Satisfying sci-fi/horror effort from Twohy, the director of "The Arrival."
After a spaceship crash lands on a desert planet (in one of the best sci-fi crash landings since "Planet of the Apes"), babetitious senior officer Radha Mitchell is suddenly in charge of seeing that passengers on the ship survive their ordeal. It just so happens that they were also transporting a convicted multiple-murderer (Diesel) who naturally gets loose after the ship crashes.
As if things weren’t bad enough, the planet is also home to an alien race of blood-suckers that only come out when it’s dark. On the bright side nightfall only comes to the planet once every 22 years. The bad news is that the ship just happened to land at that 22-year interval.
With a low budget, stellar cinematography, scary special effects, exploitation of Mitchell’s ample babe attributes (how many senior officers do you know who romp around a planet in outfits that show off their cleavage and belly button?), "Pitch Black" certainly delivers the goods as a horror film. Twohy borrows from "Alien", "Night of the Living Dead" and the whole vampire legend for a Class A horror film. The ending also doesn’t pull any punches, with plenty of surprises and a lot of subtle religious sermonizing.
Good stuff. See it on the big screen if you can, as the images of the planet and killer monster effects deliver the most punch in a good movie theater.
