Val Guest Archives

The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)

Rating: ★★★★

Feb 2, 2001Mutating Astronaut

The first of the Quatermass films and the first major genre hit for Hammer Films. Nigel Kneale creates a literate work of science-fiction horror about a returned astronaut mutating after exposure to an alien fungus

Director: Val Guest

Actors: Brian Donlevy, Richard Wordsworth, Thora Hird, Gordon Jackson

Category: Science Fiction

2 February 200116 June 2026 by Roog

Quatermass 2 (1957)

Rating: ★★★

Nov 2, 2016Alien Body Snatchers

The second of the Quatermass films. An alien body snatchers tale that suggests even the British government has been infiltrated. This is regarded by many as the best of the series

Director: Val Guest

Actors: Brian Donlevy, Sydney James, William Franklyn, Charles Lloyd Pack, …

Category: Science Fiction

2 November 20166 July 2026 by Roog

The Abominable Snowman (1957)

Rating: ★★★

Sep 4, 2000Search for the Yeti

An early Hammer film from a script by Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale and shot in black-and-white about the search for the Yeti. This creates modest atmosphere

Director: Val Guest

Actors: Peter Cushing, Forrest Tucker, Robert Brown

Category: Horror

4 September 200021 November 2025 by Roog

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)

Rating: ★★★½

Feb 13, 2009The End of the World

Classic British end of the world movie that presents with enormous conviction a fundamentally implausible scenario in which nuclear tests tilt the Earth off its axis causing a massive heatwave and the attempts to right it

Director: Val Guest

Actors: Edward Judd, Janet Munro, Leo McKern

Category: Science Fiction

13 February 200926 January 2026 by Roog

Casino Royale (1967)

Rating: ★

Aug 7, 2001James Bond Spoof

During the James Bond craze of the 1960s, the only Ian Fleming novel not owned by Albert R. Broccoli was turned into a giant farce. The film has five directors, a host of stars (including three playing Bond) and is an incoherent mess

Director: John Huston, Joseph McGrath, Kenneth Hughes, Robert Parrish, Val Guest

Actors: Peter Sellers, David Niven, Woody Allen, Orson Welles, …

Category: Science Fiction

7 August 200128 December 2025 by Roog

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970)

Rating: ★★½

Aug 25, 2002Cavemen vs Dinosaurs

After the success of their earlier caveman vs stop-motion animated dinosaurs epic One Million Years B.C., Hammer made several other prehistoric films, including this effort that purportedly had a script by an uncredited J.G. Ballard

Director: Val Guest

Actors: Victoria Vetri, Robin Hawdron, Patrick Allen, Imogen Hassall

Category: Science Fiction

25 August 200224 December 2023 by Roog

Toomorrow (1970)

Rating: ★★

Feb 18, 2020Aliens Try to Abduct Rock Band

Film that feels construed to blend 60s rock films post The Beatles and an intergalactic trippiness post 2001: A Space Odyssey where alien try to abduct a rock band. From the producer of the James Bond films and the man who created The Monkees

Director: Val Guest

Actors: Olivia Newton-John, Roy Dotrice, Imogen Hassall

Category: Science Fiction

18 February 20202 June 2023 by Roog