Dark Descent

As others have mentioned, this movie is a blatant rip-off of "Outland" - which itself was a rip-off of "High Noon". Still, this could have provided some decent exploitation entertainment. But except for a somewhat cool sequence involving someone getting hit by water, there is absolutely NOTHING fun or even momentarily distracting in this particular telling of the story. Low production values hurt, but there is also no sense of fun, no zip, no energy here. Not even worth seeing for free when it comes on cable.

Most people that have some regard for sci-fi will have seen the classic Outworld with Sean Connery. This is basically a made for TV (or so it seemed) rip off. It certainly no classic and unfortunately does not have the charm of the original space based version. That said.. It does have it's tense moments and some well executed special effect and action shots. Don't expect too much as the budget obviously wasn't a record breaker, but it does well with what it has.

Dean Cain is well, Dean Cain and you do spend the first five minutes of the film (as you do a lot of his other TV work) waiting for him to rip open his shirt to reveal the Superman logo. But that's our problem!

If your bored and there's nothing else on the TV, grab a beer and give this a go

This movie marks the return to that 80's scifi set look we all love and don't miss. At all. Although this is obviously a TV-quality movie I doubt it's possible to make a futuristic indoor movie any cheaper than this with it's few grey walled sets and a few meters of corridor which one soon comes to recognize. Although the movie is dreary and just plain silly, this is not it's major fault. You soon find yourself wondering how blatant a ripoff you can get away with when the plot, clothes and scenes are taken from the 80ies movie "Outland" with Sean Connery.

Save yourself the time and money and rent something (anything) else.

After midnight, having a bout of insomnia, I see Dean Cain in a Outland knockoff that only lacks the production values, plot, visual effects and acting.

Basically, a very bad "Outland" under water. The concept has some merit. Instead of vacuum, think extreme pressure and its related dangers. Of course, because of the obvious low budget, they couldn't really develop along those lines. Dean Cain does what he can with what he has. Regarding production values, I think there was one visual effect that was interesting.

Typically, I really enjoy campy, grade-B (or less) sci-fi thrillers but I just couldn't do this time. Watch a DVD you have watched more than 15 times, do some laundry, read a book, read a comic book, read a Judith Krantz novel before fall into the trap that is "Dark Descent".

1 October 2002. Dark Descent has many similarities to Outland (1981), a space western, starring Sean Connery. Unfortunately, Dark Descent doesn't really have much original going for it and, in fact, does a worse job. Outland by contrast had a tight script, good use of interaction and tension with its characters. As a ripoff, Dark Descent descends rather than promotes what Outland has already accomplished.