Dark Side of the Moon

In the distant year of 2022 (ha!), a repair crew is sent to work on an orbital weapons satellite. But on the way there their spacecraft starts to suffer from a strange series of malfunctions, loses its navigation system, and starts to drift towards a particular section of land on the dark side of the Moon named Centrus B-40. But as they begin drifting towards the Moon they’re approached and docked by an old NASA space shuttle, a type that hasn’t been used in over 30 years. Even more bizarre? Nobody seems to be on board… Or so they think. After the two ships dock strange things begin to happen, and it’s not long before the crew realizes that the abandoned shuttle is hiding something with very sinister intent.

I’d never heard of this movie before, but I decided I needed more Sci-fi in my life, and this film seemed to fit the bill. Dark Side of the Moon is a straight to video Sci-fi/horror movie from 1990.  Not too long after it started they introduced a humanoid-type of operating system for the ship, and I immediately thought Dark was going to be some kind of horror take on 2001: A Space Odyssey, with maybe a little bit of Alien thrown in for good measure. And in a way, it kinda is, cause there are definitely elements of those films present, but in actuality Dark ends up being more similar to a mystery film spliced with something like Event Horizon, than it does those other movies. Then there are added elements like the ultimate evil and the Bermuda Triangle (of all things), which doesn’t really sound like it should work, but it actually comes together a lot better than you’d expect, especially from a lower-budget film like this.

For something that went straight to VHS back in the day, the film looks pretty stellar. Despite being rather dark, like one would likely expect a space horror film to be, it’s surprisingly well lit and well framed, with actual attention paid to things like color and shadow placement. They also implement the use of several miniatures for things like the spaceships and the moon that are very reminiscent of things like Star Wars. Which, yeah, feels very predictable perhaps, but hey, if you’re going to borrow ideas from other films it might as well be ones that did a good job. Point is, the film quality and techniques used all make the film look shockingly good, and it’s nice that someone not only cared enough about the movie to care about the quality of the final product, but also took the time to take care of the film’s original print, and produce a nice digital transfer. I really wish more creators had done this. It would make watching some of these old, straight-to-video analog films that they throw up on these free movie services much less of a chore. I appreciate not having to squint to try to discern what a bunch of various fuzzy, pixelated blobs are doing on the screen during low-lit moments. It warms my jaded little heart.

Even the acting is better than what one would probably expect from a film like this. It’s not what I’d call awesome or anything, mind you, and there aren’t any standouts either, but everybody present feels believable and gets the job done, with the only thing close to a robotic performance coming from the lady who actually plays a robot. So really, all’s good on that front. There are even a couple of familiar faces, with the more discerning viewer perhaps being able to pick out Joe Turkel of Blade Runner fame, and Robert Sampson from Re-Animator.

Unfortunately though, the film falters on two fronts, but luckily both of them are fairly minor. The first involves the story, which starts off very strong with the mystery angle, but then it starts introducing pieces, like the aforementioned Bermuda Triangle angle, that can be a little eye-roll inducing. Then couple that with smaller, but no less annoying things, like the film expecting us to believe that a group of astronauts (maintenance workers or not, they’re still fucking astronauts) somehow not being familiar with the history of a missing/crashed space shuttle, and it’s clear that this film is really counting on you to flex your suspension of disbelief muscle for large swaths of this plot.

That suspension of disbelief ties into the film’s other downer, which is that, while the film truly does look good for the most part, there are instances where its low-budget-ness really shines through. Mostly this is the expected unintentional culprits you find in low-budget films, including things like wobbly set-pieces looking a little cheap, or people being flung into objects and everything flying around like styrofoam, because there’s no weight to any of them because they likely are all made out of styrofoam. But the other culprit is the dreaded beast known as Physics. Or, perhaps more accurately in this case, Space Physics. AKA: Floating. And since there is zero mention of anything resembling artificial gravity in this film, that means that there should be A LOT more things floating around…but there isn’t. And while I could perhaps forgive the film for expecting the viewer to just accept that the maintenance ship has its own form of gravity (bless the people of 30-years ago for their high hopes for us), it’s specifically mentioned that the rogue space shuttle is from the 90s. Ergo, no gravity. Which makes things like stationary boxes, water dripping down the walls and even large pools of standing water look very, very weird and out of place. Not that I’m saying I expected a low-budget film to be able to replicate a complete lack of gravity. Large studios have had trouble replicating that, so I do not blame them, nor did I really expect them to even try to pull it off. I’m just saying that there are several instances where things don’t move the way they should, and as much as I understand and sympathize with the filmmakers about why they couldn’t make it move that way, I still know it looks wrong, and it’s still something that makes that one vein in my eyebrow twitch.

Also, HOW are you still dripping water after 30 YEARS?!? HOW!?!?

Eye tics aside, Dark Side of the Moon is actually a fairly impressive low-budget space horror. It’s the kind of movie that makes you think it’s going in one direction, but then subverts your expectations and gives you something completely different. And while the direction it goes in might not be for everyone, its story is also unique enough to still be interesting (if not perhaps a little goofy). But whether you think it’s goofy or not, it’s also the type of film that knows how to utilize things like the pacing, atmosphere, and tension competently enough to be engaging and entertaining, which is a rarity in the straight-to-video market. It has its quirks (PHYSICS!), but all in all it’ll likely be a fun ride for genre fans.

Dark Side of the Moon is available on a variety of streaming services.

Dark Side of the Moon is also available on DVD and Bluray.

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