Made in Britain £7
Enjoying cult status, this masterpiece from Hammer grew out of a vastly popular BBC television series. When the remains of a Martian spaceship are excavated during work on an Underground station, Professor Quatermass realises that the development of the human race was influenced by these early visitors. During his investigations Quatermass observes energy coming from the hull, and the malign effect it has on those within range, and he realises that he must act quickly to destroy this threat before it destroys mankind.
Allegedly the budget for this, in 1967, was £250! Ridley Scott could (and probably did) learn a thing or two from this film! Writing in The Times, John Russell Taylor found that, “After a slowish beginning…things really start hopping when a mysterious missile-like object discovered in a London excavation proves to be a relic of a prehistoric Martian attempt (successful. it would seem) to colonize Earth […] The development of this situation is scrupulously worked out and the film is genuinely gripping even when (a real test this) the Power of Evil is finally shown personified in hazy glowing outline, a spectacle as a rule more likely to provoke titters than gasps of horror.”
