Lifeforce

Critics Consensus

Brazenly strange and uneven in its execution, Lifeforce is an otherworldly sci-fi excursion punctuated with off-kilter horror flourishes.

58%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 26

45%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 9,607

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Movie Info

When a space mission involving American and British astronauts encounters an alien craft, the humanoids within are brought aboard the shuttle. Back on Earth, one of the extraterrestrials, who appears to be a gorgeous woman (Mathilda May), proceeds to suck the life force out of various Londoners, turning the town into a city of roaming half-dead people. When Tom Carlsen (Steve Railsback), a surviving astronaut, realizes what is happening, he sets out to stop the ruthless alien presence.
  • Rating:
    R
  • Genre:
    horror, sci fi
  • Original Language:
    English
  • Director:
    Tobe Hooper
  • Producer:
    Yoram Globus, Menahem Golan
  • Writer:
    Dan O'Bannon, Don Jakoby
  • Release Date (Theaters):
     wide
  • Release Date (Streaming):
  • Runtime:
  • Production Co:
    Golan-Globus, TriStar Pictures, Easedram Limited, Cannon Group
  • Sound Mix:
    Stereo, Dolby, Surround, Magnetic Stereo 6 Track
  • Aspect Ratio:
    70mm, Scope (2.35:1)

Cast & Crew

Steve Railsback
Colonel Tom Carlsen
Peter Firth
Colonel Colin Caine, Security Officer on phone
Mathilda May
Space Girl
Patrick Stewart
Dr. Armstrong
Michael Gothard
Dr. Bukovsky
Frank Finlay
Dr. Hans Fallada
Tobe Hooper
Director
Dan O'Bannon
Screenwriter
Don Jakoby
Screenwriter
Yoram Globus
Producer
Menahem Golan
Producer
Michael Kagan
Associate Producer
James Guthrie
Original Music
Michael Kamen
Original Music
Henry Mancini
Original Music
Alan Hume
Cinematographer
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News & Interviews for Lifeforce

Tobe Hooper: 1943-2017
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Critic Reviews for Lifeforce

All Critics (26) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (11)

View All Critic Reviews (26)

Audience Reviews for Lifeforce

  • Sep 12, 2020
    Yes its quite silly but that's clearly intentional. Hooper made a big budget Hammer Horror movie and you can either engage with it on that level or not.
    Alec B Super Reviewer
  • Aug 20, 2019
    An astronaut (Steve Railsback) struggles with love withdrawals after a space vampire makes him its bitch. And now it wants to take over the Earth, too. Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby, the writers, keep things interesting even if characters and situations do not perform as they should all the time. A big suspension of disbelief is required here, but nonetheless a decent sci-fi outing.
    Kevin M. W Super Reviewer
  • Sep 11, 2018
    The promise of 1980s, practical effects, and energy vampires with no clothes on is apparently all it takes to get me to watch a movie.
    Gimly M Super Reviewer
  • Oct 14, 2013
    A tribute to the Quatermass serials of yesteryear as well as a hodgepodge of other elements, 'Lifeforce' is one of the most messily dazzling science-fiction epics of the last quarter-century. Tobe Hooper was still in an experimental phase after 'Poltergeist' was wrested away from him by producer Steven Spielberg. The opening music with the London Symphony Orchestra reminds one of '2001' but the film quickly deviates into more addlepated territory. The film is very episodic in nature and it hopscotches from cosmic vampires to telepathic interspecies links to an apocalyptic movie. Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby are from the kitchen-sink school and they toss every wildly bombastic idea into the soufflé and for the most part, 'Lifeforce' is successful in its ambitiously lofty goals. The mammoth set aboard the 150-mile long spaceship are quite breathtaking in their scale for a Cannon production. Of course, any movie where Steve Railsback kisses Patrick Stewart because he is a female avatar isn't lacking a morbid sense of humor. For those with a strictly lustful interest in the film, Mathilda May's curvaceous body is on full display throughout most of the movie. As a style-over-substance picture, 'Lifeforce' is thunderously awe-inspiring and reconfirms Hooper's grasp of outlandish horror (the reanimated skeletons are undeniably goofy puppets).
    Cory T Super Reviewer
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