Mark Kermode reviews Quatermass and the Pit (1967) | BFI Player 

SUCH a brilliant, classic British movie! 👍👍👍👍👏👏👏👏

The way Nigel neale could blend sci fi and the paranormal always made his work fascinating.

The scene with the policeman guiding Quatermass through an abandoned London flat is overwhelmingly-creepy. "Just kids..." (the nervous and sweating cop). We knew better.

One of the very best Sc-Fi horror thrillers ever made, both the six part live black and white BBC TV serial presentation and the theatrical film adaptation. Both very influential in the modern development of the Sc-Fi genre still to this day.

Remember watching this film one night with my dad who sadly passed away a couple of months ago, I was a teenager but remember dad being as scared as i was. RIP Dad.

What impressed me was its insight. When Quatermass & Ronay accept the Martian theory but the govt & the military won't, Quatermass asks Ronay what we would do if we were doomed ("perhaps through climate change") ? Ronay answers "Nothing. Just go on squabbling like always. " All those years ago & They were so right on both counts.

This is a movie I never miss when it is shown. It is a great Sci Fi film more intent on the story line rather than special effects.

I think many in the UK saw this Christmas 1973 as a kid and turned out to be one scary film that everyone remembers. We were too young to have seen any of the tv series.

Loved the series as a young one. The suspense was beautiful. Keep coming back to it over the years.

Saw this as a teen, scared the shit outta me! A common reaction apparently.

Utterly *superb* film. One of me *VERY* fave sci-fi horror films ever.

I watched this way back in the 70's got me hooked ever since and once in a while I see it again. World building back stories. It leads you down a path that few movies do any more.

Great film. Seen it many times and get something new out of it with every viewing.

I must have been 10 when I saw the tv serial and was mesmerised and scared shitless at the same time - the whole country was. To this day I can't understand how my parents could let me watch it, especially that scene where the driller is left alone in the pit then starts jumping around and running through the streets with loose objects flying after him like his was a giant magnet. Jesus, it still gives me chills.

I've watched this film for the 1st time last year and I really love it especially as I'm doctor who fan and this to me feels very much like a Patrick Troughton/John Pertwee style doctor who story

Highly intelligent screenplay . Perfectly cast with the finest actors and a denouement similar to that of 2001 except more frankly detailed and therefore more satisfying.

I've Loved this Film since I was 7 years old. The Skull dug up at the beginning...

That film scared the heck out of me 😱

I like this version of the story. The BBC original was on Iplayer for a while and I loved it - it was so much more imaginative than a lot of sci-f and the grounded nature of the setting made it so easy to watch. It was little details like the soil analysis of the pit showing a lot of radioactive decay products - consistent with the remains of a nuclear propulsion system that showed that Kneale knew his stuff.

I actually saw this at the theater when it came out. My family mistakenly let me, their 8 year old son and the oldest of 4 boys pick the movie that night. I thought it was cinematic magic, my Mother walked out, with my brothers in tow, long before the end and didn't speak to me for a few days...

I remember sitting down with my parents one day and watching this during daytime. I wasn't very old ( I can't remember how old now, but I think I must have still been in school). I do recall that when the image of the Devil/ Martian loomed over London I wasn't at all scared, possibly because to me it looked like the Martian insectoids more than Satan. I'm not sure why I started looking it up after all this time, but I have. What I don't remember from all those years ago was Colonel Breen's demise... perhaps it was cut from the film as being too graphic for daytime viewing. And yes, for all that I'm a lot older, and there have been far worse things shown on screen these days, I did find those few seconds of footage showing what happened to him pretty unpleasant. It's easy to forget just how far film and visual entertainment has come in terms of visual effects since then, but in terms of story, I honestly think, with a few light tweaks, it could still hold its own with the very best of modern day SF. After all, even if the SFX are superlative, and the actors are first class and give the performance of their lives, no blockbuster is going to do well if the story is absolute rubbish!

Has the gorgeous Barbara Shelley too. :)

This film terrified me when I was just 15 - having been shown late night around Christmas 1973

A truly brilliant film

Anyone remember the Quatermass TV series from the 80's? The van with the mesh screen on the windshield, people floating in the air then exploding, and the creepy nursery rhyme about "losing your hat and it'll never be found" - can't seem to find that on here.

Saw this at Home Cinema in Manchester and rushed out to buy the Blu Ray the next day. What an absolutely superbly acted and perfectly paced sci fi film. Cant lie I do get a giggle out of everyone solution to being shocked by aliens being 'chin up old boy get a shot of whisky down you'

One of the greatest sci fi movies ever made ... very creepy

All 3 Quatermass films Hammer turned out were excellent, and for me at least - and rather uniquely so - each one was better than the last. Unusual for a trilogy.

Barbara Shelly is in this movie va VA Voom for real

Brilliant film

well i was born in 57 but did not see any square pins sockets till the 70s but they were very few of them about i worked as an electrician so by then they were totally common with exception of a few properties

I do think that the six part serial is better than the 1967 film. More time to develop the characters and plot .Nigel Kneale certainly knew what he was doing

I prefer the Martian design from the BBC serial, but also prefer the Hammer spaceship design over the original. Changing the setting of the excavation to the London Underground was a genius idea.

Yes, the Cut for the movie was well done even though I miss a couple of scenes from the original Mini-Series like the side story about the journalist trying to find out what the hell the Military and the Historians were doing in this pit of the Tube´s construction sight or the more advanced scenes about the events in Hobe´s Lane.

great film

What puzzles me about this film is that you know when they tell to sw the generator off I noticed they got square 3 pin sockets two of them be precise just above the shut off switch I was nine years old when I first saw this film and I can tell Sq pin socket did not exist only smaller 3pin and the larger version non of them had fuse like today units ?

You're celebrating the wrong production, Mark. It is a very good film. Certainly the best of the Quatermass film adaptations. However, to put bluntly, it's nowhere near as good as the original 1958 TV production. Not even in the same league. The BBC's 1958 television production of 'Quatermass and the Pit' remains a powerful masterpiece that completely eclipses the 1967 film remake in almost every respect. In fact, of the two productions, the 1958 TV version feels far broader and more cinematic than the 1967 film version does. It's certainly stood up very well for the handful of cinema screenings it's had over the years. Some scenes in the TV version were performed live, it is true. However, most of it was shot more conventionally on 35mm film, on location and on large studio sets - just as any cinema feature would be. The scenes of panic on the streets of London are particularly more effective in the 1958 production, than they are in the rather cramped studio scenes we got in the Hammer remake. The 1958 TV version shows off better cinematography, better design work and it is just far more atmospherically directed all round. At around three hours long, the TV version needs sticking with, but it's very much worth doing so. By the last two episodes we have some expert (and chilling) pieces of sustained visual storytelling, that are unique among 50s TV and also completely missing from the film remake. The scene in the church yard is one of the highlights - mixing horror and religion in a way that was pretty unique for the time and would remain so for decades to come. The first two Quatermass TV serials (1953's 'The Quatermass Experiment' and 1955's 'Quatermass II') were very crude live TV productions and the film remakes certainly improve on the look of those productions. However, 'Quatermass and the Pit' is very different. It doesn't deserve to be a mere footnote when talking about the 1967 film remake. It should be the other way round. Full disclosure, I work for the BBC and recently produced a new BluRay restoration of the 1958 production of 'Quatermass and the Pit'. We'd be happy to send you a copy any time.

Quatermass and the Pit? Is that like Huey Lewis and the News?

A Great film and like Alien in that it let's your imagination fill in we're shit special effects would have destroyed the movie, always showing you enough and then it's over to your mind to horrifie yourself

That would be a great time to trip on LSD

Scifi and Horror have lost a lot with big budgets [except the vanishing few] they don't have to rely on plots anymore so don't.

I was looking for this movie for ages. I'm glad I finally found it. Thank you so much for talking about it!