Cult Movies 101: Lifeforce

Long before vampires sparkled when the light him them, horror filmmakers used the creatures of the night to tell inventive gory tales that were hard to shake.

“Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Poltergeist” director/horror master Tobe Hopper is no different. With his film “Lifeforce” it is a one-of-a-kind vampire story that although it is rough around the edges— offers a distinct take on the blood-sucking monsters.

With Shout Factory’s Blu Ray Collector’s Edition it elevates the vampire picture with a HD transfer approved by Tobe Hopper himself, some behind-the-scene goodies, and a much talked about Director’s Cut that’ll make any fan of the cult classic gush.

The film kicks off with a space expedition. Sent out to investigate Halley’s comet–an alien ship is uncovered. Once awoken, the aliens kill most of the crew leaving lone survivor (Steve Railsback). The aliens soon arrive on earth, the beautiful leader of this pack hypnotizes her victims with her looks before draining their life force—think Morbius the Living Vampire from Spider-Man. After the leader escapes captivity, it is up to the sole survivor to track her down and kill her before she takes over London.

Now, “Lifeforce” is not the greatest of horror films, but it is ambitious. The film’s opening space sequence is astounding— it keeps your eyes glued to the screen, as the space crew discovers a galactic evil. The world of “Lifeforce” has texture and uniqueness— this is also due in part to the way the vampires/aliens kill their victims.

Because the vampires are not your typical cape wearing stake through the heart creatures, it makes the film more unpredictable. Some poor pacing stifles this unpredictability. There are points in time where you just want things to move along and for a movie about one of film’s scariest monsters, “Lifeforce” is lacking in the scare department. The longer Hooper approved cut of the film does add a little more tidbits here and there, however, it is nothing that’ll completely change your perspective on the film.

Here’s where Shout Factory’s expertise come in— the HD transfer of the film is beautiful. It does not get much better than this, you can see the sweat drip off actors’ heads, it makes the opening scene that much more stunning. The Blu Ray also offers and great retrospective about what was the thought process when creating this widely ambitious vampire film.

The Collector’s Edition also packs an audio commentary from Hooper that is a welcome edition—the film does not succeed in every one of Hooper’s ambitions—it is good to hear where certain things in the film came from and the thought process that went into this sci-fi/horror epic.

The new retrospective for the Collector’s Edition is always nice, but a lot of things said overlap with other features, which makes watching some of them like listening to a broken Taylor Swift record.

All in all, “Lifeforce” has to be commended for its spacely ambition and world building. That opening scene is one that you cannot even blink during—it is trippy, magnetic and magical. This sets the bar high early and makes the rest of the film disappoint to the high standard set by it. Shout Factory does not disappoint with its gorgeous HD transfer and fans of the film will definitely need to pick this up—for people who haven’t seen the film just add it to your DVD queue on Netflix.  Or you can watch this over via Hulu, depending on which streaming service you’re comfortable with. Read this article from DailyWireless to learn more about its packages..