What a waste of my time!!!

People are voting emotionally.

Let's be realistic.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A 5-million year old Martian colony ship containing the remains of the original insectoidal crew is found buried beneath London. Disturbing the ship causes a release some kind of paranormal energy that causes visions of the horned Martians, violent compulsions, and psychokinetic disturbances, so the area (Hob's Lane, 'hob' as in 'hob'globin for example) is reputed to be cursed. Despite hero Quatermass' warnings, the army dismisses the ship as an unexploded experimental weapon from WW2 and allows the press to bring in generators. The ship, which was programmed to compel the original Martian crew to preserve the colony at all costs and to destroy any different life forms (apparently a continuation of the eugenic genocide that destroyed their home world), fully awakens and drives the local humans to embark on an orgy of destruction and murder. Earth is saved by an astute guess as to the nature of the Martian technology and a convenient crane. Overall an imaginative and intriguing set-up let down by a weak ending - the astute guess was not based on much data, so comes across as a bit of a Deus Ex Machina, and the crane was just tooooo convenient (and the heroic martyrdom of James Donald's character is a bit silly – what did he think he was going to do, perched on the edge of the massive construction crane – shift it with his weight?). Despite the limitations of the climax and some dodgy special effects, "Five Million Years to Earth" (aka "Quatermass and the Pit") is a great example of the cerebral (relative to most concurrent American releases) science fiction movies to come out of Britain in the 50s and 60s. Overall, a clever spin on the classic premise of aliens being the inspiration of our racial memories of devils and demons (for other examples, see A. C. Clarke's "Childhood's End" or the third doctor serial "The Dæmons" (1971)) and well worth watching for both the story and Andrew Keir's excellent portrayal of the iconic (in some circles) 'Bernard Quatermass' character

FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH is what I call a "Sci-Fi Shocker." Part Shocker (in the Fright Film sense) and part Science Fiction, it begins with the discovery of an ancient artifact in a London subway system. Said artifact just happens to be located in Hobbs End (Shades of John Carpenter's IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS!), where, legend has it, Strange Things have been going on for so long that the area is said to be Haunted. This "combination of genres," if you will, has always been one of the things that made FIVE MILLIONS YEARS TO EARTH stand out in my mind: two genres for the price of one- and the ghostly images of the Aliens themselves (Shades of John Carpenter's PRINCE OF DARKNESS!) remain as eerie Today as the day they were unearthed.

A mysterious artifact is unearthed in London, and famous scientist Bernard Quatermass (Andrew Keir) is called in to divine its origins and explain its strange effects on people.This is the film that inspired John Carpenter. Okay, so not "the" film, as he also was strongly influenced by the films of Howard Hawks. But you can see this film in "Prince of Darkness", and also in "In the Mouth of Madness". And, of course, it stands on its own.Some of this is a little silly. The alien / arthropod corpses are a bit less than believable as living creatures, but at least they tried to make up for that with goo blood and other touches. And the images from Mars... a bit weird. But, hey, still a fine film.

An extreme amount of explication goes into this Roy Ward Baker classic at the cost of any real thrills or scares. During the expansion of a tube station, diggers uncover a rocket-ship. Soon professor Andrew Keir and scientist James Donald are on the scene and come to the conclusion that it's the remnants of a martian aircraft that landed millions of years ago. Much of their other theorizing involves martians mating with monkeys and other such horrors. Although this is likely the most cerebral Hammer film, it's also one of the most overrated and while there are plenty of solid ideas thrown around, much of the film is simply boring. Keir is terrific as is most of the cast. Barbara Shelley is great as a fellow scientist and Julian Glover steals the film as the high strung Colonel Breen, one of those by-the-book British military types who turns out to be a bumbling nincompoop. The special effects are fine though sparsely used until the explosive ending. Tristram Cary did the creepy music.