Quatermass and the Pit (1967)

People are voting emotionally.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

A construction crew at a London subway dig discovers strange skeletons. Later, a suspected bomb is found but it's unlike anything seen before. Professor Bernard Quatermass joins Colonel Breen to investigate. Soon, it's obvious that there is nothing earthly about the finds. Quatermass has a theory on the origins of the spacecraft and humanity itself.Hammer Film is more known for its B-horrors. They stretched out to make B-sci-fi. The first half is relatively pedestrian until they dig up the slightly-comical creepy insects. They are some creepy rubber insectoids. When the movie finally gets to the action, it's obviously missing an insect invasion. It becomes a convoluted sci-fi theory of an insect invasion of another kind. This is good drive-in fodder.

FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH is what I call a "Sci-Fi Shocker." Part Shocker (in the Fright Film sense) and part Science Fiction, it begins with the discovery of an ancient artifact in a London subway system. Said artifact just happens to be located in Hobbs End (Shades of John Carpenter's IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS!), where, legend has it, Strange Things have been going on for so long that the area is said to be Haunted. This "combination of genres," if you will, has always been one of the things that made FIVE MILLIONS YEARS TO EARTH stand out in my mind: two genres for the price of one- and the ghostly images of the Aliens themselves (Shades of John Carpenter's PRINCE OF DARKNESS!) remain as eerie Today as the day they were unearthed.

"5 Million Years to earth" - AKA "Quatermass and the Pit" (1967)This is the cream of old school Sci-Fi flicks. I gave it a rating of 10. It has flaws, but it is the best Science Fiction movie of it's time. The film has an interesting and original plot that is a clever mix of sci-fi with history, and is very well written. The acting is excellent. It has excellent special effects, considering that it was made nearly 50 years ago, which means the effects occasionally look a bit cheesy to the modern eye. I have heard Duncan Lamont's performance as Sladen unfairly criticized as forced and uneven. They are referring to the scene where Sladen has sought refuge in a church and is being questioned there by Quatermass. Sladen has seen things that have left him teetering on the brink of insanity, and Lamont gives a frightening portrayal of someone so terrified he drifts in and out of reality. The problems with the scene are with the direction and editing, not the acting.I've only seen it on DVD under the title "Quatermass and the Pit". Released in the USA as "5 Million Years to Earth". Until recently, it was rare and expensive on DVD, but is more reasonable now. CAUTION: There are several versions. Make sure to get the 1967 version with James Donald, Andrew Keir, and Barbara Shelley.The 1958 BBC TV series, available on DVD, is much longer but, in my opinion, not better, except in spots. - Paul

An extreme amount of explication goes into this Roy Ward Baker classic at the cost of any real thrills or scares. During the expansion of a tube station, diggers uncover a rocket-ship. Soon professor Andrew Keir and scientist James Donald are on the scene and come to the conclusion that it's the remnants of a martian aircraft that landed millions of years ago. Much of their other theorizing involves martians mating with monkeys and other such horrors. Although this is likely the most cerebral Hammer film, it's also one of the most overrated and while there are plenty of solid ideas thrown around, much of the film is simply boring. Keir is terrific as is most of the cast. Barbara Shelley is great as a fellow scientist and Julian Glover steals the film as the high strung Colonel Breen, one of those by-the-book British military types who turns out to be a bumbling nincompoop. The special effects are fine though sparsely used until the explosive ending. Tristram Cary did the creepy music.