The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) letterboxd review: invisible space cactus ruins everything, cockney lady provides commentary 7/10

#monsterdon

Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure! #Monsterdon #Quatermass1955

What, no, London, the monster's fine.

“It’s not a question of how many, it’s a question of where are they.”

Sir. Sir. How many is kind of important if they’re Ginormous Self-Expanding Digesto-Blobs!!!

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I think we can all agree it's both about how many there are AND where they are.

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@chirpbirb gotta make the little slugs!? #DadMissingThePoint #monsterdon

These guys are BAD SCIENTISTS. There. I said it. #Monsterdon #TheQuatermassXperiment

Bunsen burner - Drink!

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warn the street waifs
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At night in the lab the goo ball decides that it wants to become a tentacle monster, so it breaks out of its cage, eats a few poor mice then evolves to its starfish form and takes a nap on the floor.

We inspect it with a Mr Bean extendo-arm and conclude that its about to reproduce, which would be bad because there are probably other goo balls around London already.

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@josh0 The zoo in Cat People (both versions) is similarly depressing.

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Is this like that bit in The Thing (1982), but with mice instead of dogs?

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“I think this time you really saw it” #Monsterdon

"Anti-panic statement"

oh I'm sure that'll work

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"no, rosie, this time it's not part of the hat man visitations"

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It's Rosie's world and we're just living in it #Monsterdon

Oi, buddy, keep your peudopods to yourself! #Monsterdon

I believe I have found my favorite character. #TeamRosie #Monsterdon

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If he absorbs Rosie he will lose half of his hit points.

#Monsterdon 🚀 🪐 👽 🚀 🌍 🥼 😱

BINGO 🎉 🎉

He just happens to carry a pair of extendo grippers with him just in case something like that happens. Shut up. #monsterdon

back in the police factory a lady named Rosie wanders in having seen something, but I'm not british enough to understand what she's saying.

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The police aren't here to protect you Rosie, it's a lie...

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I believe that is Thora Hird playing 'Rosie', I only know her as a very old lady from my youth...

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Nice pulsating effect

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NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Uh, sir, your… goo…

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Oh, he must've eaten a snail at some point. #Monsterdon

@Wynter okay so they send a rocket to space and it comes back and the astronaut is like a zombie man who punches cacti and people to death while wandering about in a fugue. now he's going to a zoo to i guess punch some animals to death. meanwhile a grumpy scientist and other grumpy people are trying to catch him. #monsterdon

[silence continues]

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lol, they let in a family when all the animals had been butchered over night?
Do they get a refund?

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I think we've gotten to the part of the film where Victor's transformation exceeds their special effects budget.

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bingo bingo bingo

well just the one but

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The special features on the Blu-ray include a comparison of the UK and American versions of the movie. They made an alternate title sequence with “Experiment” spelled correctly and “United Artist (sic)” incorrectly, before they decided to change the title to “The Creeping Unknown”. They also cut the closeup of the dead pharmacist’s face, among other things.

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i am choosing to believe that everything he punches has its power added to his arm, so now the arm has the power of cactus, grifter guy, pharmacist, and dolly #monsterdon

Does anyone want to watch Are You Being Served after this

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Shades of Frankenstein. #Monsterdon

emotions by character in this #monsterdon

victor: terror, the chills, brief flashes of rage
judith: "womanly sympathy"
little girl: childlike whimsy
hospital attendees: eagerness to get off of work
other characters: irascible grumpiness

left holding the teacup
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I think this constitutes bingo!

#Monsterdon #TheQuatermassXperiment #MonsterdonBingo

@log

Wait don't we have a Maximum Energy meme?

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Oh wait he killed the drug store guy too and hid him in a closet. RIP drug store guy. #monsterdon

@SnoopJ this is like many good #monsterdon movies, it could be SO MUCH if it would just be ONE THING

Meanwhile, Victor broke into a drug store and I guess tried to rob it with drugs to kill himself but he changed his mind and took something else instead. Also, he showed the shopkeep his weird plant arm that he used to kill a guy and also punch a cactus.

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You see, when a cactus meets an alien and they merge tissues, little cactus-aliens are delivered by the stork

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MONSTER SMASH

Yikes, that's two folks Victor has taken out now - ol' Cactus Hand, we used to call him.

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I get the feeling the script was written with a blank space indicating [dramatic scary thing here]. But they ran short of time and had to go with cactus hand.

"Not sure that's gonna terrify the audience Bob"

"You got something better?"

"Okay, cactus-hands it is.

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“An intellectual carrot. The mind boggles.” —Scotty, The Thing from Another World (1951)

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@wohali Imagine if it was a carnivore plant
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#TheQuartermassXperiment

Little girl scene is coming up… reminiscent of the girl in Frankenstein (1931). Perhaps even a winking reference by the writers.

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He's like a polite British Zaat

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Well don't give it Lucozade

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I don’t think she’s going to be able to get him well and strong, do you? #monsterdon

You have to hand it to Victor #monsterdon

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Whoops...internet is out (ice storm today). I'll try to rejoin asap.

The secret monster this week: Cactus Hands!

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She's screaming over the wasted cigarette

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did he just make a cigarette explode by touching it?

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Watch it, he's handy

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Why scream when he left?

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In the elevator, Victor is hiding his hand, then hits the doctor who sprung him out. Then he leaves the elevator alone and Judith drives him away, promising to find him the best doctors.

Back in the hospital a nurse finds that the doctor who was hit was hit so hard that his skull was exposed. Back in the car, Victor looked like he was going to spaz out again and attack his wife, but instead he smashed open the door and left.

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"What are you hiding?"

pulls out a middle finger.

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He hates cacti AND orderlies.

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Assault with a deadly succulent

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Judith and a doctor hatch a plot to spring Victor from jail, I mean the hospital. He starts vibrating and then punches a catcus, which hurts his hand because cacti are pointy.

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What can possibly go wrong with an astronaut heist? #Monsterdon

We have strong feelings about feelings in science.
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nobody suspects the dripping wet orderly

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Watch them try to sedate the wife..

Probably the best silent film I've ever seen.
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Kubrick did that walk around scene better. #Monsterdon

It isn't "miss" if she's married
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this cannes film festival sucks.

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okay, _maybe_ we should've started with a monkey.

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The camera is programmed to cut out every so often? What, then, is the point of putting any in there? Quartermass? Idiot. #monsterdon

I love the comic timing of the film cutting away to the shot of the gauges. A split screen would be so much less funny.

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The reaction shots! *chef’s kiss*

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You know, those are pretty good zero g effects.

#monsterdon #Quatermass1955

That's not how zero-g works
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NICE gravity-free environment effect!

The first found footage horror film? No of course not.
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oooo, they're doing that rotating thing they did later in 2001: A Space Odyssey

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Ha ha, I love zero-G sections like this :D #Monsterdon

Scrotusmass...

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"There's no room for personal feelings in science!"

Not sure how I feel about that...

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While Quarty and the Doctor are talking about the goo, in the background Victor gets out of bed then knocks a vase over, alerting his wife, whose name I have learned is "Judith". Anyway, after he falls over Judith calls Quarty a callous bitch or something, and then Victor goes back to sleep.

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"My old man will fuck your old man....watch...."

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Yeah landing that hard turned them to jelly, Duh. #monsterdon

We checked the rocket again and found a something to take a sample of - it turns out to be some kind of organic cellular residue - possibly human remains. Also, we learned that the camera that we thought was destroyed has film that can be developed. We learned both of these things via cranky interrogations.

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@wohali there seems to be a lot of stupid in the stupendous

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🫆before fingerprints
🐾after fingerprints
I’m sure everything’s fine.
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@cd0 #monsterdon

oh yeah? would a HOSPITAL know that bunsen burner was too high?!?!?

“It was badly damaged but I managed to get the film out.” In the dark, I hope!

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That's probably the place JITB discovered the midnight sauce....#monsterdon

Film? What Film?

THIS Film?

Wait, what is everyone talking about?
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Are we breaking the fourth wall right now

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Victor's totally gonna eat her liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

#monsterdon #TheQuatermassExperiment

I like the sets in this movie. The 50s lab looks cool. The 50s office looks cool. The rocket interior looks cool, despite being sideways when it should be both upside down and diagonal.

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ACAB, but I like Lomax

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