Lifeforce
Short description
A British space mission sent to study Halley's Comet encounters a derelict alien craft hidden in the comet's tail. Inside, the crew finds three humanoid figures preserved in crystal containers and brings them aboard. The commander, Colonel Tom Carlsen, is the only one who survives the return journey. When the craft reaches Earth, the recovered beings are taken to London, where they prove to be vampiric: they drain the life force from their victims rather than blood, and those they feed on rise again to attack others, spreading an epidemic through the city. A surviving officer, Colonel Colin Caine, works with Dr. Hans Fallada and Carlsen to understand and stop the outbreak, while Carlsen is drawn toward the female of the three, the Space Girl.
Tobe Hooper directed the film, the fifth of fifteen features he made in chronological order, following Poltergeist and preceding The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2. The screenplay is credited to Dan O'Bannon, Don Jakoby and Michael Armstrong, and the producers were Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus through Cannon. Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay and Mathilda May lead a credited cast of sixty, alongside Patrick Stewart and Michael Gothard.
The production cost about 25 million dollars and took roughly 12 million at the worldwide box office. On TMDB, viewers rate it 6.2 out of 10 from 769 votes; on IMDb, it is rated somewhat higher.
What's left behind the scenes
- A film adaptation of Colin Wilson's "Space Vampires".
- A 101-minute version of the film was shown in North American distribution.
- Hooper said that "Lifeforce" was his most underrated film.
- While preparing for her screen tests, Matilda May memorized her lines by ear because she did not know English. She learned the language over the six months that filming continued.
- To avoid getting cut by broken glass during the scene where she escapes the building, Matilda May asked to have rubber soles glued to the soles of her feet.
- The director's cut ran for 2 hours and 8 minutes, after which the film was trimmed to 1 hour and 56 minutes. The version for the European cinema market contains more violent scenes and eroticism, which were cut from the American version.
- Over 1,000 actresses were considered for the role that eventually went to Matilda May. According to director Tobe Hooper, it was very difficult to find an actress who was willing to be naked and engage in sex for almost the entire film. Hooper claimed that many British actresses refused to undress on camera, forcing the search to extend beyond the UK. Several German actresses conspired in advance and flatly refused to undress. It later turned out that one of the German actresses desperately wanted the role, and she was the one who persuaded the others. Producer Michael J. Kagan stated that Matilda May was cast, in part, because she was willing to film nude.
- During the exploration of the alien ship, the actors playing the astronauts were suspended on cables more than 18 meters above the ground. While filming these scenes, there were times when Tobe Hooper ended up with only a few seconds of usable footage by the end of the shooting day.
- According to Tobe Hooper, in the early stages of filming, Matilda May's pubic hair was completely removed so that her nudity would not be as conspicuous. However, it turned out that this made the actress look much younger, so she was told to let her pubic hair grow back. The actress had to undress regularly for Hooper so that he could examine her.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
