The Dark Side of the Moon (1990)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

just watch it!

Best movie ever!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

When watching Sci-Fi movies, there is a certain level of disbelief that comes into play. But even then, there should be basic 'rules'. Here the director didn't even follow science rules that literally a first-second grader would know was incorrect. Example:'When you are outside the spacecraft, and not in a space suit, you cannot breathe' "When someone is infected with something, and you know they are infected, you quarantine them. You do not merely put them in a room, unwatched, and everyone can come and go as they please"(this is even after the first discovered death) "Have a computer android built like a porn star dressed in leather(not making this up), who has access to every piece of data stored on any computer, anytime, including missing viking ships from 3,000 years ago, yet no one thought about rewinding the video feed to see how someone was killed in the medical lab"I could go on and on. That's not being picky, or requesting common sense, or whining that someone has the wrong accent, just blatant disregard for the audience. The two things the movie had going for it was it creepiness, and neat plot line as to what was going on, shame it was wasted. If you are remotely a thinker in any type of way, you will hate this movie. If you are a non-thinker and looking for mindless drivel, it may actually work.

In the year 2022, SPACECORE 1 is a space vessel with a crew trained to repair nuclear-armed satellites. They are on their way to one such satellite near the moon when the ship suffers a mysterious systems failure. Without power and running out of oxygen fast, they also must worry about drifting towards Centrus B-40, otherwise known as the dark side of the moon. Not long into their dilemma, an old NASA space shuttle approaches and docks with their ship. Despite no signs of life on the shuttle, the SPACECORE crew need oxygen, so the captain and his second in command board the battered craft. They get the oxygen that they need, but they also get more than they bargained for when they discover the corpse of a NASA astronaut with a triangular hole in his stomach. Bringing the body back to their ship turns out to be a dire mistake, as something pure evil is using the dead man as a host. This is an excellent little sci-fi/horror gem that is far too under seen. The plot having to do with the dark side of the moon (obviously), the Bermuda Triangle, Satan, paranoia and possession is one of the most original I've ever come across. This thing has more imagination than years worth of big budget blockbusters put together. The execution is solid too, as the mystery unfolds amidst an eerie mood and seriously foreboding atmosphere. The film's look is appropriately dreary, a perfect fit for the bleak tone of the proceedings. Despite a tight budget, the effects are also well done. All around, this is one of the creepiest space films I've seen. A key asset in making it so is the film's score. Special mention to the opening credits, which are played against a screen of fire as the haunting score plays over them.The acting is fine and all of the characters are likable to some extent. Even Jennings, the hick with a screw loose, is appealing in an off the wall kind of way. Joe Turkel of Blade Runner and Kubrick fame is here as Paxton Warner, as is Robert Sampson from Re-Animator. As the film spirals towards its finale, I was completely enthralled. The ending is a great one, and very much in tone with the rest of the film. The final shot and voice-over is classic, and pretty damn eerie and hopeless all at the same time.This is a great film, one that deserves more recognition. I recommend seeking this out if you can. Its quite a shame that it flies below most people's radar.

This film just goes to prove what can be done without big stars, a huge Hollywood budget and unnecessary CGI effects. A good story, (if a little iffy), relatively good acting and an air of claustrophobic suspense beaten only by 'Alien'. OK, it's cheap and nasty, but look at the budget Star Wars was filmed on! This movie has no delusions of grandeur, it just delivers within it's own limitations. The basic premise is this, the Devil has to collect 666 souls to re-enter or defy Heaven. He's been using the Bermuda Triangle to collect these souls. This being the future a tenuous link is created between the Triangle and the dark side of the Moon. As it turns out, the crew of a space missile repair team would just complete the numbers. After major systems failures the crew encounter a derelict space shuttle, thought lost, (in the Bermuda Triangle), 20 years before. They board it in the hopes of finding vitally needed supplies and instead find a crew member, dead but perfectly preserved, except for a strange, triangle shaped hole in his stomach. Little realising that this mysterious corpse is in fact the manifestation of the Devil come to collect His final souls, they take the body aboard and begin repairs to their own ship. THIS is where the film really begins!! Using their own fears and desires against them, the Devil "body-hops" from one crew member to another, creating an atmosphere of paranoia and distrust, a la The Thing, intent on nothing but collecting His final souls and 'having it out' with The Powers That Be. Granted, the plot has more holes in it than a super-size colander and the effects are on a par with Space:1999, (which still makes it better than Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica!), but this is a fantastic movie which deserves far more attention than it got. I first saw this in the graveyard slot on Sky, between midnight and 6am, back in '92, and I don't think I've even seen it at the very back of a video shelf since, certainly not on any market stalls, which I think is a damn shame for a fine movie sadly overlooked. If you get the chance, WATCH THIS FILM. OK, it's easy to spot what it's mimicking and to make fun of the effects, but this is a darn good way to spend 90 minutes and remember what films where when they weren't just an exercise in computer programmers skill, or lack thereof.

This is the most excellent B-movie I have ever seen ! - It's not an alien-rip, because it's not about aliens. It's got a unik plot, and the actors play very good in this low-cost movie. The characters in the movie gets played-out on each other, and their confidence in each other on the team gets tested to the limit. As the movie goes on, the less they trust in each other, and want to blame everyone, but themselfs for what is happening aboard on an alien spacecraft. They all have some great lines in the movie, and I think this will only appear to you, if you see the movie over and over again. I have seen this movie at least 4 times now, and I still love the story behind it all.