The defence The Arthouse Gremlin
“Its refusal to behave is the point.”
The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.
Back to trending 
The Quatermass Xperiment
Science Fiction · Horror · 1955
The first manned spacecraft, fired from an English launchpad, is lost from radar before roaring back to Earth and crashing in a farmer's field. The rocket is found to contain only one of the three men who took off in it; and he is unable to talk but appears to be undergoing a torturous physical and mental metamorphosis.
Movie details
The Quatermass Xperiment
“You Can't Escape It!”
1955 Science Fiction · Horror 1h 22m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.5 / 10
Community rating
The first manned spacecraft, fired from an English launchpad, is lost from radar before roaring back to Earth and crashing in a farmer's field. The rocket is found to contain only one of the three men who took off in it; and he is unable to talk but appears to be undergoing a torturous physical and mental metamorphosis.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over The Quatermass Xperiment?
For the defence
The Arthouse Gremlin
“The stranger, the better.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Quatermass 2
Sci-fi · 1957
In England, a group of space scientists led by Bernard Quatermass, who have developed plans for the first Moon colony, learn that a secret, ostensibly government-run, complex of identical design has been built in a remote part of England and is the focus of periodic falls of small, hollow "meteorites" originating in outer space. Quatermass determines to investigate and uncovers a terrifying extraterrestrial life form which has already begun action to take over the Earth.
It Came from Outer Space
Sci-fi · 1953
Author and amateur astronomer John Putnam and schoolteacher Ellen Fields witness an enormous meteorite come down near a small town in Arizona. Putnam becomes a local object of scorn when, after examining the object up close, he announces that it is a spacecraft, and that it is inhabited...
The Creeping Flesh
Horror · 1973
A Victorian scientist returns to London with his paleontological bag-of-bones discovery from Papua New Guinea. Unfortunately, when exposed to water, flesh returns to the bones, unleashing a malevolent entity on the scientist's family and friends.
It! The Terror from Beyond Space
Sci-fi · 1958
The first manned expedition to Mars is invaded by an unknown life form, which stows away on the rescue ship.
The Medusa Touch
Horror · 1978
A French detective in London reconstructs the life of a man lying in hospital with severe injuries with the help of journals and a psychiatrist. He realises that the man had powerful telekinetic abilities.
Cosmos
Sci-fi · 2019
Three astronomers accidentally intercept what they believe to be a signal from a distant alien civilization, but the truth is even more incredible than any of them could have imagined.
The Astronaut
Horror · 2025
After returning from her first space mission, astronaut Sam Walker is placed under NASA’s care at a high security house for rehabilitation and medical testing. However, when disturbing occurrences begin happening around the property, she fears that something extraterrestrial has followed her back to Earth
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Sci-fi · 1956
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.
This Island Earth
Sci-fi · 1955
Aliens have landed and are hiding on Earth, but need Earth’s scientists to help them fight an inter-planetary war.
I Am Mother
Sci-fi · 2019
A teenage girl is raised underground by a robot "Mother", designed to repopulate the earth following an extinction event. But their unique bond is threatened when an inexplicable stranger arrives with alarming news.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Val Guest
Written by
Val Guest · Richard H. Landau · Nigel Kneale
Brian Donlevy
Prof. Bernard Quatermass
Richard Wordsworth
Victor Carroon
David King-Wood
Dr. Gordon Briscoe
Jack Warner
Inspector Lomax
Margia Dean
Judith Carroon
Maurice Kaufmann
Marsh
J
John Wynn
Detective Sergeant Best
Court is in session
Put The Quatermass Xperiment on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Oddness is not depth.”
A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.