Terence Fisher, one of my favourite directors, handles the film with his usual level of style and flair and it has some very impressive visuals. In spite of its low budget, it looks great. His deft sense of casting is on display particularly as regards Christopher Lee (who, as always, makes a great leading man), Peter Cushing, Jane Merrow, Patrick Allen, his real life wife Sarah Lawson, Thomas Heathcote and William Lucas, almost all of whom also appeared in one of Fisher's many great Hammer films.
What lets the film down is the pedestrian script - it's hard to take a film seriously when it has lines like "She's a slut and I wanted her body!" - and the dull love triangle between the Callums and Angela, which is admittedly well acted by Allen, Lawson and Merrow. I hope that his affair wasn't a reflection on Allen and Lawson's actual marriage! Cushing, who is credited as a "guest star," is as great as ever, particularly in his one major scene with his frequent on screen nemesis Lee, but it's really nothing more than an extended cameo.
It more or less falls apart in its second half. There was a great sense of atmosphere and tension that disappears as soon as the alien threat was brought up. It has some nice ideas but it's one of those sci-fi stories that it is much more interesting before you know what is going on. It feels like an overlong episode of "The Outer Limits" at times.
Overall, it's a decent, watchable film but not a great one. Bar some of the visuals, it's not terribly memorable. Still, it was nice to watch one of Fisher's non-Hammer films for the first time. This was his final non-Hammer film, incidentally.
What lets the film down is the pedestrian script - it's hard to take a film seriously when it has lines like "She's a slut and I wanted her body!" - and the dull love triangle between the Callums and Angela, which is admittedly well acted by Allen, Lawson and Merrow. I hope that his affair wasn't a reflection on Allen and Lawson's actual marriage! Cushing, who is credited as a "guest star," is as great as ever, particularly in his one major scene with his frequent on screen nemesis Lee, but it's really nothing more than an extended cameo.
It more or less falls apart in its second half. There was a great sense of atmosphere and tension that disappears as soon as the alien threat was brought up. It has some nice ideas but it's one of those sci-fi stories that it is much more interesting before you know what is going on. It feels like an overlong episode of "The Outer Limits" at times.
Overall, it's a decent, watchable film but not a great one. Bar some of the visuals, it's not terribly memorable. Still, it was nice to watch one of Fisher's non-Hammer films for the first time. This was his final non-Hammer film, incidentally.