Quatermass Experiment (1955)

Critic Reviews

Kim Newman, Empire Magazine
A number of decent performances and a gritty realistic view of London makes this little sci-fi spin-off still worth a look.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
This film featuring the super-scientist Quatermass was Hammer's first international hit and moved the studio to do films in the sci-fi and horror genres.
, Time Out
It was the enormous success of this Hammer version of Nigel Kneale's TV series which began the whole horror boom in Britain.
Gregory Weinkauf, New Times
Yeah! Quatermass! Yeah!
Ali Catterall, Film4
A thoughtful, hard-hitting, and bizarrely touching landmark of the sci-fi genre, endlessly referenced and recycled in subsequent film and TV.
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
One of the few truly great sci-fi films.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
This shoestring budget sci-fier began the craze in Great Britain for the modern horror film.

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Michael G

The Quatermass Xperiment doesn't quite live up to all the hype as the granddaddy of Hammer Horror. Some parts were legitimately creepy (the cockpit film was disturbing in a last 2 minutes of Blair Witch Project kind of way) and the last 15 minutes were magnificently photographed… More
The Quatermass Xperiment doesn't quite live up to all the hype as the granddaddy of Hammer Horror. Some parts were legitimately creepy (the cockpit film was disturbing in a last 2 minutes of Blair Witch Project kind of way) and the last 15 minutes were magnificently photographed -- like Third Man magnificently photographed (especially the nighttime zoo scene.) Thse praises aside, all you're really looking at is a lot of running around, some great-looking corpses and a brief but final shot of a really cool-looking creature. It's definitely worth a watch, but not necessarily worth all the trouble of getting a hard-to-acquire copy.