A Look At LifeForce, or “I Married A Vampire Space Demon”

I am once again at a loss at how to start this overview. Unlike Great White where I was trying to find something to say, I find myself trying to find out what I really want to talk about, and what I want to gloss over for the sake of time. Anyway, Lifeforce is a 1985 sci-fi horror film directed by Tobe Hooper. It stars Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, Nicholas Ball, and Mathilda May. Patrick Stewart also has a small role in this, which we’ll come back to. What’s the story?

Vampires from space come down to Earth to wreak havoc and steal, well, the lifeforce of humans. Boom. Done. 101 minutes summed up in a sentence. Oh wait, there’s also a head vampire known as Space Girl (May). No really, they just call the main antagonist “Space Girl”. She doesn’t say her name, or is given a name, she’s just the “Space Girl”. This isn’t a bad thing, but it’s still weird. Her species doesn’t have a name either, other than vampires. This isn’t a bad thing, in fact I like the mystery of not knowing what they actually are. Did I say they? Yeah, so there’s two other vampires, but they do nothing other than die (Shelly Syndrome strikes again), so just forget about them. So the head vampire wants to steal the lifeforce from the humans of Earth in order to awaken her brothers and sisters, or to just power the ship. It’s never made clear. Now it’s up to Col. Tom Carlsen and Colin Caine (Railsback and Firth) to stop her.

I thought the most enjoyable character was Caine, he always seems so calm during…