Professor Quatermass is convinced that a strange indestructible object, discovered buried beneath a London tube station, is a spacecraft, and that the dead arthropods found within are the remains of an ancient Martian civilisation that intended to colonise Earth. His theories are scoffed at by the military (when will they ever learn?), who claim that the whole thing is a wartime hoax perpetrated by the Nazis. But when the object begins to have strange psychic effects on the people in its vicinity, it becomes apparent that the Professor was right all alongand the Martian colonisation of Earth is finally about to begin.
A slight departure for Hammer studios, who are better known for their Gothic horror films, Quatermass and the Pit is an 'intelligent' piece of sci-fi (no laser guns or droids in this one, folks) that raises several interesting questions about the origins of mankind and religion.
Unfortunately, it is also a rather flawed effort which suffers from a dreadfully slow pace, a couple of very chuckle-some moments (including one memorably silly scene in which scientists use a daft piece of hardware to record a person's thoughtswith hilarious results), and a protagonist who is able to make some amazingly astute deductions based on the flimsiest of evidence.
Director Roy Ward Baker admittedly manages to create quite a bit of atmosphere at times, his sets are fairly impressive, and the cast does a fine job keeping a straight face during some of the more ridiculous moments, but Quatermass and the Pit is a long way from being the unmissable classic that many claim it to be.
A slight departure for Hammer studios, who are better known for their Gothic horror films, Quatermass and the Pit is an 'intelligent' piece of sci-fi (no laser guns or droids in this one, folks) that raises several interesting questions about the origins of mankind and religion.
Unfortunately, it is also a rather flawed effort which suffers from a dreadfully slow pace, a couple of very chuckle-some moments (including one memorably silly scene in which scientists use a daft piece of hardware to record a person's thoughtswith hilarious results), and a protagonist who is able to make some amazingly astute deductions based on the flimsiest of evidence.
Director Roy Ward Baker admittedly manages to create quite a bit of atmosphere at times, his sets are fairly impressive, and the cast does a fine job keeping a straight face during some of the more ridiculous moments, but Quatermass and the Pit is a long way from being the unmissable classic that many claim it to be.