Starring Brian Donlevy, John Longden, Sid James, Bryan Forbes, William Franklyn, Vera Day, Tom Chatto, Percy Herbert and Michael Ripper. Written by Nigel Kneale and Val Guest, directed by Val Guest for Hammer Films.

Known as ENEMY FROM SPACE in the US, this film adaptation of the BBC sci-fi-horror television serial sees the brusque, no-nonsense Professor Bernard Quatermass (Donlevy) uncovering the fact that a UK industrial plant at Winnerden Flats, which claims it is manufacturing synthetic food, is actually an acclimatisation bridgehead for an alien invasion.

Hammer’s second Quatermass film features humans being taken over by micro aliens that leave v-shaped entry scars on their victims, CARRY ON movies regular Sid James getting machine-gunned, and a finale where the mass of micro aliens become huge blob monsters! These practical effects gunge-things only appear during the finale and are really quite effective as they squirm and wobble in our atmosphere.

The scene that always sticks in my mind is the moment the protagonists realise the oxygen pipe feeding into the alien dome has been blocked by pulped human beings! This is not shown, but just the idea of the aliens doing this to the people shocked my young brain when I first watched the film as a kid. Another effective sequence involves a member of parliament, Vincent Broadhead (Chatto), sneaking a look at the ‘food’ in one of the domes, which results in him getting burned by the stuff and staggering down metal steps, covered in black, smoking, corrosive slime.

The industrial plant location is utilised well by director Val Guest. It was a real oil refinery at Shell Haven in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, on the Thames Estuary (and it had been used previously as the location for the Winnerden Flats alien complex in the BBC serial too). The grim and overcast cinematography of director of photography Gerald Gibbs, and matte paintings courtesy of special effects designer Les Bowie (used to add the giant incubation domes to the complex), all combine to make the place a believable, forbidding central location, adding immeasurably to the enjoyment of the film.

The movie nicely creates a feeling of slow-building tension as Quatermass and others realise that the aliens have already started to take over various officials in positions of power, imbuing the film with INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS vibes, though QUATERMASS 2 is definitely not a retread of that story, remaining a production that is most definitely full of the kind of intriguing plotting you expect from a Nigel Kneale script.

Here are some posters for the movie…