7. Life Draining - Lifeforce (1985)
The scene depicting the London underground is simply a few seconds in length in Tobe Hoopers sci-fi horror film yet it portrays the horror of the Lifeforces antagonists plot in its brief appearance. Lifeforce sees three space vampires being found by the craft
Churchill (a very unsubtle nod to Britishness) whilst it is on a journey to investigate Halleys Comet. The story follows the destruction that ensues once the creatures arrive on Earth. Their plot is to drain the British populous of their...life-force and then transfer in to another spacecraft waiting in the orbit of Earth waiting for the monsters to return. The vampire creatures, by removing the humans life force, essentially turn them into zombies and allows chaos to ensue on Londons streets. The underground scene is set at Chancery Lane and sees the female vampire begin to transferred the collective life force energy, a giant blue beam, to her spaceship just outside of Earths atmosphere. This blue beam of energy passes through the station, as it does so everyone underground has their life-force drained from their bodies causing them to wither and instantly die. The way in which they wither is horrifying and the number of people who die is staggering. This is the films biggest death toll in a single set piece with at least a couple of scores dying. The scene occurs in such a rapid fashion and seems utterly inconsequential, this is the shock for it is gazed over so easily. The film doesnt even have that happy an ending, the female vampire is impaled by her lover and the films protagonist, Colonel Tom Carlsen (Steve Railsback), who kills himself in the process. This does not kill her though. She ascends to the spaceship with the accumulative life-force and Carlsens body in tow as they escape back to space.
