In 2022, a maintenance spacecraft is headed for the dark side of the moon--and death. That's the premise of this well-done ALIEN rip-off, in which a veteran crew on a routine mission encounters the ultimate evil shortly after losing contact with Houston Space Control. As the sparks
literally fly and the lights go out, the space travellers discover they have only 24 hours of power left. While the temperature drops and the air thins, the crew accuse one another of responsibility for the disaster, then notice a large spaceship floating towards them. The mission's resident
android (Camilla More) fails to provide any answers as to the other ship's origins, and it appears not to be issuing any signal, so Captain Flynn (Robert Sampson) boards the drifting vehicle, which turns out to be a ship from the old US Discovery program. Despite his crew's misgivings, Flynn hooks
his spacecraft into the floating mystery ship in order to draw upon the latter's power. In the process, the mission members find the cut-open corpse of an astronaut on the old ship and bring the body on board their own craft for testing, although crew member Giles (Will Bledsoe) is fearful that
alien contamination will result. Investigating the matter with the assistance of the android, Giles learns that the floating ship is actually a spaceship that was lost in the Bermuda Triangle, that the body of the deceased astronaut was never recovered from the ocean, and that the trajectory of
the splashdown runs in a direct line from the Bermuda Triangle to the dark side of the moon. Soon the corpse proves less dead than everyone thought and rises from the medical examiner's table, its stomach producing a grotesque head that attempts to possess Alex (Wendy MacDonald). When she goes
into convulsions, Giles theorizes that something has literally gotten into her, but the other crew members are skeptical. Meanwhile, Flynn reboards the mystery ship, planning to retrieve relays that will repower their ship and enable them to break free of the abandoned spacecraft. Dreyfuss (Alan
Blumenfeld) and Giles follow him, but are separated; eventually Flynn, like the previous mysterious corpse, turns up as a carved-up cadaver. Coming out of her fit, Alex is visited by a fellow crew member--apparently Jennings (John Diehl)--with whom she has sex. With Flynn dead and time running
out, Giles decides to risk his life and go back for the relays on the ghost ship, ordering his crewmates to blow up the Discovery spacecraft if he doesn't return soon. All hell breaks loose: Jennings tries to cut Giles' time short, but Dreyfuss manages to rescue him, and the possessed Paxton (Joe
Turkel) menaces Jennings, who shoots him. Jennings, in turn, is killed (by Dreyfuss) when he attacks the safely returned Giles. In a surprise twist, it is now revealed that the monstrous force did not jump to Jennings from Paxton (who was Alex's real visitor), but has actually taken over Dreyfuss.
While Giles conceals his suspicions, the evil presence (still residing in Dreyfuss) turns out to be Satan, who feeds on the energy of souls he transports from the Bermuda Triangle to the dark side of the moon. Luckily, the noble Giles cleverly blows up the spaceship, losing his life but not his
eternal soul, and foiling Satan for the time being.
DARK SIDE OF THE MOON owes much to ALIEN, but if one forgets its derivativeness it can be appreciated as a rousingly good B movie. The screenwriters know when to withhold information (although the twist obscuring whether Paxton or Jennings has been possessed is overly puzzling), and deserve points
for concocting the original premise of Satan's soul route from the moon to the Bermuda Triangle. Combining the occult and stranded-in-space genres, this far-fetched but intriguing setup actually makes a lot more sense than more conventional thrillers about body-snatching extraterrestrials. And
while the game of musical bodies becomes more confusing than scary towards the film's climax, DARK SIDE OF THE MOON dishes out its red herrings with aplomb. Boasting resourceful special effects and a solid cast, this spine-tingling space adventure will keep audiences off-guard for most of its
running time.
D.J. Webster's direction makes particularly ingenious use of gliding camerawork to suggest disorientation. We're cast adrift like the unfortunate space voyagers trapped on their damaged vessel; unsettled and frightened, we float without knowing where the journey into darkness will lead us. Drawing
on various subcategories of the horror and sci-fi genres, DARK SIDE OF THE MOON is an effective shocker that travels familiar space terrain in an inventive and accomplished way. (Graphic violence, profanity, sexual situations.) leave a comment
