Lifeforce (1985)

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Director: Tobe Hooper

Screenplay: Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby (with Michael Armstrong & Olaf Pooley)

Cast: Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, Mathilda May, Aubrey Morris

Length: 116 mins

Synopsis: A US-UK co-mission into space to investigate the passing Hailey's Comet, on the space shuttle Churchill, encounters an alien spaceship, bringing back on board three humanoids housed in crystal cases. They turn out to be space vampires, the beautiful female of the three (Mathilda May) awaking and escaping from a British space facility. It is up to Col. Colin Caine (Peter Firth) and the only surviving member of the Churchill Col. Tom Carlsen (Steve Railsback), the later connected psychically to the female vampire, to prevent them at least decimating London.

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I'm a Tobe Hooper fan. This means not only liking The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Poltergeist (1982) and Salem's Lot (1979), but willing to put up defences to other films or even admitting to liking them. The common conception is that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre happened and after that everything went downhill, which is what a Hooper fan like myself will strongly disagree with. For starters, not only was there a film before as his debut Eggshells (1969), but there are a strong number of films, already mentioned, that stand out in his career. I won't disagree with the fact that, honestly, he suffered over the decades but I will defend a film like Spontaneous Combustion (1990), and even a film as bad as Crocodile (2000) is strangely watchable and certainly couldn't dismiss the quality of an older work like Eaten Alive (1977).

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The three film deal with Cannon Films should've be the best moment in Tobe Hooper's career, when Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus gave him carte blanche for three movies, but I feel it's the moment where his career would be drastically affected from then on. Unfortunately while an exceptional sequel that gets better the more I watch it,  The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) didn't do well because people were excepting the same as the first film and its graphic gore would've severely limited its potential audience. I've yet to see Invaders From Mars (1986) and the original fifties film, but Hooper's remake didn't succeed either. Finally there's Lifeforce, the most expensive Cannon Films production and not a box office success either. It was a film with a hellish production history including going over budget and having a shorter US theatrical cut said to be incomprehensible. Viewing this film for the first time, in its longer International cut, it had been built up with a reputation good and bad of a bizarre folly.

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The result is a b-movie sci-fi flick, literally a sexed up Quatermass, set in contemporary Britain including very notorious amounts of nudity from Mathilda May and gore. The b-movie is capable of rich material, but the stereotype is that of a movie which is lean in the content around the plot, minimal in anything barring the essentials like thrills, and hopefully has charm, charisma and maybe excellent technical virtues. Lifeforce is definitely one of those sort of films, not a philosophical work though analogies can be suggested. "Pulp" is apt, and as well as updating films like The Day That Stood Still (1951) into a lurid interpretation, it also possesses undeniably opulent production design and special effects. If there's a potential issue with this film's story, it's not the danger of incomprehensibility but when it confuses its sense of scale. A large middle portion of its length is the hunt for the female vampire but, to limit the spoilers immensely, this becomes a red herring and, rather than an Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), it becomes an elaborate disaster film in the ending.

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Technical Details:

If Lifeforce shows off anything, its pride as a British film viewer at the work of countless special effect and production designers, though when you have people who worked on the likes of James Bond films to Star Wars, that's not a surprise. Adding to this is optical effects from the best of the USA, hired during the protracted production shoot, adding a further and peculiar air to Lifeforce. A great deal of why Lifeforce is able to work is because of this production design, filling out and adding character to the story. When the astronauts of space shuttle Churchill enter the alien spaceship, its actors are in accurate spacesuits floating on wires, travelling through a complex full scale set with bat humanoid husks dangling in mid-air in an environment designed by someone with a fixation on anatomy diagrams. When the vampires take action, sucking the literal life-force rather than blood physical substances, you get into a zombie subplot where animatronic dread husks that still look great today try to suck the life-force from a bystander in a vicious continuous cycle like a chain letter.

When the film becomes more of an end of the world scenario, it becomes more of a standard zombie breakout with a lot more exploding double decker buses. But there is still a consistency in production even if the film has skipped through various forms of sci-fi. The biggest advantage to this, not just the incredible craft and hard work, is that they add further personality rather than merely completing scenes left. In this case the spectacle not only stands out whether one feels Lifeforce has any worth or not, but despite the confusion it does keep a consistent tone for the film. It's a very physical narrative. Alongside a lot of nudity and explicit sexuality, there's also a level of the corporal and kink that you don't see a lot in other science fiction the production emphasises. It's apt the alien spaceship looks like a H.R. Gigar designed dildo with an umbrella at the end. The crystal cases the space vampires sleep in are as sleek and alluring as the figures sleeping in them. The optical for the sucked out life-force adds a great deal of colour and the ethereal to the content, and even something as gruesome as a vampire reforming from a victim's blood has a sensuality and a surrealness not just from the actress involving in the scene.

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The cast adds gravitas that also helps immensely. While Steve Railsback is good for a shell shocked lead, and Mathilda May shows bravery in willing to walk around sets completely naked, the real weight, not just a bias of mine for fellow countrymen, is from the British character actors. The decision to set the film in Britain stands out, a different tone in the British stiff upper lip and quirks adding to the content, Hooper's desire to make a "70mm Hammer" movie paying off. I admit to being very cold many times to my country's genre output but I could never dismiss the quality of the acting. Aubrey Morris as Sir Percy Heseltine who tags along being unnerved by what he witnesses. Frank Finlay as the main scientist trying to find a preventative cause against the vampires. Patrick Stewart in a memorable role in one of the oddest scenes which included his first onscreen kiss, the least expected you could have in cinema. While Steve Railsback has a significant role as a person haunted in his dreams by an alluring female vampire, its Peter Firth whose the lead, the tough no-nonsense SAS officer who yet, because of the actor, does show moments of horror and disbelief even if he gets the job done. As much as one would wish for the alternative version of this film with Klaus Kinski in Frank Finlay's role, credibility to the film is mostly from the cast, able to make the more absurd plot narration and dialogue have tangibility to it.

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Abstract Spectrum: Psychotronic; Pulp

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): None

One of the best aspects of Tobe Hooper's films is their delirious tones. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is as much iconic from its soundtrack and pace as well as for Leatherface, while the sequel's change to comedy managed to amplify the content further. Films that would've been muted in tone depending on who directed them have a manic tone that is his trademark. The Funhouse (1981) ramping up its tone by its end, Eaten Alive with sets and bold coloured lighting Hooper was forced with when on-location shooting was impossible, even a film like The Mangler (1995) with its expressionist tone and Robert Englund's maniacal performance. This is why I've never believed in the theory Steven Spielberg directed Poltergeist, because while moments do show the fact he helped in the production, the intensity of certain scenes is far from Spielberg even at his most ghoulish. Lifeforce in hindsight to this should be as heightened in tone, especially with its reputation and what the narrative is about.

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It's disappointing to say, for its virtues, Lifeforce is one of the least delirious films in his CV despite its reputation. It's likely the US cut cemented that reputation, the film very much a straightforward sci-fi narrative. Hooper usually has a heightened, exaggerated tone to his work that's not present here. The Quatermass reference is apt because, while the plot ideas are elaborate and the ending is fitting a Cannon Films production, the film is methodically paced and avoids very off-kilter ideas. Moments undoubtedly show Hooper's trademark, such as the exorcism of Patrick Stewart, but for most of the film's length it's pulp updated for a more mature audience.

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Personal Opinion:

But that doesn't stop me from enjoying the film. It's a romp that, despite its production history and tonal shifts, never deteriorates in structure. Any sense of real disappointment is more in my preference in lesser known films like The Funhouse. The strength of the production, one of the few times where I see it as a huge virtue, unlike where even an Indiana Jones film can leave me cold, really helped protect Lifeforce from the problems that were taking place in plotting. And I can't help, relishing flag waving for once, but feel pride that this was definitely a British production as well as an American one.

Music of the Abstract: Riots by FM Einheit

Decoder (1984), by the one named Muscha, is the kind of film that should've been a wider known cult movie but isn't that easy to see unless you look to European DVDs and online. Set in a totalitarian cyberpunk metropolis where subliminal music used in a fast food franchise is subverted by anarchists to change the world, its a unique work that's stuck with me since viewing it in a fuzzy pictured form years ago. Its more of a mood piece than an elaborate narrative but its stayed with me for its colorful, dank atmosphere and how different from other sci-fi dystopia films it was. 

Alongside a cameo by William S. Burroughs, the onscreen and musical contributions by the likes of Genesis P-Orridge of Throbbing Gristle and FM Einheit alongside bands like Einstürzende Neubauten is probably the most distinct aspect of Decoder. As of June 2015, the original soundtrack by these individuals and more is available on British and American iTunes, and I give you the following as a nice taster of its electronic hamper.

Music of the Abstract: The Lilac Hand of Menthol Dan by Marc Bolan (1967/68)

Someone cannot just live off cinema only. There has to be other hobbies, and there are plenty of areas where the term "Abstract" appears quite frequently especially in music. Its fascinated me, through podcasts, blogs and interacting with people, how individuals can be cold to "difficult" cinema yet it is easier to for many to accept and love the more unconventional sounds and genres of music, to the point they can even become Top 10 songs and albums. It can''t be denied music is more universal, and it feels like even the membrane between the mainstream and the experimental is very, very thin, vast sub-genres to trawl through and enough musicians who could fill an entire asylum band on offer in your local media store. It feels apt to indulge in a track a week, and the first perfectly encapsulates the above view, a musician my own mother grew up loving but fitting the site at the same time:

Even as the figurehead of T. Rex, a band that I have fallen in love with as my mother and many in the seventies did, Marc Bolan in his brief tenure in life was magnificently odd in his music, where even hit number 1 and 2 songs in Britain like Ride A White Swan are lyrically and musically unconventional as you hum along with them. The following above, while not directly connected to T. Rex, is unbelievably catchy even with breaking glass as a percussion instrument. 

Suspiria (1977)

From https://billydunleavy.files.wordpress.com/
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Director: Dario Argento

Screenplay: Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi

Cast: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Alida Valli, Joan Bennett, Flavio Bucci

Length: 92 minutes

Synopsis: An American student Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) enrols in a German ballet school only for a murder to take place the exact same night she returns. From then on, the school is plagued by further deaths and Suzy discovers the building may be under the influence of a malicious and supernatural force.

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Going from a simple to digest synopsis, Suspiria even in its moments of quietness and exposition is a relentless feature in tone as individuals start to die and Suzy is dragged further into the mysteries of her new school. It's a plot that could've be fashioned into many a type of horror film, from a classic thirties black-and-white entry to a Hammer production to a modern day work like Lucky McKee's The Woods (2006), from the subtle to even softcore titillation if you cast the ballet student with Playboy Playmates. What Dario Argento's first full foray into supernatural horror because, adding flourishes of the fantastical into the previous film Deep Red (1975) after a string of giallo murder mysteries and one attempt at a political drama since his debut work, was one of the most critically acclaimed horror films of all time, one of the most acclaimed from the seventies genre boom in Italy and one of the most divisive, rarely from what I have seen online leading to mediocre reactions but between those who adore it and those who absolutely hated it. It's relevance is enforced when I was encouraged to revisit the film when it was brought up in a divisive debate on a Facebook profressional wrestling forum, as far from the cineaste and horror movie fan community as you can get and showing how Argento's take on a simple one-line premise spread its wings into popular culture. Currently David Gordon Green's remake, as of June 2015, is still not in production, and there were rumours of an anime reinterpretation which was fitting since the film was incredibly popular in Japan.  The fact these examples exist, even if only the original film exists itself, shows Suspiria's significance.

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The Italian genre films in their heyday, not just the seventies output but before in the sixties and to its decline in the late eighties, has an aesthetic and logic to itself where for every clear cut work that could enter the mainstream, like Sergio Leone westerns, many that even become popular have idiosyncratic details as a result of their creators, and the type of film production in technology and practice which took place in the industry, that feel more and more radically different as time passes. I see Suspiria as a masterpiece but its effect really does depend on how a viewer reacts to its style whether they will be gripped by it or not, explaining its divisive nature. Its story is a jumping off point for Argento to play with style and try to scare his audience with heightened emotions, as with the help of a fellow student Sara (Stefania Casini) Suzy learns more and more about her school. Most of this narrative is dispensed with, when other films would elaborate on them beyond an exposition scene near the end with Udo Kier, and concentrates of the visceral events as a result of what is hidden in the school. Whilst there are narrative points - the suspicious individuals who are at the school such as the headmistress Madame Blanc (Joan Bennett) and teacher Miss Tanner (Alida Valli), and the deaths that appear to cover up the mystery taking place - they're depicted more for their shock and for hypnotic effect, the narrative in the background and the story being depicted by visuals instead.

From https://thatwasabitmental.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/suspiria-1.jpg

Italian films can be an acquired taste with their post dubbed voices and occasional limitations in budget or resources, even a luxuriously designed film like Suspiria having a ghostly roughness hidden with its elegance and artistry. Alongside such beautiful uses of the camera, its still a film where Jessica Harper, with her own voice, is dubbed post production having a ghostly effect and there's a bat attack depicted with obvious strings moving it along. Alongside this Argento makes a dreamlike film that is less interested in a elaborate or even logical story, the unsubtle and ludicrous next to the mesmerising. Suspiria is not a film about lingering, quietly set up horror scenes but continually forcing your senses to be on continual alert, as much in the quiet moments absorbing the production design and music. This practice absolutely depends, more so than with other horror films, on the concept that ultimately affects cinema the most, whether an individual viewer reacts well to the content or not subjectively, as much on preference or for odd reasons, something which is more of an issue when a film like this concentrates on concepts like visceral effects that are affected by this directly. It is about being a continuous effect to the emotions and senses of the viewer as a score by prog rock band Goblin is blasting into your ear. With each scene of murder, there is a jolt whilst the visuals are heightened to over saturation, scenes where the close-ups of characters are soaked in blue or red lighting which engulfs their faces. There is a paradoxical nature where none of Suspiria is subtle but it causes one to feel on edge nonetheless through its intensity. Maybe a subconscious rejection of mine of the cleanliness of modern filmic aesthetic - CGI, digital video - but also my sensitivity to sound, colour etc., I've found myself drawn to older films especially between the Sixties to the end of the Seventies, finding myself closer to the idea of a "Total Cinema", where every aspect stands out from the acting to the music, even when it comes to b-movies and maligned genres like horror.

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Also of interest, its own paragraph, with this film is how distinctively female orientated it is in emphasis even in comparison to other Argento films. Women have stood out as strong characters and have been protagonists in his work, but with mainly male centred works in the beginning, this noticeable distinction with Suspiria stands out especially when there are only a few males on the sidelines and every other character is female. While it's been argued who exactly came up with the film's premise, the importance of Argento's than life-partner Daria Nicolodi as a co-writer for the script cannot be ignored. How Argento films women even in their death scenes also factors into this alongside the strong casting choices because they are always larger in life onscreen in his films. Jessica Harper as a strong central figure is never sexualised yet not completely juvenile as she is always opinionated, confined into a bedroom with a strict plain diet and red wine every night, and shows moments even brooding over a lit cigarette that effect the original idea Argento wanted of much younger female characters until the producers baulked at it. This strong femininity, contrary to accusations of misogyny thrown at the director, is as much a factor of why Suspiria stands out, for the simple reason that it makes the film even more distinctive when the usual idea for supernatural horror films is include a strong male lead who settles everything straight.

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Technical Details:

Suspiria was a film made to be seen on the biggest screen possible but also belongs to a small group of films as well where even the complete opposite type of viewing experience, on a tiny TV on a bootleg  videotape, would not take away from the ethereal effect of the movie, sucking a wide eyed viewer into its aesthetic world if fully engaged with. The cinematography is complete horrifying ecstasy, director of photography Luciano Tovoli managing to access exactly the presentation Argento had pictured in his mind for the look of the film. Between Suspiria and Inferno (1980), the sequel which increased the emphasis of the "Three Mothers" mythos between the films and the finale Mother of Tears (2007), every colour in the spectrum fills and covers the screen, some of the only films where colours instead of shadows hide an unseen force that could swallow up and destroy characters. The elaborate camera movements that sometimes occur are amazing from the same man who did the cinematography of Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975) and its incredible final sequence done in one single take, the gliding camera and elaborate movements in Suspiria, including a swooping "bird" POV, hard work which pay off for the movie's style. (In this highly productive period of Argento's career, Tovoli would only work with him again on Tenebrae (1982) but considering that film's septic sci-fi white palette and memorable uses of camera movement you appreciate how much it was worth it.) The production design sells the film's majestic look further, proof of this in how detailed it is to the point there are art references in the designs, such as a M.C. Escher motif on blood red walls where the first murder of the film takes place. Against the brutality, stabbings the usual M.O. which call back to the director's giallo against the supernatural tone, the sets seen in front of the camera are both utterly beautiful in vast contrast and also still terrifying when the sets are allowed to become more sinister or archaic by a switch of location or even a mere change in lighting in the same set as before.

It would be sacrilege not to mention the score. The music by Goblin is legendary by itself. Even as a fan of progressive rock of the period like Yes, Suspiria's score as with all of Goblin's work for Argento avoids all the worst aspects of the subgenre, always more direct, more atmospheric and, here especially, as avant garde as it is rock music. Hair raising utterances under a being's breath in a diabolical language, electronic synth throbs and rock cords were melded together into a score that is at ear drum breaking volume that is ungodly in its power but also adds the final touch that takes the unsubtle excess of Suspiria and causes it to work as a creepy, ethereal horror film.

From http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews49
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Abstract Spectrum: Fantastique; Psychotronic

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): High

Controversially, I did consider only giving Suspiria only a Medium rating because, originally, I viewed it as being still heavily dependent on its plot.  But like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), there is only a simple plot that could be encapsulated in only a few words - witchcraft and a ballet school - which is just a catalyst for everything else that you leave the film with. Dario Argento is a commercial director in Italy, but especially when he added the supernatural and tangents in the original Italian cut of Deep Red onwards, he went from very straight forward if knotted murder mystery narratives to ones where the unexpected and irrational take centre stage. Only Inferno (1980) is more abstract than Suspiria out of all his films, going further by displacing the notion of a single, clear protagonist to the story.

Many of the scenes have a complete artifice which takes the film out of conventional reality. The events that take place work by their own logic, characters who are never explained but make their prescience known and scenes stepping out of convention. (For an obvious example, the appearance of a room full of metal coils that, despite not being of the razor variety, still cause a shock in seeing their sudden appearance). The result is abstract in taking tropes of classic horror films and pulling into moods and presentations that are still unconventional decades later.

From https://horrorhothousereview.files.wordpress.com/
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Personal Opinion:

The Italian genre films around when Suspiria was made, with their technical flaws and plot irregularities as much as their virtues, have an unearthly tone that, to avoid dipping into insipid pseudo-talk on cinema, cuts through my normal conscious viewing and hits an emotional register that is the closest to a dream in cinema. The protagonist is the only anchor in this Technicolor horror fantasy, originally meant to be a fairytale with much younger characters that, even when that was rejected, still has that effect alongside the brutality, lashing of poster paint red blood and a vicious dog attack amongst the various horrible sights seen. From the moment Suzy goes out of an airport lobby in the first scene, the sight of the automatic doors opening and closing in extreme close-up is the sign for a nightmare for the rest of the movie that will take place. Suspiria also rejects the convention of narrative being of central importance. Narrative is not an inherent part of cinema, cinema itself visuals and sound, the visuals only and further in fact when you get to experiments by the likes of Stan Brakhage. Horror is not necessarily more interesting if there's more narrative, only when the narrative is very good, whilst other factors like the visuals and tone can have a greater power especially in the genre. For me, Suspiria is an incredible pinnacle of this. I can watch it twice without one or two weeks and it never loses its luster.