I Watch Films: Quatermass II

 

Quatermass 2

Professor Quatermass is working on an atomic rocket they'll use to build a moon colony. When his radar picks up an unusual meteorite storm in Winnerden Flats he goes to investigate. His companion picks one up, there is a puff of gas and a strange V mark appears on him. Then guards come and arrest him.

Trying to find out what’s going on, Quatermass’s police inspector friend (see The Quatermass Xperiment) puts him in contact with an MP who is going on a fact-finding mission. It’s supposed to be an artificial food making plant, but they’ve spent millions and not reported anything. Filmed at an oil refinery, the enormous, deserted buildings and machines offer an eerie alien landscape.

As ever with Quatermass, anything that comes from outer space is dangerous, wanting to take control of humans. In fact they already have control of portions of the government, as the police inspector discovers, noticing the commissioner has the v-shaped mark.

Watch This: For a cool, paranoid 1950s science fiction horror film
Don’t Watch This: It’s very gloomy, in tone, plot, theme and on screen
More Quatermass: The Quatermass Xperiment, Quatermass And The Pit, Quatermass