X the Unknown 4K (1956)

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

Spaceways 4K (1953)

“Quite Possibly Not What You Might Be Expecting”

The next lesser known Hammer film to get the 4K treatment on UHD and Blu-ray from the studio is Terence Fisher’s SPACEWAYS. As David Flint notes on one of the commentary tracks on here, SPACEWAYS is one of those early 1950s pictures that never seemed to be on television in the 1970s and 1980s and was consequently missed by a generation of young Hammer fans keen to see everything from the studio.

As a result, from the title and the poster art, you might imagine SPACEWAYS to be a rollicking science fiction adventure set in space, but it isn’t. In fact, while getting into space forms part of the plot, it’s by no means a large part of it.

The film kicks off with Dr Stephen Mitchell (Howard Duff, best known to 1980s viewers as the villain in soap opera Flamingo Road) and his experiments to establish the first orbiting British satellite. He has also been launching mice into space as a presumed side project but we don’t hear much more about that .

His wife Vanessa (Cecile Chevreau) is having an affair with Mitchell’s colleague Dr Crenshaw (Andrew Osborn) while his other colleague Dr Lisa Frank (Eva Bartok) keeps giving Stephen adoring looks at cocktail parties. In fact the whole first act feels a bit like if Jackie Collins (or Jacqueline Susann) wrote Quatermass but thankfully things take a turn towards a murder mystery when Vanessa and Crenshaw disappear. Has Stephen killed them and put them in the rocket he’s sent up? Or are there other espionage shenanigans going on?

SPACEWAYS is extremely light on the ‘Space’ bit and is far more concerned with being a low budget espionage thriller. It’s nice to see Michael Medwin and Marianne Stone pop up, especially as the leads aren’t exactly electrifying. Considering the film is adapted from a story by the excellent British SF writer Charles Eric Maine it’s all rather disappointingly low-key. Some of the extras contributor on here do state that the film has acquired a somewhat poor reputation over the years and it’s easy to see why.

Hammer’s extras do set about doing their best to correct that, though. We get the UK and US versions of the film, both of which are exactly the same length and there are very few difference. Commentary duties on the UK version are by Sarah Morgan and Heidi Honeycutt while David Flint talks us through the US cut. Neil Sinyard and Melanie Williams have a 32 minute sit down conversation about the careers of Duff and Bartok, while Wayne Kinsey and Ted Bohus take us through an entertaining 20 minutes comparing the UK and US SF output for the 1950s. I especially liked Wayne Kinsey’s comparative table that he draws up for us. 

Tim Lucas and Stephen R Bissette discuss the film (and the Maine source) for a whopping 67 minutes, while Gavin Collinson and Richard Hollis have a sit down discussion about the career of star Alan Wheatley (27 minutes). There’s also the UK censor card, trailer and a still gallery. As usual with these deluxe editions you also get a book with new essays and a slipcase to keep it all in.

Terence Fisher’s SPACEWAYS is out in 4K from Hammer in a limited edition two disc UHD and Blu-ray set on Monday 23rd March 2026  

A Million Days (2023)

 "Thought-Provoking British SF"

After its UK premiere at Frightfest last year, Mitch Jenkins' warning (or is it?) about what AI might become gets a digital release from Signature Entertainment.

It's the future (2041 to be exact) and it's eco-catastrophe time. Mankind's only hope is to 'seed' somewhere else in the universe and make it habitable. Not surprisingly earth's moon has been chosen for the planned procedure. Anderson (Simon Merrells) is the man to head the mission and his partner Sam (Kemi-Bo Jacobs) is the scientist responsible for creating Jay, the AI that's being used to simulate and predict every possible outcome. 

So when Sam's assistant Charlie (Hermione Corfield) arrives and explains that she has caused the simulation to look at the next 2739 years (the 'Million Days' of the title) why has Jay ignored the moon as man's next potential place of colonisation and instead gone straight to Europa? And does it have anything to do with a previous moon mission where Nazra (Nina Mahdavi) was killed? 

After a bit of a bumpy start A MILLION DAYS settles down and turns out to be rather good science-fiction of the 'three people in a room discussing the potential catastrophic effects of a scientific advance' type. I'm saying that so that you're not put off by the first fifteen minutes, where events and info dumps all stumble over each other a bit and may feel a bit confusing. Be assured it's all relevant and as the film proceeds there are a number of very satisfying twists and turns. By the end you're left with enough to ponder and as such A MILLION DAYS falls very much into the category that is that gem of science fiction - the small film with big ideas. Let's have a trailer:

A MILLION DAYS is out on digital now from Signature Entertainment

Devil Girl From Mars (1954)

"Classic Ropey Old British Tat"

Oh yes, the UK wasn't just making all-time classic SF like THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT in the 1950s, there was stuff like this as well (and FIRE MAIDENS OF OUTER SPACE and if you liked that you'll love this). DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS is getting a Blu-ray and DVD release from Studio Canal and of you didn't get to see it on Saturday morning TV back in the day now's your chance.

A motley assortment of characters including a model (Hazel Court), a physics professor who is essentially Quatermass-lite (Joseph Tomelty), an annoying alcoholic journalist (Hugh McDermott who probably wasn't supposed to be annoying back in 1954) and an escaped convict (Peter Reynolds) all find themselves together in a remote Scottish pub run by John Laurie with Adrienne Corri behind the bar.

A massive spaceship lands in their back garden and Patricia Laffan in a supremely impressive black leather outfit emerges, along with her enormous robot. She's come to collect men to take back to Mars and humanity has no chance. We know this because she keeps coming in through the French windows that are more a conceit to British drama than Scottish accuracy to tell them so. Does she succeed in her scheme or is it thwarted in a welter of very low-budget but creative effects?

In their commentary included on this disc, Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw express considerable affection for this film, even going so far as to cheekily suggest that Jonathan Glazer's Scarlet Johansson-starring UNDER THE SKIN is a remake (well she does land in Scotland). Certainly the two films would make a good double bill. They also quite rightly say that the US equivalent of this would be ROBOT MONSTER or possibly even PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE but in terms of quality (cast wise if nothing else) this is way above those film in terms of quality. Studio Canal's disc also comes with a 17 minute talking head piece from Newman which includes some of what's in the commentary but also has different material.

Important: A DVD was provided for review and worked fine on our player, but numerous reports have come in about the Blu-ray of DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS having synchronisation issues so you may want to wait before you buy.

DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS is out from Studio Canal on Blu-ray and DVD on Monday 15th January 2024

Lola (2022)

After its hugely successful premiere at Frightfest in London last year, (and one of my favourite movies of 2022) Andrew Legge's unique and affecting science fiction movie gets a cinema release from Signature.

England 1941. Two sisters build a machine that can pick up broadcasts from the future. They christen the machine LOLA after their late mother, the first date they tune it to is 1973, and the first thing they see on LOLA's screen is David Bowie. The country is currently at war and it's not long before they are using LOLA to save lives, accurately predicting where and when air raid strikes are going to occur. Pretty soon the British military get in on the act and, with their cooperation, huge disasters are averted and thousands of lives are saved.

But there's a problem. By saving people who would have otherwise been killed LOLA is now altering the course of the future, with everything from music to the very future of the UK itself ending up radically changed. With the UK under German rule and very different recording artists to the ones with which we might be familiar now popular (singing some decent compositions courtesy of Neil Hannon) is there any way things can go back to the way they were?

LOLA was shot in black and white in 4:3 aspect ratio on hand-cranked grainy 16mm film. It's combination of the sisters' personal log, plus CG-altered newsreel footage of the time makes for a unique and effective way of telling this particular kind of SF story. Performances are excellent, particularly the two leads, and the story is so economically and skilfully presented that you'll feel you've watched something lasting rather longer than the running time of 78 minutes. LOLA is clever, creative, thought-provoking and extremely moving, and well worth catching on its cinema release. Here's the trailer:

Andrew Legge's LOLA is released by Signature Entertainment in UK cinemas on Friday 7th April 2023

The Final Programme (1973)

Robert Fuest's film of Michael Moorcock's science fiction novel (the only one of his to have had a screen adaptation so far) gets a DVD, Blu-ray and Download release from Studio Canal. 

Dystopian Britain in the near future, heading towards an apocalypse with only days to go and World War III having been rumbling away for years but nobody's really noticed. Nobel Prize-winning, Bells whiskey and chocolate digestive-consuming, well-dressed genius Jerry Cornelius (Jon Finch) attends the funeral of his physicist father in Lapland. Afterward he's accosted by one of his father's colleagues asking for help locating microfilm that will assist in 'The Final Programme' which, it transpires, is a plan to funnel all human knowledge into a single human being which will form the next stage of evolution. Despite Jerry having other problems, including his brother Frank (Derrick O'Connor) keeping his sister Catherine (Sarah Douglas) drugged at the family home, he agrees to help the scientists, led by the mysterious (and mysteriously abled) Miss Brunner (Jenny Runacre), with eccentric consequences.

Of all the many novels written by Michael Moorcock the Jerry Cornelius quartet must be considered amongst the most difficult to adapt for the screen. Full marks, then, to Robert Fuest for making a pretty coherent job of what is admittedly the most narratively linear of the Cornelius books. That said it would have been marvellous to see what Fuest could have made of A Cure for Cancer or The Condition of Muzak, and it would have been especially marvellous to see Jon Finch in the role more than once. As it is Finch is likely the best screen incarnation of Jerry we will ever see, alternately brilliant or useless, foppish or aggressive, off the cuff witty or at a complete loss as to how to respond. One of the few individuals who could make a ruff shirt look cool, the others being Jimi Hendrix and Jon Pertwee. It's a memorable performance and after watching it's difficult not to think of him when reading later Cornelius books. 

Studio Canal's Blu-ray comes with an 11 minute interview with Jenny Runacre which starts off by her talking about her role in Freddie Francis' THE CREEPING FLESH before going into more detail about THE FINAL PROGRAMME. Kim Newman gives us 14 minutes on the films and career of Robert Fuest, we get the Italian title sequence with Moorcock's name spelled Moorcoek and three trailers, two UK ones and one for the US with its alternate title of LAST DAYS OF MAN ON EARTH. Note that the commentary track which is on Shout Factory's Region A Blu-ray release has not been ported over.

Studio Canal are releasing Robert Fuest's film of Michael Moorcock's THE FINAL PROGRAMME on Download, DVD and Blu-ray ( the Blu-ray comes with four art cards) on Monday 20th February 2023

Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969)

 

Was there ever a producer of children's television more famous among his intended audience than Gerry Anderson? Certainly there wasn't when his shows originally aired. Driven by a desire to make big budget action spectaculars when he had actually been given the job of making TV for the younger generation, Gerry didn't let that get in his way, instead producing a unique, in fact one could argue auteurist, body of work that is still appreciated and remembered (along with the man himself) to this day.

Having found success with shows like Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and Joe 90, Anderson made a rare foray into the world of live action features in 1969 with JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN, about to get a DVD and Blu-ray release courtesy of Fabulous Films. Anderson had already been involved with the feature films THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO (1966) AND THUNDERBIRD SIX (1968) but this was the first not to feature his trademark Supermarionation.

We're still firmly in Gerry's world, though, from the font on the opening credits to the intricate model work that looks as if it's just dying to be knocked over by Godzilla or the Giant Turnip Monster From Beyond the Moon. The plot of JOURNEY is more sober, however. A new planet is discovered on the far side of the sun and astronaut Glenn Ross (Roy Thinnes) and astrophysicist John Kane (Ian Hendry) are sent to explore, but they don't find what they're expecting.

JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN boasts excellent special effect for its era and an interesting cast that also includes Patrick Wymark,  Herbert Lom - whose eyeball-removal was a highlight of many a post-screening school playground conversation back in the day - and Lynn Loring, perhaps best known to readers here for the 1973 William Shatner Vs Menhirs TV movie HORROR AT 37 000 FEET. 

JOURNEY spends a lot of its running time getting our astronauts to the planet, but then this was the era of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and the model work and scenes in space were probably designed to take their time to appeal to audiences wanting more nuts and bolts of spaceships coupling and uncoupling. In fact this is dwelt on so much that the concept of the mirror world our heroes discover isn't given half as much time to be developed before it's all over, with quite the downbeat ending in keeping with other SF movies of its era (this was the year of BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES after all).

Fabulous Films' Blu-ray comes with a trailer and lovely cover art from Graham Humphreys but that's all. 

Gerry Anderson's JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN is out on Blu-ray and DVD from Fabulous Films on Monday 22nd March 2021

Somnus (2016)

“Not as good as BLAKE’S 7”

Not by a long way. Chris Reading’s slick, posh-looking, low budget, high concept, UK-made SF movie that sadly gets too many vital things wrong gets a DVD release courtesy of Soda Pictures.

We kick off with a charming prologue set in 1952 that looks as if it was shot on the Severn Valley Railway. There’s a train and a scientist and a mysterious book that we assume will figure prominently later on.

Three hundred years later. The crew aboard a commercial spaceship are starting to have problems with their on-board computer, Meryl, who has developed a distinct case of the HALs. While she’s busy bumping them off the ship itself develops a few problems and has to land on a remote asteroid called Somnus that houses a former penal colony, the few remaining members of whom have gone a bit nuts. Somehow that book from 1952 figures in that. Don’t ask me how. It gets even more confusing before the film stops.

I can’t decide if SOMNUS is admirably ambitious, but saddled with a director who hasn’t a clue how to tell a story properly, or if it's actually a shamelessly derivative rip-off of someone’s favourite scenes from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, ALIEN, DARK STAR and (yes) BLAKE’S 7. All of those did a far better job of telling the story I think we have here than this. Mind you, even RED DWARF could have done a better job with the central idea in 25 minutes than the 83 minutes we have here (including the obligatory interminable end credit crawl to pad this thing out to something resembling feature length).

It’s a shame because I really wanted to like SOMNUS. The effects and model work are very good for such a low budget, and you could definitely have got away with the level of acting we see if the story had been better presented. All that means SOMNUS is House of Mortal Cinema’s first infuriating film of 2017. Extras include a trailer and a director’s commentary.

SOMNUS is out on DVD from Soda Pictures on 2nd January 2017