Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
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Quatermass and the Pit Movie Review
Quatermass and the Pit is a British science fiction horror film from Hammer Film Productions directed by Roy Ward Baker. It’s a solid, but not great genre flick.
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“You realise what you’re implying?
That we owe our human condition here to the intervention of insects?“
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I liked this film more than ‘The Quatermass Xperiment’, but they are the opposite when it comes to their strengths and weaknesses. Whereas that film was much stronger in the horror department, this one is much better in the SF department.
Yes, the science fiction tale told here is pretty archaic as it involves Martians conquering earth and insectoid aliens. It’s a product of its time. However, the dialogue is so good, some discussions are so interesting and the script is so sophisticated that the film ended up being a rather good science fiction flick. Definitely very intriguing and mysterious too as the atmosphere it employs in the first half is fantastic.
But that is all ruined by that second half as I really did not like the action-oriented third act as it was disappointing and never particularly thrilling. As I said above, the movie fails as a horror flick because it’s just never scary or atmospheric enough if you discount its mysterious approach in the first half. The second half dropped the ball when it comes to creating pure horror or memorable action horror scenes and thus I was quite disappointed with it.
The movie needed stronger characters as well. The acting is solid for this genre and the characters aren’t bad. They just aren’t memorable whatsoever. But I did find many of its scenes memorable such as that very effective ending which was interestingly shot as well as all of the discussions about the aliens and their first showing on the screen. Those scenes are the true winners here.
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Quatermass and the Pit is technically problematic. Again, not bad. Certainly quite solid for its time. But it just isn’t inspired. And I am not talking about the effects as I never judge an older film based purely on its visual effects as that’s simply unfair. What I am talking about is the cinematography which is pretty weak and the overall technical representation of the movie is cheap and rarely truly cinematic.
Quatermass and the Pit fails as a horror film because it’s never scary, menacing or atmospheric with the exception of the first act which did have a mysterious, dangerous atmosphere in it. It succeeds much more as a science fiction film owing to its well written script and particularly sophisticated dialogue. It’s a solid and engaging, albeit technically uninspired genre flick.
