We take a timely look back at Lifeforce, an exceedingly strange comet-based sci-fi horror-thriller from 1985… Our ancestors probably would have thought we were completely mad.
Or in league with the devil for creating such advanced machinery in the first place.
Lifeforceis, in short, one of the most bonkers science fiction films yet seen from a major studio.
Its fair to say thatLifeforcedidnt have quite the mainstream impact of Hoopers supernatural thriller.
For one thing, there are the special effects, which range from the not-bad-for-the-time to the extremely good.
The Earth-based sequences are less precise, but equally enjoyable.
One of them even explodes in a shower of dust and body parts.
The gleeful abandon extends to the script, which was co-written by Dan OBannon.
This is also thanks to Tobe Hooper, of course.
Remember all those extraordinary light-bathed scenes fromPoltergeist?
What boggles the mind, even today, is how much money Cannon threw at the thing.
Those cash flow problems were due in no small part to weird ventures likeLifeforce.
And with good reason; theres so much to enjoy in it.
There really is no other film quite like it.
Only time will tell whether theyll find evidence of real space vampires.
Until then, well always haveLifeforce, one of the weirdest sci-fi films of the 80s.
