My Favourite Movies: Pitch Black

I remember seeing this for the first time in a friends house on imported DVD. I was so impressed by this fairly low budget SF film that I saw it at the cinema a few weeks later when it was released over here.

The storyline is a fairly basic and well trodden one. A disparate group of passengers aboard a spaceship crash land on a hostile planet and bond together in their mutual dependence. However, several of them have less than pleasant backgrounds as becomes clear as the film progresses. The most obvious misfit in the transported criminal Riddick played by Vin Diesel in what I think was his breakthrough role. Then there’s the docking pilot who had to be restrained from dumping her human cargo to save her life and of course there’s the junky cop/bounty hunter bringing Riddick in for murder. The planet itself is a hot dry desert but it this wasn’t bad enough the castaways as well as the audience begin to realise that the desert if far from being as dead as it first appears. Living in the dark spaces underground are creatures out of anyone’s nightmares. Severely photo-phobic these creatures are waiting for their chance to leave the caverns, fight and breed the next generation. They are awaiting the darkness and a long eclipse is coming. Pity the humans who get caught outside – in the pitch black. You’re not afraid of the dark… are you?

On the face of it this is a by-the-numbers SF/Horror in the mould of Alien where the tension is maintained by not fully seeing the monster before the closing part of the film where it/they steadily work their way through the cast list until only the leads are left. What makes this rise above the usual straight to DVD movie is the outstanding performance of Diesel as the scary convict/hero and the constant sense of tension the movie manages to get across. The ensemble cast is a pretty good one too with at least adequate performances from even its most minor characters. I would’ve liked Claudia Black to be a bit more kick-ass but you can’t have everything I suppose. I did like Radha Mitchell as the surviving pilot Carolyn who played her guilt ridden role to the hilt and then some. For what it was this was a class movie. Whilst not exactly original it was innovative enough to interest and occasionally delight me. I thought that the aliens where particularly well done and very alien – as they should be. If you’re not of a nervous disposition and don’t jump when the shadows move I’d recommend this to you…. but if you are afraid of the dark…. I’d let this one pass you by. It certainly won’t help you sleep at night.