I first watched this film as part of my big "zombie kick" started by DAWN OF THE DEAD when I was a teenager maybe 12 years ago and didn't much care for it. As a zombie film I found LIFEFORCE to be immensely disappointing with very little of what I considered real zombie action. Don't get me wrong, there's lots of mayhem and chaos in the final reel, but the zombies run around fast and are in the gray area where they're almost more vampires than zombies. It's just too bizarre and sloppy if you go in expecting a Romero-style straight-forward action horror romp.
Seeing the film as an adult, I can find a lot of new things to appreciate. For one, the cast is fantastic with Steve Railsback in full-on goofball mode only hinted at in his earlier starring roles in STUNT MAN and TURKEY SHOOT. Solid British performers Patrick Stewart, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, and John Hallam all pop by in strong supporting roles, with relative unknown Firth pretty much replacing Railsback as hero slowly but surely as the film progresses. The special effects are excellent beyond their years and should be in bold font on John Dykstra's CV. Add to that it's got a lot of imagination and energy which you just don't see in too many scifi/horror movies... and there's just the right balance with gore and unpleasantness to keep it shocking yet not grating.
LIFEFORCE is not necessarily a good film, but at least it stays entertaining. What it fails to do is really present a narrative in a way that feels like it makes proper sense. For one thing, the movie makes the odd decision about halfway through to send the two protagonists to an insane asylum where they inexplicably spend the next 20 minutes of movie. Suddenly out of nowhere we're plunged back into our main plot with London being overrun with zombies. It's like the movie just took a time-out to up the weirdness factor rather than sticking to its guns.
Of the Cannon Group's many offerings this really sticks out like a sore thumb - a film of such ambition never to be attempted by them again.
On a final note - LIFEFORCE is well worth watching if nothing else for the excellent use of late 70's / early 80's British "Lightning Strike" sound effects as heard in the pilot for "Space: 1999" and FLASH GORDON. ZZZ-ZZZ-Zakorr!!
Seeing the film as an adult, I can find a lot of new things to appreciate. For one, the cast is fantastic with Steve Railsback in full-on goofball mode only hinted at in his earlier starring roles in STUNT MAN and TURKEY SHOOT. Solid British performers Patrick Stewart, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, and John Hallam all pop by in strong supporting roles, with relative unknown Firth pretty much replacing Railsback as hero slowly but surely as the film progresses. The special effects are excellent beyond their years and should be in bold font on John Dykstra's CV. Add to that it's got a lot of imagination and energy which you just don't see in too many scifi/horror movies... and there's just the right balance with gore and unpleasantness to keep it shocking yet not grating.
LIFEFORCE is not necessarily a good film, but at least it stays entertaining. What it fails to do is really present a narrative in a way that feels like it makes proper sense. For one thing, the movie makes the odd decision about halfway through to send the two protagonists to an insane asylum where they inexplicably spend the next 20 minutes of movie. Suddenly out of nowhere we're plunged back into our main plot with London being overrun with zombies. It's like the movie just took a time-out to up the weirdness factor rather than sticking to its guns.
Of the Cannon Group's many offerings this really sticks out like a sore thumb - a film of such ambition never to be attempted by them again.
On a final note - LIFEFORCE is well worth watching if nothing else for the excellent use of late 70's / early 80's British "Lightning Strike" sound effects as heard in the pilot for "Space: 1999" and FLASH GORDON. ZZZ-ZZZ-Zakorr!!