Hammer’s follow up (of sorts) to their 1955 hit THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT is the latest film to receive the company’s whistles and bells deluxe treatment, with a special four disc limited edition set being released that includes a book, lobby card reproductions and a poster.
In Scotland a large crack opens up in the ground where military training is taking place, killing one man and causing severe radiation burns on another. Because of this the help of the nearby Atomic Energy Laboratory is sought, including Quatermass stand-in Dr Adam Royston (Dean Jagger), his assistant Peter Elliott (William Lucas) and their boss John Elliott (Edward Chapman before he was Mr Grimsdale in Norman Wisdom comedies).
There’s a raid on the base, during which a safe door is melted and nuclear material stolen. A small boy sees something moving in the woods and gets the same radiation burns as the soldier. It turns out the crack in the earth has unleashed a large energy-hungry blob and it’s on the way to the atomic station for its next meal.
An entertaining, brisk, well-shot variation on the Quatermass theme, X THE UNKNOWN benefits from straight-faced performances and scientific explanations that you can just about believe for the length of the running time. Fans will spot plenty of familiar faces and if you’ve not seen this and love British SF you deserve to treat yourself.
As mentioned above, X THE UNKNOWN is getting the deluxe treatment. but if you want just the discs then those are being released in separate two-disc UHD or Blu-ray sets as well. However if you go for the limited edition, aside from the printed material, here’s what you’re going to get:
Disc One (UHD) and Disc Three (Blu-ray)
As with Hammer’s CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and other limited edition sets, these two discs have the same material on them. Disc one offers you the UK cut of X THE UNKNOWN in two aspect ratios - 1.66:1 (with optional Toby Hadoke and Andy Murray commentary) and 1.37:1 (with optional Steve Haberman and Constantine Nasr commentary). The film really benefits from the 4K transfer and the two commentaries work well in terms of complimenting one another.
There’s a 62 minute new making of documentary, Into the Unknown, which, if you’ve listened to both commentaries, will feature quite a bit of familiar information from Toby Hadoke, Andy Murray, Wayne Kinsey, Dick Klemensen and Frazer Hines. There’s a 2003 Jimmy Sangster interview (22 minutes) but perhaps the highlight of the disc is a 49 minute in depth and quite touching documentary on special effects wizard Les Bowie, hosted by his co-worker Mike Tilley and featuring Wayne Kinsey. It’s excellent and features a number of models, matte paintings and other examples of Bowie’s work.
Disc Two (UHD) and Disc Four (Blu-ray)
This disc offers the US cut of X THE UNKNOWN in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio with an optional commentary by David Kalat, whose commentaries are always excellent although again if you’ve already listened to the two previous commentaries you may get a little bit of unavoidable deja vu. Disc two also has a plethora of bits and pieces including textless and mute opening titles, a trailer, censor card, the 8mm version of the film (26 minutes), a piece on the restoration (11 minutes), image gallery, and a sidebar in which Tim Lucas and Stephen R Bissette discuss the film for longer than X THE UNKNOWN’s running time (87 minutes).
The undisputed highlight of disc two, however, is Displaced and Damned, a 76 minutes career overview of director Joseph Losey with contributions from Melanie Williams, Gavrik Losey, John Hamilton, David Huckvale, and Lauren Barnett. This being a Hammer disc it’s understandably Hammer heavy, detailing Losey's nearly-directing of X THE UNKNOWN and his actual directing of 1962’s THESE ARE THE DAMNED. We also get the Losey-directed and Jimmy Sangster-scripted short (29 minutes) A MAN ON THE BEACH (in colour and 2.35:1 widescreen) in which criminal Michael Medwin ends up at the house of Sir Donald Wolfit.
As is so often the case with these releases, the film feels more of an extra to support the special features and as such this package offers excellent value for money, with three commentaries and two excellent documentaries, plus of course you get X THE UNKNOWN looking absolutely pristine.
X THE UNKNOWN is out in a limited edition four disc UHD and Blu-ray set, and in standard separate two disc UHD and Blu-ray editions on Monday 27th July 2026
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