★★★ Watched 31 Jul 2019
When I decided to focus on movies again and really try to give this movie review blog a second go around, Lifeforce was my first film. I had just watched CNN’s The Movie’s episode of the 80’s and realized there was so many films I never saw.
I worked at a local video store in the 80’s and remember seeing the VHS box cover in the horror section. Oddly, in the 80’s I might have worked in the video store after school but I never really got into movies until the 90’s working at Blockbuster Video. This is just a little fun fact that plays not purpose to this review other than Lifeforce made my think back fondly.
Okay, so on with the review. Lifeforce is an 80’s sci-fi film that borderlines on a zombie apocalypse. Astronauts find an alien space ship and three well preserved aliens in naked human bodies. They bring these aliens back to earth for examination. The two male aliens are killed, but the female survives. In order to survive, she must take the souls of humans by kissing them. She then can transform into another human body, changing her identity along the way. When she sucks the souls out of them, they become zombies and now you have half of London as zombies.
The film is odd, and oddly sexy with a naked woman taking those she wants in order to maintain her life. It is all about taking as many as she can. The film is directed by Tobe Hopper, who is known for his horror films. This film could be considered horror, but it didn’t have the same graphic content as his other works.
Overly dated and special effects are very 80’s but keeps you entertained for about 100 minutes. It performed poorly in the box office up against Ron Howard’s Cocoon. I might see why. It definitely didn’t have a main stream appeal though I do believe if it were to be remade today, they could do so much more, even keeping the story, that it would do well. I just think that the lack of “star” name might have hindered it too.
