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• Included with the Quatermass Movies.
• The Quatermass Xperiment was the very first of the horror/science fiction movies that were released by the legendary Hammer Film Productions.

Martin Winfree
December 15, 2018
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Shared with Public

The Quatermass movies were originally shown as four-part or six-part serials on British television, beginning with The Quatermass Experiment in August 1953. These shows were broadcast just two months after the June 1953 coronation of the still-reigning Queen Elizabeth II; the excitement of the upcoming event had led to widespread purchases of television sets by the British public for the first time. The Quatermass Experiment and the other programs in the series were created and written by Nigel Kneale. The Quatermass series was a sensation, attracting audiences in the millions.

Two years later, a theatrical release called The Quatermass Xperiment (also known as The Creeping Unknown) came out; this was the very first of the horror/science fiction movies that were released by the legendary British film makers, Hammer Film Productions. The slight change in the title came from the “X” that was attached to the film in an early movie rating system. The film’s director was Val Guest (not to be confused with Val Lewton who directed the 1942 film Cat People and others of that era).

I recently saw this movie again on Turner Classic Movies, and while host Ben Mankiewicz gave the film a respectful introduction, he was chuckling a bit about the “X” rating as he was addressing a 21st Century audience. But I am telling you: If you allow yourself to be caught up by The Quatermass Xperiment, looking past the antiquated special effects (that are still pretty damned impressive even by today’s standards), and listening closely to the film’s score that chills me to the bone every single time I see this movie, that “X” rating makes perfect sense to me.

The storyline is about what happens to one of three astronauts, named Caroon, who had returned to Earth after a space flight. (By the way, 1953 was four years before even the first satellite, Sputnik 1 was put into orbit). The other two astronauts did not survive and were reduced to paste. The film follows the Caroon thing as he deteriorates frighteningly into something that is not even close to being human. The Quatermass Xperiment is unquestionably the first of the “body horror” films of the sort that David Cronenberg created so memorably decades later, from Videodrome (1983) on down.

At one point, a film that was taken inside the spacecraft during the flight was recovered and exhibited for the scientists trying to figure out what had happened. To me, this film within the film is reminiscent of the famous scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) where a stewardess is serving a passenger and the pilot; and in-between, she walks three-quarters around in a circular motion on magnetic or Velcro-type shoes, since the two men were sitting in different compartments that are oriented very differently. I don’t know whether that was intended as an homage to The Quatermass Xperiment, but it looked that way to me.