Lifeforce was released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray by Scream Factory on May 24th 2022. The 1985 science fiction horror film has been newly scanned in 4K from the original camera negative.
The three-disc Scream Factory set includes the theatrical and director’s cuts. The international cut has not been included because it only exists as an interpositive film element, which would be jarring if spliced into the UHD film. Special features:
Disc 1: 4K Ultra HD:
The theatrical cut of the film
Disc 2: Blu-ray:
The theatrical cut of the film
Interview with director Tobe Hooper
Interview with actress Mathilda May
Interview with actor Steve Railsback
Theatrical & teaser trailers
TV spot
Still gallery
Disc 3: Blu-ray:
Director’s cut of the film
Audio commentary by director Tobe Hooper, moderated by Tim Sullivan
Audio commentary by make-up effects designer Nick Maley, moderated by Michael Felsher
Buy from Amazon.com
Meanwhile, here is our previous coverage of Lifeforce:
‘In the blink of an eye, the terror begins’
Lifeforce is a 1985 science fiction horror film directed by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre; Salem’s Lot; Poltergeist), based on the 1976 novel, The Space Vampires, by Colin Wilson. The screenplay was written by Dan O’Bannon (Alien; Dead & Buried) and Don Jakoby. The film portrays the fictional events that unfold after three mysterious humanoids, discovered in a space shuttle, are taken to Earth.
The movie stars Steve Railsback, Mathilda May, Patrick Stewart and Christopher Jagger.
Plot:
While investigating Halley’s Comet, the crew of the space shuttle Churchill finds a 150-mile-long spaceship hidden in the tail of the comet.
Upon entering the alien craft, the crew finds hundreds of dead, shrivelled bat-like creatures and three naked humanoid bodies (two male and one female) in suspended animation within glass coffin-like containers. The crew recovers the three aliens and begins the return trip to Earth.
During the return journey, mission control loses contact with the shuttle as it nears Earth and a rescue mission is launched to investigate. The rescuers discover that the Churchill has been severely damaged by fire, with its internal components destroyed, and the three containers bearing the aliens are all that remain intact.
The aliens are taken to the European Space Research Centre in London where they are watched over by Doctor Leonard Bukovski (Michael Gothard) and Doctor Hans Fallada (Frank Finlay). Prior to an autopsy, the female alien (Mathilda May) awakens and sucks the titular “life force” out of a guard.
The female then escapes the research facility and proceeds to drain various other humans of their life force, also revealing an ability to shapeshift. It transpires that the aliens are from a race of space vampires that consume the life force of living beings, rather than their blood…
Our review:
Lifeforce is not, perhaps, a ‘good’ film in any conventional way of making that judgement, but it is so outrageously kitsch, deliriously silly and relentlessly entertaining that it’s impossible to resist. If we assume that the main point of a movie like this is to entertain, then Lifeforce is a triumph –- one of the highlights of the decade, a gloriously deranged and perfectly ludicrous effort that is very much in the grand tradition of British horror, just cranked up to max.
David Flint, MOVIES & MANIA
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