The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2015: Pitch Black (2000), directed by David Twohy

The Trailer

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The Appropriate Tune: "When The Lights Go Out", by Naked Eyes

     What would happen if you took a little bit of Alien, a splash of The Descent, a pinch of Cube and threw in a (at the time) B-grade actor in the lead role? Why you’d get Pitch Black of course, produced by Interscope Communications and Polygram Filmed Entertainment and starring Vin Diesel as the gruff anti-hero Riddick. This was the starting point of the Riddick franchise actually, which spawned three sequels and at least one video game, Escape from Butcher Bay, the quality of which may vary depending on who you ask. Considering the amount of money he makes on each Fast & Furious movie, he can probably afford to do whatever fucking movie he wants.

     When a routine space transport ends in an emergency crash landing, a motley crew of survivors are stranded on a desert world, a harsh planet where its three suns keep it locked in perpetual day. Even worse, one of the survivors is Riddick, a known murderer who was being transferred to the authorities before the crash. Even more worse, it seems that there is life on this planet, life that shuns the light but has a taste for human flesh in all its forms. And the worst news of all? The planet is right on the verge of its months long eclipse cycle. It’s about to get real dark real quick, and this ragtag bunch of misfits are going to have to work together in order to make it off this planet alive. Of course this is a horror movie, so you know some gorey death is coming.

     Once again, not a movie that really blows me away story. You’ve seen the same setup and the same archetypes (in some situations, maybe even the same setups) in any syfy TV movie that you’ve ever seen, though I don’t know why you would. Most of the selling point comes in the artistic design/special effects and in the character of Riddick, who was apparently popular enough to warrant a franchise built from him. Pitch Black does look good, in a dirty Star Wars/Firefly kind of way, and Riddick is the gruff Wolverine style antihero that teenage boys froth at the mouth over, so I can see where the cult following comes from. It’s not mindblowing in any way, but it is an entertaining film with a cool concept, and that’s what Halloween is all about. Recommended.