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''Quatermass 2'' (retitled ''Enemy From Space'' in the United States and Canada) is a 1957
black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...
British
science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...
drama from Hammer Film Productions. It was originally released in the UK as ''Quatermass II'' and was produced by Anthony Hinds, directed by
Val Guest Val Guest (born Valmond Maurice Grossman; 11 December 1911 – 10 May 2006) was an English film director and screenwriter. Beginning as a writer (and later director) of comedy films, he is best known for his work for Hammer Film Productions, ...
, and stars
Brian Donlevy Waldo Brian Donlevy (February 9, 1901 – April 6, 1972) was an American actor, who was noted for playing dangerous and tough characters. Usually appearing in supporting roles, among his best-known films are '' Beau Geste'' (1939), '' The Great ...
with co-stars John Longden, Sidney James,
Bryan Forbes Bryan Forbes Order of the British Empire, CBE (; born John Theobald Clarke; 22 July 1926 – 8 May 2013) was an English film director, screenwriter, film producer, actor and novelist described as a "Renaissance man"Falk Q. . BAFTA. 17 October 2 ...
, Vera Day, and William Franklyn. ''Quatermass 2'' is a sequel to Hammer's earlier film '' The Quatermass Xperiment'' (1955). Like its predecessor, it is based on the
BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...
serial '' Quatermass II'' written by Nigel Kneale. Brian Donlevy reprises his role as the eponymous Professor Bernard Quatermass, making him the only actor to play the character twice in a film. The film's story concerns Quatermass's investigation of reports of hundreds of
meteorite A meteorite is a rock (geology), rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical ...
s landing only in the Winnerden Flats area of the UK. His inquiries lead him to a huge industrial complex, strikingly similar to his own plans for a Moon colony. This top-secret facility is in fact the centre of a conspiracy involving the alien infiltration of the highest echelons of the British Government. Quatermass and his allies must now do whatever is necessary to defeat the alien threat before it is too late.


Plot

As Professor Bernard Quatermass struggles to gain government support for his Moon colonisation project, his interest becomes focused on reports of hundreds of
meteorite A meteorite is a rock (geology), rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical ...
s landing in an area known as Winnerden Flats. Travelling there with Marsh, his colleague, Quatermass finds a huge complex under construction, based on his lunar colony plans. Marsh finds an undamaged meteorite shaped like a small stone rocket. It then cracks open, releasing a gas, leaving him with an odd V-shaped mark on his face. Uniform-clad guards from the complex arrive, armed with submachine guns and sporting similar V-shaped marks, and take Marsh away, knocking down Quatermass and forcing him to leave the area. Trying to discover what happened to Marsh, Quatermass contacts Inspector Lomax, who had previously assisted him in '' The Quatermass Xperiment''. Lomax puts him in touch with Vincent Broadhead, a member of parliament, who has been trying to uncover the veil of secrecy surrounding Winnerden Flats and the organisation and deliverance of massive quantities of material supplies and manpower without any real explanation as to what it is for. Quatermass joins Broadhead on an official tour of the complex, which he is told has been built to manufacture synthetic food. Slipping away from the visiting party, Broadhead gets inside one of the huge domes dominating the skyline. Quatermass later finds him dying, covered in a corrosive black slime, warning him about what he discovered inside the dome. Shot at by guards as he escapes, Quatermass rushes to Inspector Lomax, explaining that he believes that the complex is indeed making food, but not for human consumption. Its purpose is to provide a suitable living environment for small alien creatures being housed inside the huge domes. Lomax attempts to alert his superiors, but when he meets the commissioner of police, he notices that he, too, is sporting the V-shaped mark; the aliens have taken control of key people in the government. Quatermass and Lomax then turn to journalist Jimmy Hall, who is sceptical of their story, but asks to visit Winnerden Flats. At the local community centre, they receive a hostile reception from locals employed to do heavy construction and other work at the complex but not told anything more than they need to know. The mood changes, however, when one of the meteorites crashes through the building roof and opens, injuring and infecting barmaid Sheila. Armed guards from the plant arrive and shoot Hall dead as he telephones his story into his newspaper. A melee ensues, after which the villagers form a mob that marches on the complex. Rushing the gates, Quatermass, Lomax, and the villagers barricade themselves inside the pressure control room. Realising that Earth's atmosphere is poisonous to the aliens, Quatermass sabotages their life support system, pumping only pure oxygen into their large domes, suffocating them. Simultaneously, Quatermass's assistant, Brand at the rocket complex, is gunned down by invading Winnerden Flats guards but is able to launch an atomic rocket toward the near-Earth asteroid believed to be the alien's staging point. The individual aliens combine their small bodies, creating 150-foot tall masses that soon burst from their three domes. The rocket destroys the asteroid with a nuclear explosion. Their space base destroyed and now being fully exposed to Earth's atmosphere, the giant masses of combined creatures collapse and die. The V-shaped marks disappear from the affected humans, leaving them with no memory of having been under alien control. As they head back to the village, Lomax wonders aloud how he'll make a believable report about all that's happened, while more pointedly, Quatermass questions just how ''final'' will that report be...


Production

The first ''Quatermass'' film had been a major success for Hammer and, eager for a sequel, they purchased the rights to Nigel Kneale's follow-up before the BBC had even begun transmission of the new serial. For this adaptation, Nigel Kneale himself was allowed to write the first draft of the screenplay, although subsequent drafts were worked on by director Val Guest. The plot is a condensed but largely faithful retelling of the original television serial. The main difference between the two versions is at the climax: in the television version Quatermass blasts off in a rocket to confront the aliens in outer space, whereas in the film the rocket is fired, unmanned, to destroy the aliens' asteroid base. Returning director Val Guest once again employed many cinema vérité techniques to present the fantastic elements of the plot with the greatest degree of realism. Nigel Kneale was critical of the final film, mainly on account of the return of Brian Donlevy in the lead role. Kneale was unhappy with Donlevy's interpretation of the character and also claimed the actor's performance was marred by his alcoholism, a claim denied by Val Guest. Although ''Quatermass 2'' was financially successful, its box office performance was eclipsed by the massive success of another Hammer film, '' The Curse of Frankenstein'', which was to be the first of their many Gothic horror films. As a result, it would be ten years before Hammer adapted the next ''Quatermass'' serial for the cinema with '' Quatermass and the Pit'' (1967). ''Quatermass 2'' was, however, the first film for which Hammer pre-sold the distribution rights in the United States, a financial model that would quickly become the norm for subsequent Hammer productions.


Origins


Writing

Nigel Kneale had been unhappy with Hammer's adaptation of ''
The Quatermass Experiment ''The Quatermass Experiment'' is a British science fiction serial broadcast by BBC Television during the summer of 1953 and re-staged by BBC Four in 2005. Set in the near future against the background of a British space programme, it tells th ...
'', partly because he received no extra remuneration from the sale of the film rights and partly because of the changes made in the film to his original television script. In the wake of his dissatisfaction, Kneale exerted pressure on the BBC to allow him to be more involved in the sale of the rights to his work. Despite being in the final months of his BBC contract, Kneale was allowed to collaborate with Hammer on the adaptation of ''Quatermass II''. The first draft of the screenplay was written by Kneale with input from producer Anthony Hinds. Director Val Guest worked on subsequent drafts, as he had done before on ''The Quatermass Xperiment''. Guest recalled of Kneale's script that there was "lots of philosophising and very down-to-earth thinking but it was too long, it would not have held screenwise. So, again, I had to tailor it and sharpen it and hopefully not ruin it". The script was submitted to the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) in April 1956. BBFC reader Audrey Field commented: "There should be the customary general caution that the sky is not the limit, either in sights or sounds". The BBFC's main objection was to a scene in which a guard from the Winnerden Flats complex murders a family having a picnic. This scene was omitted from the final film, although it is present in the original television presentation. As with ''The Quatermass Xperiment'', the screenplay for ''Quatermass 2'' condenses many of the events of the original television version. The most significant change is at the climax: Quatermass and his assistant, Pugh, use Quatermass's rocket to travel to the asteroid to take on the aliens on their home ground, whereas in the theatrical film the rocket is fired, unmanned, at the asteroid to destroy it. Several characters from the television version do not appear in the film, most notably Quatermass's daughter, Paula, and his assistant, Leo Pugh (their roles are partially replaced by new character Brand). Conversely, the characters of Inspector Lomax and Quatermass's young assistant Marsh reappear in the film version, having previously been in ''The Quatermass Xperiment'', but not in the television version. The character of Sheila the barmaid also appears only in the film version.


Casting

*
Brian Donlevy Waldo Brian Donlevy (February 9, 1901 – April 6, 1972) was an American actor, who was noted for playing dangerous and tough characters. Usually appearing in supporting roles, among his best-known films are '' Beau Geste'' (1939), '' The Great ...
as Professor Bernard Quatermass: Donlevy reprised his role as the eponymous professor, to the despair of Nigel Kneale, who had heavily criticised his interpretation of the role in ''The Quatermass Xperiment'' and claimed Donlevy's alcoholism presented challenges for the production. Kneale recalled visiting the set one day: "He onlevywas so full of whiskey he could hardly stand up. He staggered over to the set and looked dazedly around. They held up an idiot board with his lines on and he said, "What's this movie called?" and they said, "Well, it's called ''Quatermass 2''". He said, "I've got to say all that? There's too much talk. Cut down some of the talk". He tried to read it and he had to have go after go after go, so crippled with drink he hardly knew who he was". Val Guest has denied Kneale's claims: "So many stories have been concocted since, about how he was a paralytic. It's absolute ''balls'', because he was ''not'' paralytic. He wasn't ''stone cold sober'' either, but he was a pro and he knew his lines". Guest also recalled: "By after lunch he would come to me and say "Give me a breakdown of the story so far. Where have I just been before this scene?" We used to feed him black coffee all morning but then we discovered he was lacing it. But he was a very professional actor and very easy to work with". * John Longden as Inspector Lomax: The role of Lomax had originally been played by Jack Warner in ''The Quatermass Xperiment''. When Warner proved unavailable for the sequel, the role was recast and the part given to John Longden. Longden had been a major star of British
silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
s and had also appeared in several early
Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...
films including ''
Blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...
'' (1929), '' Elstree Calling'' (1930) and '' The Skin Game'' (1931). Nigel Kneale greatly preferred Longden's authoritative take on the character to Jack Warner's more comedic "breezy sergeant" in the first film. * Sid James (credited as Sydney James in the film and Sidney James on its poster) as Jimmy Hall: At the time, James was known as a character actor, specialising mainly in "tough guy" roles, with credits in films such as '' No Orchids for Miss Blandish'' (uncredited, 1948), ''
The Lavender Hill Mob ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' is a 1951 British comedy film from Ealing Studios, written by T. E. B. Clarke, directed by Charles Crichton, starring Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway and featuring Sid James and Alfie Bass. The title refers ...
'' (1951), and '' Hell Drivers'' (1957). James plays the character of Jimmy Hall in a much more comedic manner than Roger Delgado's interpretation of the equivalent journalist character Hugh Conrad in the television version; Guest cast James in order to "lighten the story a bit". He later went on to enjoy widespread fame in many comedy roles including ''
Hancock's Half Hour ''Hancock's Half Hour'' was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy series, broadcast from 1954 to 1961 and written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The radio series starred Tony Hancock, with Sidney James, Bill Kerr and,at various ...
'' (1956–60), the '' Carry On'' series of films, and sitcoms such as '' George and the Dragon'' (1966), '' Two in Clover'' (1969–70) and '' Bless This House'' (1971–76). *
Bryan Forbes Bryan Forbes Order of the British Empire, CBE (; born John Theobald Clarke; 22 July 1926 – 8 May 2013) was an English film director, screenwriter, film producer, actor and novelist described as a "Renaissance man"Falk Q. . BAFTA. 17 October 2 ...
as Marsh: Forbes had appeared in a number of supporting roles in films, including '' The Small Back Room'' (1949), '' An Inspector Calls'' (1954) and '' The Colditz Story'' (1955). However, he later became better known as a director, with films such as '' Whistle Down the Wind'' (1961), '' The L-Shaped Room'' (1962) and '' The Stepford Wives'' (1975) among his best-known credits. Forbes later recalled of the film: "I was one of the people attacked by the alien pods. This pod exploded and I ended up with what was supposed to be a terrible alien growth on my face. Come lunchtime and we all went off to the pub. Of course, I couldn't take this stuff off, the makeup was too complex; the landlord refused to serve me". * William Franklyn as Brand: Franklyn later became well known for his voiceovers for a series of advertisements for
Schweppes Schweppes ( , ) is a soft drink brand founded in the Republic of Geneva in 1783 by the German watchmaker and amateur scientist Johann Jacob Schweppe; it is now made, bottled, and distributed worldwide by multiple international conglomerates, de ...
tonic water. In 2004 he took over from the late Peter Jones as the Voice of the Book in the radio version of ''
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' is a Science fiction comedy, comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series), radio sitcom broadcast over two series on BBC ...
''. He died in 2006. * Vera Day as Sheila: Vera Day was first spotted by Val Guest in the musical '' Wish You Were Here'' at the London Hippodrome. Other actors appearing in the film include
Charles Lloyd-Pack Charles Lloyd-Pack (10 October 1902 – 22 December 1983) was a British film, television and stage actor. Life and career Lloyd Pack was born in Wapping, East London, to working-class parents. He appeared in several horror films produced by ...
, Tom Chatto, John Van Eyssen, Percy Herbert, and
Michael Ripper Michael George Ripper (27 January 1913 – 28 June 2000) was an English character actor who appeared in many British horror and science fiction films. Career Ripper began his film career in quota quickies in the 1930s and until the late 195 ...
.


Filming

Val Guest, who had directed ''The Quatermass Xperiment'', returned for ''Quatermass 2''. Guest once again sought to create a film that felt as real as possible, using many cinema vérité techniques such as hand-held cameras. He was assisted in this respect by the moody, overcast cinematography of director of photography Gerald Gibbs, who also made extensive use of day for night photography for the film's climactic scenes. Guest planned each day's shooting carefully, creating meticulous
storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of simple illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding proce ...
s detailing all the shots he wanted to make that day. Filming took place between 28 May and 13 July 1956. The film's budget, at £92,000, was much larger than that of ''The Quatermass Xperiment''. The bigger budget was achieved by the advance sale of the distribution rights in the United States to
United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...
. United Artists contributed some £64,000 towards the production of the film, as well as Brian Donlevy's $25,000 fee and his airfare to London from the US. Although filming still occurred at Bray Studios in Berkshire, the larger budget allowed for greater use of
location filming Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior. When filmmaking professionals refer to shooting "on location", they are ...
in the making of the film than had been possible for its predecessor. The key location used was the
oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial processes, industrial process Factory, plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refining, refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, Bitumen, asphalt base, ...
at Shell Haven in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, on the Thames Estuary, which represented the secret Winnerden Flats complex. This was also where location scenes in the BBC television production of the story were filmed. Despite its size, the plant was run by a relatively small number of personnel, simplifying Guest's job of making it appear eerily deserted. Guest was also surprised at how relaxed the plant's management were about allowing him to stage the climactic gun battle at such a potentially flammable location.
Focus puller A focus puller or first assistant camera (1st AC) is a member of a film crew's camera department whose primary responsibility is to maintain the camera lens's optical focus on whatever subject or action is being filmed. "Pulling focus" refers t ...
Harry Oakes recalled, however, that a
Newman-Sinclair Newman & Sinclair, London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan ...
clockwork Clockwork refers to the inner workings of either mechanical devices called clocks and watches (where it is also called the movement (clockwork), movement) or other mechanisms that work similarly, using a series of gears driven by a spring or wei ...
camera had to be used for some scenes because of the danger posed by sparks from electrical equipment. The scenes of Vincent Broadhead emerging from one of the domes covered in the noxious black slime were particularly difficult to realise, necessitating many retakes. Tom Chatto, playing Broadhead, whose wife was a leading
casting director In the performing arts industry such as theatre, film, or television, casting, or a casting call, is a pre-production process for selecting a certain type of actor, dancer, singer, or extra to land the role of a character in a script, screenp ...
, joked after the scene was finally completed, "Remind me to talk to my wife about casting me in this". The Shell Haven location was further enhanced by the use of
matte painting A matte painting is a painted representation of a landscape, set, or distant location that allows filmmakers to create the illusion of an environment that is not present at the filming location. Historically, matte painters and film technicia ...
s created by special effects designer Les Bowie to add the giant domes within which the aliens were incubated. Other locations used included the real-life
new town New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** New (Paul McCartney song), "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * New (EP), ''New'' (EP), ...
of
Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England. It is located north-west of London; nearby towns and cities include Watford, St Albans and Berkhamsted. The population at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 cens ...
, Hertfordshire, which was under construction at the time and doubled for the fictional new town of Winnerden Flats. Other scenes were shot in London including
Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster in Central London. It was established in the early-19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. Its name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, the Royal Navy, ...
, where the police agreed to hold up the traffic for just two minutes to allow Guest to take shots of trucks ferrying equipment through London to Winnerden Flats, and in the foyer of the
House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
for the scene where Quatermass first meets Vincent Broadhead. The climactic scenes of the hurricane caused by the explosion of the Winnerden Flats complex were shot on the
South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills in the south-eastern coastal counties of England that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the ...
near
Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
. A minor mishap occurred during the filming of this scene when the wind machines blew Brian Donlevy's toupée off his head and the crew had to chase after it. As well as shooting on location, Guest and his crew made use of Stages 2 and 5 of the New Elstree Studios, the first Hammer production to shoot there. This was production designer Bernard Robinson's first film for Hammer; he went on to become its regular set designer, working on many Hammer films.


Reception

''Quatermass 2'' received its first public screening at a trade show on 22 March 1957; its official première was held two months later at the London Pavilion on 24 May. It went on general release, with supporting feature '' And God Created Woman'', on 17 June. The film received an 'X' Certificate from the BBFC. It was released in the US under the title ''Enemy From Space''. ''Quatermass 2'' received mixed reviews. Campbell Dixon in ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'' found the film "all good grisly fun, if this is the sort of thing you enjoy". The reviewer in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' remarked that "the writer of the original story, Mr Nigel Kneale, and the director, Mr Val Guest, between them keep things moving at the right speed, without digressions. The film has an air of respect for the issues touched on, and this impression is confirmed by the acting generally". On the other hand, Jympson Harman of the London '' Evening News'' wrote: "Science-fiction hokum can be convincing, exciting or just plain laughable. ''Quatermass II'' fails on all these scores, I am afraid". Similarly, the reviewer in the '' Daily Herald'' felt: "The whole thing is daft and full of stilted dialogue. ..At the end a detective says: "How am I going to make a report on all this?" I felt the same way".


Legacy

Although commercially successful, ''Quatermass 2''s release was largely overshadowed by the box-office record-breaking performance of Hammer's '' The Curse of Frankenstein'', which was also released in May 1957. Upon this success, Hammer made its priority the production of Gothic horror films. For this reason, although Nigel Kneale had written a new Quatermass serial for the BBC, '' Quatermass and the Pit'' (broadcast December 1958 to January 1959), Hammer did not acquire the rights until 1961 and the film version did not appear until 1967. ''Quatermass 2'' is notable, however, for being the first film Hammer pre-sold to a major US distributor, in this case United Artists. This new finance and distribution deal would become the norm for subsequent Hammer films and led to them eventually winding down their own distribution arm, Exclusive Films, in the mid-1960s. Critical opinion of ''Quatermass 2'' in the years since its release remains divided. Writing in ''Science Fiction in the Cinema'', John Baxter found the film "a faithful but ponderous adaptation of Kneale's TV sequel. There are effective sequences, director Guest and cameraman Gerald Gibbs shooting with light lancing up through the shadows in a manner reminiscent of
Jacques Tourneur Jacques Tourneur (; ; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French-American filmmaker, active during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known as an auteur of stylish and atmospheric genre films, many of them for RKO Pictures, including ...
's '' Night (or Curse) of the Demon''. Otherwise the film is indifferent". Similarly, John Brosnan, in his book ''The Primal Screen'', wrote that "''Quatermass 2'' isn't as good as the first one, despite a bigger budget. Again the theme is possession (all four ''Quatermass'' stories are variations on the same theme) with Kneale again cleverly mixing sf with the supernatural. The alien invasion may be sf but it is presented with the trappings of traditional horror, such as the V-shaped "mark of the devil" that all possessed people display". On the other hand, Bill Warren, in ''Keep Watching The Skies!'', found ''Quatermass 2'' to be "one of the best science fiction films of the 1950s. It is not notably better than 'The Quatermass Xperiment'' but the story idea is more involving, the production is livelier and there are more events in the unfolding of the story". Kim Newman in 1986 praised the film as "extraordinary" and, comparing it to '' Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' (1956), Newman notes that while
Don Siegel Donald Siegel ( ; October 26, 1912 – April 20, 1991) was an American film director and producer. Siegel was described by ''The New York Times'' as "a director of tough, cynical and forthright action-adventure films whose taut plots centered o ...
's film is "a general allegory" about dehumanisation and conformity, ''Quatermass 2'' is "a specific attack on the
Conservative Government Conservative or Tory government may refer to: Canada In Canadian politics, a Conservative government may refer to the following governments administered by the Conservative Party of Canada or one of its historical predecessors: * 1st Canadian Min ...
of the time, down to the inclusion of several characters obviously based on real political figures". ''The League of Gentlemen''s Mark Gatiss mentions on the DVD commentary for the First Series that a scene where two workmen, who have been abducted by Tubs and Edward, escape, covered in tar, was inspired by the scene in which the Vincent Broadhead character is covered in "synthetic food" from one of the huge outdoor storage domes.


Home media

''Quatermass 2'' was released on Region 2 DVD in 2003 by DD Video. It contained a number of extra features including commentary by director Val Guest and writer Nigel Kneale, as well as an interview with Val Guest and a trailer for ''Enemy From Space'', as the film is known in the US. The film was first released in the US on All Region NTSC DVD by
Anchor Bay Entertainment The revived Anchor Bay Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company owned by Umbrelic Entertainment co-founders Thomas Zambeck and Brian Katz. Anchor Bay Entertainment markets and releases "new release genre ...
and is mastered from an archival print; it contains the same extra features as on the Region 2 UK release. The film had been previously released on both VHS cassette and
LaserDisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...
.


In other media

The film was adapted into a 15-page comics story for the August 1978 issue of the magazine '' Hammer's Halls of Horror'' (volume 2, #23, published by Top Sellers Ltd). It was drawn by David Lloyd from a script by Steve Parkhouse. The story was titled "Enemy from Space (Quatermass II).""Hammer's Halls of Horror #23"
Grand Comics Database. Retrieved 29 Dec. 2020.


References

;Bibliography * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

* * * *
Quatermass 2
' at Hammer Films *
The Quatermass Trilogy – A Controlled Paranoia

''Quatermass 2'': The Cult Hammer Film & The Classic BBC Television Serial
{{Val Guest 1950s science fiction horror films 1957 films Films about alien invasions British black-and-white films British science fiction horror films 1950s English-language films Films based on television series British sequel films Quatermass Films directed by Val Guest Films scored by James Bernard Films shot at Bray Studios Hammer Film Productions horror films Films shot at New Elstree Studios 1950s British films English-language science fiction horror films