Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

classicsoncall I never knew Hammer Studios did this type of science fiction until running across this picture as "Five Million Years to Earth". The title was changed for American audiences since "Quatermass and the Pit", didn't seem to have commercial appeal on this side of the pond. Besides the sci-fi quotient, there's a bit of a horror element in the story as well, with intimations of a devil at work in the Hob's End section of London where an underground tunnel has revealed an object of perhaps other worldly origins.Surprisingly, the story has a rather ambitious concept even if the execution seems rather hokey by today's standards. While the British government and military decide that the 'space ship' discovered during an underground dig is a holdover from the Nazi war machine, physics professor Bernard Quatermass (Andrew Keir) forms a theory that a centuries old, dormant faculty resides in the vehicle, and when awakened it displays eerie properties of telekinesis, second sight and poltergeist type movements. British scientist Barbara Judd (Barbara Shelley) experiences a 'stored memory' of the deceased creatures on board the ship, which are captured on film as depicting a Martian hive cleansing. It's the professor's considered opinion that centuries ago, Martians kidnapped ape-like creature from Earth to experiment on, in order to survive their own planet when it became inhospitable.Given all the tampering around and within the space vehicle, the Martian energy within it eventually comes alive to protect itself while destroying parts of London in the process. However in a "War of the Worlds" style resolution, it becomes a relatively easy matter to stop the rampage when Dr. Matthew Roney (James Donald) theorizes that he might ground the force's destructive power by maneuvering a metal crane into it's energy field. For the dormant Martians, that's all she wrote.When I got a look at that so called Martian energy field with it's horned apparition look, I was reminded of a Star Trek episode that had an intergalactic villain with a similar appearance. Thinking that maybe one work influenced the other I looked it up, and the episode I'm referring to was called "The Corbomite Maneuver", the tenth episode of Star Trek's first season in 1966. It's probably a stretch to suggest that one of Gene Roddenberry's creations had an influence on this Hammer flick, but the energy devil looked a whole lot like Balok without the horns.

grantss Original, intriguing...and disappointing.Workers on an extension of one of London's underground train stations discover skulls and other remains in their diggings. They then discover also discover a large missile-like object. Thinking it is an unexploded WW2 bomb, an army bomb squad arrives to investigate. However, the object doesn't seem like a WW2 bomb...Great set up, poor ending. Original story, that developed in very intriguing fashion. However, the conclusion was very lacklustre, and quite out of place with what had gone before. After such a tight, plausible first 60% or so, the remainder was quite silly, random and implausible. Ultimately, a movie of two halves with the good work of the first half almost entirely undone by the second. Overall, a decent movie, but only just.

gavin6942 A mysterious artifact is unearthed in London, and famous scientist Bernard Quatermass (Andrew Keir) is called in to divine its origins and explain its strange effects on people.This is the film that inspired John Carpenter. Okay, so not "the" film, as he also was strongly influenced by the films of Howard Hawks. But you can see this film in "Prince of Darkness", and also in "In the Mouth of Madness". And, of course, it stands on its own.Some of this is a little silly. The alien / arthropod corpses are a bit less than believable as living creatures, but at least they tried to make up for that with goo blood and other touches. And the images from Mars... a bit weird. But, hey, still a fine film.

TheLittleSongbird Not as good as the masterful TV series, which is sci-fi television at its finest, but it almost is and the best of the Quartermass films. I'd go as far to say that it's one of Hammer's better films as well.Personally, Quartermass and the Pit's only fault are the rather anti-climactic and too hastily-paced ending and the on-the-cheap-side special effects especially at the end with those fake-looking aliens, the rest of the film's production values are very well-done so not sure why the quality dips at this point. The colour photography is very good though and doesn't dissipate the mystery or atmosphere at all, the setting is as spectacularly imaginative as it was in the series and the special effects generally while nowhere near as strong as those in the TV series are generally above average. Tristam Carey's music score has the right amount of eerie intensity and rousing ambiance, while Roy Ward Baker's direction is wisely careful but still very strong and Nigel Kneale's script is very true in style to his writing for the series, retaining the intelligent handling of complex and daring themes, the ability to provoke thought while not trying to do too much or undermining the mystery.The story is engrossing and continues to fascinate and resonate emotionally translated to screen, again while not making the mistake of covering too many ideas. There's a lot here and it's ambitious stuff, but it didn't feel too much thankfully. The mystery is intriguing, it's very suspenseful and scary with some memorable and quite shocking deaths (i.e. Roney's) and the disquieting atmosphere is incredibly effective, helped by beautifully measured pacing, Baker's direction and that it doesn't try to hide or exceed any budget limits. The characters are still engaging, and the acting while not quite up to their definitive TV counterparts is still very good and worthy, Andrew Keir and Julian Glover being particularly excellent.Overall, another Hammer winner and goes with the series very well indeed, if not as good as it. 9/10 Bethany Cox