5 Star

UK Does Cult Sci-fi

Arrow Video do us cult Sci-fi fans a huge favour in their latest 4K release, with Lifeforce the 1985 box-office flop. But it has stood the test of time with this amazing conversion, with great special effects for the time and stand out practical effects. With Sci-fi/ horror royalty co-writing in Dan O’Bannon (Alien, The Return of the Living Dead, Aliens, Dark Star), and directed by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Poltergeist, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), if Lifeforce is before your day and you are into Sci-fi horror, I cannot recommend this release highly enough, and in 4K everything is juicy and crispy.

Advanced Space shuttle Churchill and her crew have been in space for six months, using their new Nerva drive that makes the shuttle have constant acceleration, also a gravity field, making the travel for the large crew comfortable. Their mission is to catch up with the approaching Halley’s Comet (Pronounce that how you will, it’s 1985) and study it, as it won’t be back for another seventy-six years. But as they approach they detect something anomalous, to their surprise it is an alien spacecraft, one-hundred-and -fifty miles long and two miles high. This must be investigated.

What they find is astounding, the massive interior of the ship filled with enormous dead bats.

They keep going deeper into the ship, until they come to a large anti-chamber, where they find three perfectly preserved humanoids in protective casings that defy analysis. There are two males (Chris Jagger, The Bitch, The Stud) (Bill Malin, ‘Allo ‘Allo (TV Series)) and one very alluring naked female (Mathilda May, The Jackal, Isabelle Eberhardt).

Leader Tom Carlsen (Steve Railsback, The Stunt Man, Barb Wire) decides that these specimens must be taken back to HQ in London. They try and tell HQ what they have discovered, but interference from the comet makes that impossible.

Thirty days later the shuttle approaches Earth, but the European Space Research Centre in London cannot contact them, so they send space shuttle Columbia to investigate. They find the shuttle burnt out and all the crew dead, but when they look in the hold, the three bodies are still perfectly preserved. They are recovered and take to the London HQ.

This is where everybody’s troubles start, because the bodies aren’t just bodies, they are alive, and the ‘Space Girl’ wakes and drains the lifeforce from a guard, turning his body into a dried husk.

49 to control, you’ll never believe what I’m looking at.

With this boost of power she sets about leaving the facility, showing off her powers and a fair bit more, as she walks out into the London night.

If the girl is no longer in her original body, where is her body?

–Hidden

–Let’s find it.

With an alien on the loose, Colonel Caine (Peter Firth, The Hunt for Red October, Equus) of the SAS is called in to co-ordinate the search, just as the missing escape pod from the Churchill lands in Texas with Carlsen onboard.

The questions arise:- where is she, why has Carlsen got a connection to the Space Girl, and what the heck is happening to the capital city? Watch this iconic Sci-fi in glorious 4k to find out.

Lifeforce

Limited Edition 4K UHD 17th February

4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

Brand new 4K restoration by Arrow Films of the 116-minute International Cut, plus a 4K restoration of the 101-minute Theatrical Cut from the original negative
Original lossless stereo audio plus optional 5.1 DTS-HD MA Surround and Dolby Atmos remixes for both cuts
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing for both cuts
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Dan Mumford
Collector’s booklet featuring writing on the film by Frank Collins

DISC ONE – INTERNATIONAL CUT
4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Audio commentary by director Tobe Hooper, moderated by filmmaker Tim Sullivan
Audio commentary by visual effects artist Douglas Smith, moderated by filmmaker and scholar Howard S. Berger
Audio commentary with make-up effects artist Nick Maley, moderated by filmmaker Michael Felsher
Isolated music and effects track
Cannon Fodder: The Making of Lifeforce, an epic look at the genesis, production and release of the film, featuring interviews with Hooper, associate producer Michael J. Kagan, editor John Grover, actors Aubrey Morris and Nicholas Ball, make-up artist Sandra Exelby, screenwriter Michael Armstrong, sound designer Vernon Messenger, art designers Tom Adams and Roger Stewart, and effects artist John Schoonraad
Space Vampires in London, an archive interview with Tobe Hooper
Dangerous Beauty, an archive interview with Mathilda May
Carlsen’s Curse, an archive interview with Steve Railsback
Textless opening sequence
Theatrical trailers

DISC TWO – THEATRICAL CUT
4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Isolated music and effects track
Interview outtakes from Mark Hartley’s Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films, featuring Hooper, Armstrong, Grover and Messenger
Split screen comparison with TV version