Quatermass and the Pit

Quatermass and the Pit

16/2/1968 1h 37m 6.6/10

Overview

A mysterious artifact unearthed below a London Underground station proves to have powerful psychic effects on the people around.

Director

Bert Batt

Top Billed Cast

Julian Glover

Julian Glover

Colonel Breen

Barbara Shelley

Barbara Shelley

Barbara Judd

James Donald

James Donald

Dr. Mathew Roney

Andrew Keir

Andrew Keir

Prof. Bernard Quatermass

Bryan Marshall

Bryan Marshall

Captain Potter

Maurice Good

Sergeant Cleghorn

Reviews

John Chard

9/25/2014

9/10

Creepy, interesting, above all else...intelligent. Whilst excavating at the site of a new underground tube station, workers unearth a mysterious object. On to the case comes Professor Quatermass who deduces that the object is Martian in origin. Initially viewed with scorn and disbelief, it becomes apparent that the Martian race have been involved in the human race before, and now they have been awoken again. This was the third Hammer film adaptation of Nigel Kneale's BBC-TV Quatermass serial, with previous entries being The Quatermass Experiment & Quatermass 2. This to me, tho, is undoubtedly the shining light of the bunch. Chiefly what works the best in this one is the wonderful fusion of mystery and intelligence, the eerie sense of dread only off set by a yearning to find out just what has happened? And more crucially, what will happen? Building up perfectly, courtesy of Roy Ward Baker's astutely paced direction, Quatermass And The Pit is a film that just begs you to pay attention to every little detail, each conversation is fully fleshing out this most intriguing story. Then there is the finale that pays off handsomely, to hint at what is involved would result in a spoiler of sorts, and really it would be stupid of me to prepare you for the film's closure. See it because it's one of the best genre entries of the 60s, a must for sci-fi enthusiasts that like a bit of brains to go with their genre persuasion. 8.5/10

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