Horrorfest 2017: The Quatermass Xperiment

Another filmmaker famous for his high level of movie fandom is Edgar Wright, director most recently of BABY DRIVER but probably most famous for the horror comedy, SHAUN OF THE DEAD. As you might expect of a movie nerd the caliber of Wright, there's a list of thousands of his favorites online, so here's a few of his horror picks, starting with THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT.

This is an early black and white Hammer film from 1955 directed by Val Guest. I've seen the title thrown around so many times, I'm glad to finally make time to check it out. It stars Brian Donlevy as the titular Quatermass. His xperiment? Sending men into space! Unfortunately only 1 of the 3 men sent to space returns alive (Richard Wordsworth) and guess what? He's mutating into a monster!

You'll often see the awful CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST listed as the first of the found footage genre, and the much better BLAIR WITCH PROJECT listed as the most famous of the found footage genre, but I say QUATERMASS shows some early ahead-of-its-time signs of this technique. Partway through the movie, Quatermass and his associates review film footage of the space flight, and they sit in suspense (as did I) waiting to see what might have happened. It's very effective, as is the climax in which we partly see events through the eyes of a TV crew sent to film a cathedral.

This movie went on to spawn several sequels, which is not surprising, because Donlevy as Quatermass is such an interesting character, so unapologetically "logical" and science driven (and mad) that this flick ends with him sending another rocket to space – in spite of his failures.