Quatermass and The Pit

Quatermass and The Pit was a television miniseries directed for the BBC by Rudolph Carier in 1958. Written by Nigel Kneale and starring Andre Morell as Professor Bernard Quatermass it was an instant science fiction and horror classic that is cited for finally bringing respectability to what was formerly considered a "cheescake" genre. It 1967 it was made into a movie directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Andrew Kier as Quatermass. The film is considered inferior by fans and critics for the simple fact that it attempts to shorten an incredibly detailed 6 episode televison plot into an hour and a half.

WARNING: WIKIPEDIA CONTAINS SPOILERS!

While digging a new tube station in London a human skuil is discovered. It is found to be many thousands of years old and it hsa an unusually large brain area. Later, something that looks like a missile is unearthed. Military experts suspect that it is a leftover from the war, but as they continue to dig it's sheer size rules this out. Furthermore, pentagrams are painted on it's sides. Professor Bernard Quatermass is called in to investigate; he is an expert on matters of unusual scientific background. (In fact he has just helped a friend invent a helmet device that, when worn, records the visual images being projected by the brain to the wearer, so they can be viewed by others.)

While investigation of the ship is going on, one of the workers on the dig reports seeing ghostly figures walking through walls at a local hotel. A medical professional examines him but finds nothing wrong with him. Meanwhile Quatermass researches the history of the town to reveal reports of witchcraft and paranormal activity dating back thousands of years, including sightings of ghosts walking through walls and of polgergesit happenings (objects moving on their own.)

Finally the ship is opened and inside are found skeletel remains of some sort of alien race that resemble a cross between a praying mantis and some sort of demon. (They could be described as human skeletens but with boney horns.) Other remains are founds of full skeletens of these humanoid beings with the unusually large brain areas in the skull.

Things get upsetting when some of the military personnel that get close to the craft begin to react oddly; they start to scream hysterically and walk around in strange patterns. Some report seeing ghosts walking through the walls of the ship. Further, a woman goes on board the vessel and witnesses a worker knocked unconcious by his own drill, which is floating erratically in the air around him.

Quatermass begins to suspect that somehow a psychic projection of these beings has remained behind on the ship and is being seen by certain people who come in contact with it. However, since they don't remember what they are seeing, they deduce a plan. They will use his brain-image capturing device on someone and send them into the ship. They do so, and the man emerges screaming hysterically and walking akwardly, as others have.

When they review the tape a shocking revelation surfaces. This alien race had something they called "The Wild Hunt." Every year members of their society who had developed more impressive abilities (essentially the "fittest") would literally hunt down and destroy the less-able amongst them. What people are seeing when they come in contact with the ship is a remembrance through the eyes of one of these aliens as he hunts down and blows up the heads of his own people.

Quatermass begins to have a working theory on what is going on. He believes that in it's most primitive phase mankind was visited by this race. Some members of mankind were taken back and genetically altered to have special abilities like telepathy, telekenesis and such. They were then brought back to Earth. The theory was that humanity would then develop into a society identical in practice and culture to the alien race. (Perhaps they were dying out and wanted to preserve their culture if not their actual race.)

However, as humanity bred, only about half of it maintained these abilities, and even fewer had them surface. The ship itself has been triggering these dormant abilities in humans that had them for years. This would explain the reports of poltergesits (people were unknowingly using their own telekenesis to move objects around them.) It would also explain a history of witchcraft and why people attributed it to a being they identified as the devil; the pentagram would have been the symbol for this alien race.

However, as this theory continues, it becomes clear that if this alien race did these things they likely also ingrained in us our own inclination to enact this "wild hunt." Quatermass is concerned that the ship will trigger that inclination and that we will begin to slaughter our own people. The powers over him ignore his warnings and as large media coverage of the ship arrives power is drawn out of their equipment and into the ship.

The town of London begins to slaughter one another in a homicidal rage and it continues until the ship explodes.