The movie for tonight isn’t one for the young audience - unless as a parent you are okay with them seeing quite a bit of free-flying bosoms across the run time. Look, one might think that the horror elements of life-sucking aliens and it’s aftermaths would be the thing scarring younger folks, but at least here in the states showing some bare skin has always equated to somehow worse than a person getting vacuum-packaged in their own skin. Funny how that works - but hey, I can say that it’s not actually all that violent at least! Taking sexy vampires to a level outside the stratosphere, tonight we tune in for Lifeforce.

Some astronauts are in space checking out Hailey’s comet as it passes by when they notice a strange reading. Looks like some sort of structure or craft hidden there - so like any solid space exploration group, they go in to check it out. Alien structures lead to a whole lot of dead floating space bats, and when the structure itself starts to move it almost leads them to a new room full of crystal like structures. Inside three, perfectly fine examples of humans - just as naked as a sleeping space person would be of course. The crew takes them back to the ship, and the next we see of the ship it’s floating in space near Earth, where some NASA boys need to flip up and check it out - only to find it burned and filled with corpses, all except three perfectly pristine human bodies in some kind of sleep chambers. Not getting the thought amongst them that it might be a bad idea, they bring them back home, And it isn’t long before one comes back to life and starts stealing the life force from those she comes across like some sort of energy vampire. Will our human cast figure out what is going on before it’s too late?

I’ll be straight with you, it’s kinda of an old movie - older than me but just barely. I know it’s not all movies of the day or past in general, but the acting here does have that bit of largeness to it - perhaps at times too much, like a certain someone yelling about bees in a different movie. Does it impact the horror side of things a bit? Not really, as most the highest rung of shouts and flamboyance is in the other segments, but I can see someone willingly arguing with me making a statement of the acting being decent in the movie because of the theatrics. That said, all considering I do believe that for the most part the actors do a good job with what they have. Beyond the Renfield-esque character, most the others are pretty subdued in energy levels and keep it rather down to earth. Our lead lady also does a pretty good job of being menacing and other-worldly, a bit of a feat considering she spends most the movie with no clothes on.

Characters I can throw out there are pretty whatever here. On my whatever-the-heck watch this is, I do notice much more Dracula like inferences - for example, the Renfield style survivor, who exhibits borderline insanity at times over the space woman he seems to now have a link with, or the man of science at the Space agency that develops a bit of a Helsing sort of role to him, finding out just what the vampires aren’t very fond of. Our main law man goes around for the ride, and although his character is pretty straight forward about things doesn’t really have anything I would really call growth or development. As a whole, any development is largely about what the space vampire things are, why they are there, and just what the heck is going on far more than anything to do with characters.

I’m sure if you asked most people if they knew this movie, they’d go “oh the one with the boobs?” Maybe it speaks to a male mentality of being hypnotized by them, maybe it speaks to how outrageous a concept it is to have the main lady actress spend so much time doing so much stuff in the buff - I don’t know for sure. The idea of space vampires does lead to some fun settings and props whilst in their spaceship - including the bat forms. The space suits look both slightly budget but cool enough for science fiction space suits, complete with big old backpacks for air and maneuvering. When we get back on land though? Mostly everyday common attire - at least for then. The main cop-type gets a nice secret agent style duster going on, but between all the suits and fatigues, it’s quite largely British feeling. Perhaps because of that the nudity stands out so much - I feel like most mental stereotypes of classic London would have people conjuring up posh outfits. There is some male skin in the game as well - although the most risque bit for those inclined is unfortunately just some butt cheeks and fit torsos.

The settings back home aren’t much to gawk at - they all feel pretty well what they should. The insides of the alien ship does have moments of Geiger like inspirations, and does in fact look pretty neatly alien. We do get plenty of effects -mostly light based stuff, be it literally just a light blasting from off-screen or an effect-based “soul” light zapping across the screen. We do have a good few fully-sucked bodies that looks like someone pulled all the air and moisture out of body - I mean, yes, still pretty well visibly a prop, especially when they do them moving, but quite detailed and gnarly looking regardless. It does in turn make things a bit sadder later on the movie towards the end, when most the “victims” start looking like generic people in zombie makeup. The bat creatures also look pretty cool, and the handful of dust-explosions that happen here and there look good. On the flip of this, it does show it’s age with some matte lines and the likes in various parts, but overall for a 40 and up movie things still look pretty dang good.

Audio was there, I guess. I did find myself adjusting audio back and forth a couple times - it mostly always felt way too quiet for me. I’m willing to just chalk this up as either Amazon’s streaming service or my computers audio causing it, but either way it feels a bit worth mentioning. Line deliveries are generally decent, but there are a few that have the energy level turned to 11. For the thinking folks, I’ll throw the connections between the unknown and alien and mythology, the power of boners, and your normal vampire movie sorts of things. I’m sure that maybe there could be more to it - like humanity’s propensity to do things they probably shouldn’t without thinking about it first, or maybe how inept peoples or governments can be at a sudden outbreak and getting things under control - but I really wasn’t thinking very hard in this movie. The main actress is gorgeous and constantly stealing the attention when on screen, and then I had forgotten that Patrick Stewart was in the movie until his name came up on screen and he later appeared for his part of of the flick. It’s got the typical racy vampire vibes in the movie - it just presents them in a different way is all.

The most safe for work picture of this actress for 90 percent of the movie.

It’s an alright movie. I won’t say its the best or craziest thing out there, but I’ve certainly seen far worse than this. It’s an interesting spin on vampires - although I’m sure the nudity will maybe be a bit of pass for some. It holds up relatively decent, although admittedly at times can feel a bit “what is happening” if you stop paying attention for too long. Life force sucking space bats have never looked so good, but the time it was made limits it at moments to help anchor it to old Terra firma.

@IMDB

Lifeforce (1985)