Pitch Black [Blu-ray] starring Radha
Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Vin Diesel,
Keith David, Lewis Fitz-Gerald
Pitch Black
Owing a major debt to Alien and its cinematic spawn, Pitch Black is a guilty
pleasure that surpasses expectations. As he did with The Arrival, director
David Twohy revitalizes a derivative story, allowing you to forgive its flaws
and submit to its visceral thrills. Under casual scrutiny, the plots logic
crumbles like a stale cookie, but its definitely fun while it lasts. A
spaceship crashes on a desert planet scorched under three suns. The
mostly doomed survivors include a resourceful captain (Radha Mitchell), a
drug-addled cop (Cole Hauser), and a deadly prisoner (Vin Diesel) who
quickly escapes. These clashing personalities discover that the planet is
plunging into the darkness of an extended eclipse, and its populated by
hordes of ravenous, razor-fanged beasties that only come out at night. The
body count rises, and Pitch Black settles into familiar sci-fi territory. What
sets the movie apart is Twohys developing visual style, suggesting that this
veteran of B-movie schlock may advance to the big leagues. Like the
makers of The Blair Witch Project, Twohy understands the frightening
power of suggestion; his hungry monsters are better heard than seen
(although once seen, theyre chillingly effective), and Pitch Black gets full
value from moments of genuine panic. Best of all, Twohys got a well-
matched cast, with Mitchell (so memorable with Ally Sheedy in High Art)
and Diesel (Pvt. Caparzo from Saving Private Ryan) being the standouts.
The latter makes the most of his muscle-man role, and his characters
development is one more reason this movie works better than it should. --
Jeff Shannon
Imagine the legendary Flight of the Phoenix, except the crash is on a
barren alien planet... and there are nasty flesh-eating monsters. And a
serial killer.
That describes David Twohys most artistically adept movie, the raw and
dusty Pitch Black. This cult movie starts off as your average gang of
embattled, ill-matched castaways struggling to survive, but it that becomes
utterly brilliant as it slowly slips from gritty sci-fi to harrowing,
claustrophobic horror. And yes, even Vin Diesel gives an awesome
performance in this one.
After a meteor storm, a sleeper transport crashes on a desolate desert
planet. Most of the passengers survive, including a stowaway kid and a
dangerous prisoner, Riddick (Vin Diesel). Unfortunately, it turns out that
the entire planet is a desert because its blasted by three suns all
throughout the day, and the survivors have little food, water or shelter. Oh
yeah, and Riddick has broken out.
To find the necessities, a small group led by Carolyn Fry Radha Mitchell)
sets out across the desert -- and discovers a swarm of vicious omnivorous
creatures in a cave. Fortunately they cant come out into the light. But when
the group finds a geological survey station, they learn that a monthlong
eclipse is about to fall over the planet -- meaning the creatures will soon
eat them all if they dont escape from the desolate planet, and some of
them arent gonna make it.
Personally I havent liked David Twohys work except the 1996 sci-fi film
Arrival, but Pitch Black is the kind of brilliant cult movie that almost makes
up for an otherwise okay-to-bad filmography. This is not a polished space
opera, but a dingy, grimy, dirty sci-fi movie full of recognizably ugly
technology and stained morals -- not to mention some truly grotesque
deaths. And not all of them are from the winged beasties either (think chest
impalement).
And Twohy gives the movie a very bleak, vaguely disturbing look --
endless chalky deserts filled with bones, grimy ships torn to pieces, empty
skies, and searing pale light that makes everyone look half dead. Even the
beautiful colourful expanses of space seem vaguely ominous. But the
whole thing suddenly becomes jump-in-your-seat scary when the monsters
attack, and start eating people as they run. The one problem? COME ON,
what are the chances that they would JUST HAPPEN to arrive for the
once-in-two-decades eclipse?
And the feeling of suspense is heightened by sharp-edged, pared-down
dialogue (Youre dancing on razor blades here) and a warped sense of
humor -- were assured that No similarity to actual persons or predators,
living or dead, is intended or should be inferred. Nice.
The characters are a pretty mixed bag, and theres always the haunti ng
realization that most of them would easily turn on each other to save
themselves -- and in fact, the main character even does that in the first few
minutes of the film. Theres benevolent Muslim pilgrims, a hard-nosed
bounty hunter, a prissy dude who hoards booze, and an annoying urchin of
ambiguous gender. The standouts are Claudia Black as the tough Shazza,
and Keith David as the kindly Abu Imam al-Walid.
As for the leads, Diesel gives a pretty good performance as a wisecracking
killer with a distinctly creepy edge (ew, he took a hair sample) and shine
eyes that let him see in the dark. But I was most impressed by Mitchells
Fry, as a selfish hardened leader who learns to defend other peoples lives
in a crunch.
Pitch Black is a fast, eerie, bloody little sci-fi movie with a nasty little planet
full of even nastier creatures that are just waiting for dark. Definitely worth
it for sci-fi buffs.
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