Lifeforce

1/4/2016

Great sci-fi flick. The story is very good, and the production and the actors did a great job. I don't think this movie is outdated, just more campy and enjoyable. A must see sci-fi classic.

9/7/2018

The promise of 1980s, practical effects, and energy vampires with no clothes on is apparently all it takes to get me to watch a movie. _Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole._

5/4/2020

LIFEFORCE (1985) - By the mid '80s, Cannon Films was looking to move away from low-budget, disposable fare like HOSPITAL MASSACRE (1981) and BREAKIN' 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO (1984). Owners Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus had loftier ambitions: They wanted a blockbuster; a big-budget smash that they could call their own. To this end, they signed director Tobe Hooper to a three-picture deal and turned him loose with $25,000,000 and free reign to create the movie he wanted. Working with a stellar, mostly British cast (save token American star Steve Railsback, who apparently misplaced his charisma at Heathrow; and startlingly uninhibited French goddess Mathilda May); legendary composer Henry Mancini; and a screenplay co-written by the man who wrote ALIEN (1979), Hooper unleashed a wonderfully unwi

8/29/2022

Lifeforce is the best Dracula from Space movie I’ve ever seen. I haven’t seen that many, mind you, and Vampirella and Dracula 3000 sure as shit didn’t set that particular bar especially high; on the other hand, Lifeforce is better-looking than many sci-fi/fantasy films released as recently as this the year of Our Lord 2022, vis-a-vis practical, mechanical special effects versus CGI and motion capture visual effects (it doesn’t hurt Lifeforce either that there’s generous full-frontal female nudity courtesy of French uber-babe Mathilda May). The script is not without its share of silliness (consider this piece of dialogue: "Sir, we've found a naked girl in Hyde park. The body is in an indescribable condition" — but you just kind of described it, didn’t you? I mean, "a naked girl" is a re

8/10/2026

*Lifeforce* sounded like it should have been a blast—space vampires, Halley’s Comet, and an apocalyptic London—but I found it mostly loud, silly, and painfully uneven. The movie jumps between sci-fi, horror, disaster spectacle, and exploitation so abruptly that none of its ideas get enough room to work. There are a few impressive effects and some memorably bizarre images, but they cannot rescue the clunky dialogue, sluggish stretches, and performances that never make the story feel grounded. Instead of becoming the wild cult classic it clearly wants to be, *Lifeforce* felt like a confused mess with an expensive-looking shell. Its reputation for being brazenly strange yet uneven—and criticism of its slow pace—fits my experience exactly.