Horror 2021 Countdown: Quatermass and the Pit (1967)

 Quatermass and the Pit (1967) dir. Roy Ward Baker, Hammer Film Productions/Seven Arts Productions 

And so we end Hammer's Quatermass series. By this point Hammer had pretty much tapped the Universal library dry. Remakes were still a thing, so why not go back to the well for a Nigel Kneale teleplay?

Hobbs End is a quaint little part of London. The local tube station is in the process of being expanded, with the station now going to be a major extension. There's a lot of pressure to get the project done in time, but things hit a snag when workers find a great deal of human bones. 

Turns out the bones are actually fossils, so Matthew Rooney (James Donald), ace paleoanthropologist, is summoned to do a search of the area. He's impressed at the find and also amazed. He figures the bones are at least five million years old, making them older than anything else found so far. His dig also gets interrupted when workers find something else-a large metallic tube. The shape suggests a bomb and a pretty big one at that. 

Calls are made and soon Colonel Breen (Julian glover) is called. Breen was at the moment meeting with Professor Quatermass (Andrew Keir) as he was just appointed the Rocket Group's new military liaison. This doesn't sit well with Quartermass, who argues that his rockets are for peaceful exploration. The argument is put on hold when Breen is told the size of the apparent bomb. Quartermass tags along. 

The workers uncover the object and it looks less like a bomb and more a rocket, but like nothing Breen or Quartermass has encountered. The metal is heat resistant to an almost inhuman degree and it resists even the strongest drills. Some workmen are freaking out though. Besides the unbearable vibrations coming from inside the tube when one tries to work in there, some of them are reporting seeing horned figures running about. 

Of course, there have been reports of sinister dwarves and odd happenings around the area (back when it was called Hob's End) dating back to at least a century if not earlier and always when the ground is disturbed...

Things progress, with Breen and the Ministry making clear that whatever they found must be a lost V-weapon, while Quartermass argues that no, the Germans didn't create the perfect rocket then forgot about it. No, the answer must comes from space! But things are afoot. Remember all the weird happenings when the ground is disturbed? Yeah, Breen is about to disturb a heck of a lot more than the ground.

Absolutely wonderful. Compressed from the teleplay, they kept everything that worked. With Keir, you have a man who can bluster and bombast with the best of them. This is a man who has experienced things and will let you know it.