...]." - Phil Hardy (Ed.), The Aurum Film Encyclopedia - Science Fiction , Aurum Press, London 1991.
- ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon "Films on TV" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 330.
