Lifeforce (1985)
Director: Tobe Hooper
Stars: Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Mathilda May
Next weekend, Ridley Scott gives the ALIEN franchise another shot with ALIEN: COVENANT, so Awfully Good Movies is dipping into the weird and wonderful world of ALIEN ripoff movies with one of the most famous of them: 1985’s LIFEFORCE! What makes this flick one of the most notable ALIEN ripoffs is that it was actually co-written by one of the screenwriters of the original ALIEN, Dan O’Bannon. However, the rest of the names behind this movie are pretty famous too. It’s directed by Tobe Hooper, the master of horror behind THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and POLTERGEIST (let’s just forget he did THE MANGLER). The special effects are produced by John Dykstra, who helped create the Oscar-winning effects of STAR WARS. It has an early film role for Sir Patrick Stewart, in the days before he flew the Enterprise and battled with Magneto. And most importantly, it’s produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, the B-movie titans behind Cannon Films, and in true Cannon Films tradition, this tale of a space vampire landing on Earth and sucking the life out of the citizens of London has plenty of boobies, blood and explosions. You think Sigourney Weaver hiding from xenomorphs in her panties is sexy? PUH-LEASE. This flick’s got Mathilda May slithering around London completely in the buff, smooching up on dudes to swallow their souls. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I am an ardent feminist, but GODDAMN, DAT ASS DOE. Man, between these naked vampire aliens in LIFEFORCE and those penis-shaped heads on H.R. Giger’s aliens, these sci-fi horror movies are eliciting some strange Freudian reactions out of me, I tell you what.
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