(1957)  Black and White, 85 minutes, Not Rated CAST: Brian Donlevy (Quatermass), John Longdon (Lomax), Sidney James (Jimmy Hall), Bryan Forbes (Marsh), William Franklyn (Brand), Vera Day (Sheila), Charles Lloyd Pack (Dawson), Tom Chatto (Broadhead), John Van Eyssen (The PRO), Percy Herbert (Gorman), Michael Ripper (Ernie), John Rae (McLeod), Marianne Stone (Secretary), Ronald Wilson (Young Man), Jane Aird (Mrs. McLeod), Betty Impey (kelly), Lloyd Lamble (Inspector), John Stuart (Commisioner), Gilbert Davies (Banker), Joyce Adams (Woman MP), Edwin Richfield (Peterson), Howard Williams (Michals), Philip Baird (Lab Assistant), John Fabin (Intern), Robert Raikes (Lab Assistant), George Merritt (Superintendent), Arthur Blake (Constable), Michael Balfour (Harry), Jan Holden (Young Girl). CREDITS: Director/Producer: Anthony Hinds; Executive Producer: Michael Carreras; Screenplay: Nigel Kneale, based on the BBS television series; Director Of Photography: Gerald Gibbs; Editor: James Needs; Music: James bernard; Musical Supervisor: John Hollingsworth; Art Director: Bernard Robinson; Production Supervisor: Anthony Nelson-Keyes; Assitant Director: Don Weeks; Camera: Len Harris, Frank George.

Professor Quatermass is returning to his research center when he nearly has a collision with another car.  He discovers that the young man driving the car has been badly burned by a meteor-like object he has handled at the nearby Wynderden Falls while on a picnic with his girlfriend.  Taking his assistant Marsh with him, Quatermass investigates and discovers that there is a very secret installation on the site that matches a model for a moon colony that Quatermass had developed.  Marsh finds one of the meteor pieces and it erupts badly burning his face.  Almost instantly armed military arrives and takes Marsh away while escorting Quatermass of the premises.

In doing research, Quatermass finds that the installation is supposedly doing work on the development of synthetic food and that the approval and construction of the site comes from key government officials.  Quatermass begins to fear that some sort of conspiracy is developing and that it ties the government, military and a possible alien life-form.  He also discovers that a member of Parliament, Broadhead, is behind another investigation into the project.  They force an inspection of the site and Broadhead finds a storage container supposedly filled with the new synthetic food.  A closer investigation leaves Broadhead fatally burned by contact with it.  The guards surround the inspection group to arrest them and contain them but Quatermass makes an escape.

Quatermass goes to Inspector Lomax of the Scotland Yard and tells him that an alien life force has possessed the bodies of several government officials, military leaders and local citizens and turned them into Zombie-like beings with no will of their own and that the aliens have been arriving via the little meteor-like objects found on the site. Quatermass and Lomax contact a reporter, Jimmy Hall, to break the news to the public, but Hall wants proof of his own of this fantastic story and insists on going to the site before he writes anything. He gets his proof when they stop at a pub and meteor crashes through the roof and takes possession of the barmaid.  While trying to call his story in, armed guards arrive and kill the reporter.

The villagers who helped build the facility and have come to fear it now revolt and storm the installation as they take over the control center.  In an attempt to put an end to the alien, they pump oxygen into the storage domes thinking this will kill the alien life-form.  Marsh, who is now a member of the Zombie-like brigade leads a band of other controlled zombies to stop Quatermass and in the ensuing battle a nuclear rocket is launched, aimed at an asteroid where the alien objects are originating from.  The alien creature erupts from the storage container but is destroyed by the fire it helps to create with the bursting oxygen and the rocket hits it's target, destroying the asteroid and it's control over the people.  

Quatermass 2 was the first film sequel in the entire history of film to actually be numbered, a common practice today.  Unlike most sequels, it was decided that this one would have to be bigger and better than the first film so more money was put behind the making of the film.  Hammer wanted both Brian Donlevy to return as Quatermass and Val Guest to return as director and secured them both.  Nigel Kneale was brought in to adapt his six-part serial to a feature-length format.  Kneale had been bitter about the adaptation of the first film, especially in the way that changes were made in the Quatermass character for the first film.  

Exclusive films, which had distributed many of the Hammer projects until now, was not willing to help foot the larger budget so Hammer turned to United Artists, giving them complete distribution rights in exchange of 100% of the financing. It was an excellent marketing move since United Artists had much further reach in the distribution market.  Still, even with a larger budget, this was a relatively small production and the studio had to be very creative in bringing the story to the screen.  Hammer has always had the ability to hide their budgets and make the film look like a much larger funded film.

QUATERMASS 2 was previewed at a trade show on March 22, 1957 and then went into general release on June 27, 1957.  Both the critics and the public received it very well and it was again renamed for U.S. distribution as ENEMY FROM SPACE.  QUATERMASS 2 is very typical of  science-fiction films of the time and the concept of an alien invasion that overtakes humans to gain control of the population.  Films like IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (1953), INVADERS FROM MARS (1953), IT CONQUERED THE WORLD (1956), and I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE (1956), as well as the excellent INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956) all dealt with the theme of alien takeovers.  QUATERMASS 2 stands along side all of them as an excellent example of transferring the paranoia of government and military power and transferring it into a science fiction setting.