Watch “Quatermass and the Pit” for free, here

· by · in Lovecraft Video. ·

quatermass and the pitThe 1958 BBC serial Quatermass and the Pit has a very Lovecraftian plot.  From Wikipedia:

Quatermass and his new colleague Colonel Breen become involved in the discovery of a bizarre object at an archaeological dig in Knightsbridge, London. As the serial progresses, Quatermass and his associates find that the contents of the object have a horrific influence over many of those who come into contact with it. As this influence increases, affecting Quatermass himself, darker implications are revealed about the entire nature and origins of mankind.

The serial has been cited as an influence on the writer Stephen King and the film director John Carpenter.  It featured in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes compiled by the British Film Institute in 2000, where it was described as “completely gripping”, and in 2005 the BBC’s own website declared it “simply the first finest thing the BBC ever made. It justifies licence fees to this day.”

Watch it below!  (And you can also watch Quatermass 2, here.)

8 responses to “Watch “Quatermass and the Pit” for free, here”

  2. Hi, again. I need to add something. I watched this serial to the end. The ending has been altered. It doesn’t end that way. There is a good ten minutes of the story remaining after the sudden cut off of the scene in the plane over London. The story has a much less lovecraftian ending where Roney sacrifices his life while destroying the spacecraft and Quatermass, weeks later in a TV interview. praising Roney’s heroic actions and warning of the Martian influence in our minds and that we all need to resist the dark urges deeply imbedded in our souls.

    If you notice episodes 1-5 are all well 35 minutes long and episode 6 is only 24 minutes long. It is missing at least 10 minutes

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  4. This is one of the very best examples of Lovecraftian cosmic horror on TV. It’s the Godfather of creepy science fiction. I’ve been in love with Quatermass and the Pit for about a decade. It’s available on DVD; I recommend that over youtube.

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  5. Wow! Thanks for finding this. I was under the impression that the BBC serials of Quatermass were lost. This was the third one. The first was the Quatermass Experiment, and the second was called Quatermass II. In the 1950’s all three were made into movies released to the theaters by Hammer Films, I think. The first two starred the American actor Brian Donlevy as Quatermass. Pretty good science fiction horror.

    The first was known in the US as The Creeping Unknown and tells the story of a manned rocket launch by Quatermass that has disasterous results and the one survivor brings back something unwanted with him.

    Quatermass II, also known in the US as The Enemy From Space, (and my personal favorite) is about an invasion from space and as I remember was very scary. I saw these on Chiller Theater on Saturday night TV. I am aging myself.

    The third, Quatermass and the Pit, was released in 1967, I think, was known here in the US as Five Million Years To Earth. I follows the plot of this series very closely but with slighty improved special effects.

    These movies are very difficult to find, especially Quatermass II, The Enemy From Space.

    Netflix has the fourth Quatermass serial which is just called Quatermass. It is also pretty good

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  8. This is one of my all time favorite movies.

    – Sent from my phone On Mar 6, 2014 1:53 PM, “Lovecraft eZine” wrote:

    > Mike Davis, Lovecraft eZine posted: “The 1958 BBC serial Quatermass > and the Pit has a very Lovecraftian plot. From Wikipedia: Quatermass and > his new colleague Colonel Breen become involved in the discovery of a > bizarre object at an archaeological dig in Knightsbridge, London. As the > seri”

    Like

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