User reviews

It's frustrating to watch this film because it had so much potential and with a tiny re-write it could have been really special. In its present form, however, it's a bit tough to love.

A few months ago, I reviewed a low budget sci-fi film that surprised me. While "Starship Rising" had many faults, I was extremely impressed by the look of the movie. Despite having almost nothing to spend to make the film, the special effects looked so very professional. It's too bad that the film wasn't particularly good when it came to what is important--the plot. Well, when I watched "Dark Space" a few days ago, I felt like it was a case of deja vu! Once again, here was a sci-fi film with a minuscule budget yet had exquisite special effects that made the film look very professional. Yet, as in "Starship Rising", the writing left a lot to be desired. If the makers of either film could improve the writing and characters significantly, I would sure to love to see more of their work.

"Dark Space", unfortunately, starts off very, very poorly. My youngest daughter was watching the film with me and she kept remarking how dumb the characters were--and she was right. Believe it or not, although the film is set in the distant future where space travel is commonplace, the characters seem like they were lifted out of an old "Friday the 13th" or "Halloween" movie! I half expected them to land on a planet where they'd find themselves at an abandoned summer camp or roller disco and the characters lacked depth--they were just there to be killed by some unseen menace. Many of the characters (particularly Devin) were irritating and completely ridiculous...and seemed more like clichés than people.

At this point, you might wonder why we continued watching since we hated the characters so much (and we REALLY hated them). Well, we assumed it was just a really, really bad film and we were actually having a good time laughing at the writing and characters since they were so bad. However, through the course of the film something strange happened--we both found we had to finish the movie and we actually were enjoying what we were seeing. However, I wonder how many people would bother sticking with this one.

On the plus side, the outer space scenes are extremely professional and look like something out of Hollywood as are the aliens. Additionally, although the plot is quite simple (sort of like combining Friday 13th with Predator), it works well and gets better as the film progresses. Plus, the explanation as to what is occurring and why is really very creative. The bottom line is that the film has a lot of merits...along with some god-awful characters that seemed more like caricatures than people.

By the way, if you are looking for an ultra low-budget sci-fi film which has a bit more to offer, try "Hunter Prey". Despite a simple plot, the film is rock solid from start to finish and is a great example of what can be done by clever filmmakers even if they are hampered with a micro-budget.

A bunch of irresponsible and immature --oh yeah-- and "dumb" young men and women make an interplanetary journey from earth to Centari Five for a vacation. As soon as they board ship there is hard-driving rock music, pot-smoking and beer-swilling. If they were doing this in a suped-up SUV on a highway on earth it would be irresponsible. In a space ship traveling from one planet to another? --Well one of them starts to complain about how slow the ship is moving ("My grandmother flies faster than 10X"). They come into agreement and convince the resident nerd/geek to fiddle with the ship's mechanics; specifically the part that regulates speed. Once this is done the speed indeed gets amped up but the ship goes off course and the young drunkards wind up somewhere getting bumped by asteroids. At this point, one of the young women, sitting in some kind of meditation-pose, chimes "The Universe will take care of us". This is the same young woman who did most of the squealing in the movie. Apparently at this point the pot she was smoking was no longer circulating in her brain. Anyway, their oxygen supply is threatened by damage to the ship and they are forced to land on a "earth-like" planet.

After an ungraceful landing, 4 of them go out to explore the planet and see if they can get help while 2 of them stay behind (resident nerd and Miss "universe will take care of us"). The thing that stood out the most, and what really annoyed me, was how naive and even stupid these people were. Realistically, most people would not behave the way they did. What would YOU do reader, and how would you act if you crash-landed on an alien planet far away from what is familiar to you? --Never mind that it looks like earth with air you can breathe. If you are responsible and sensible, you operate with caution. You are wary and alert. Even an animal suddenly thrust into an unfamiliar environment has enough sense to do this. Well, reader, not this group. From the way they behaved you would think that they were just out hiking in one of the nation's national parks. Who knows, maybe that's where they filmed this thing. They even stopped to do some skinny-dipping. I remind you this is an "alien planet" whose lifeforms (except the earth-like vegetation) is yet unknown. What might, for example, live in the water? --Or what natural phenomenon may be in operation under the placid surface that could be life threatening? For that matter, how do they even know that it's water as we know it on earth just because it "looks like it"?

In this movie when anyone thought they heard or saw something they said "Hello?" Are you f!!cking kidding me? Is that what you would say, reader? Personally, I would shut the f!!ck up and be as quiet as I could be. And if there was a place where I could hide, wait, watch and assess I would go there. I would not stand out in the open talking about "Hello?" They did this repeatedly. The resident nerd/geek did it while he was on the ship trying to repair it. He thought he heard something and said "Hello?" You would think this guy was in his home responding to a noise he heard in his backyard. THEN IT WOULD BE APPROPRIATE. You are on an alien planet dumbo. Lifeforms unknown. He even had the door to the ship wide open. Supposedly, until the ship was repaired, it was the only way to get oxygen. In that case why not keep the door open only a crack? This way you could get your air and peek thru if you hear something and be safe. No, folks, this idiot had the door wide open as if he was getting ready to throw a "Everyone is Welcome" party.

Finally, the acting could have been better in some instances but the writing and directing is what screwed this movie as I have described above. The characters were so stupid they didn't even have animal instincts. It was a good idea in general and I can only wonder what a better writer and director would have done with it. No doubt it would have earned this movie at least 2 or maybe even 3 more stars from me. Love, Boloxxxi.

Just to be sure no one is mislead, Off World is a poorly done movie. The story is pretty ordinary: a group of college age people go on a spring break road trip in the distant future. They rent a space ship and it crashes (of course) (apparently somewhere in the woods around Denver) and they must fight aliens and Bobba Fett's in order to survive. The story was serviceable enough, but everything else was terrible. The dialog was horrific: I get more p**y there than most people get in a life time. Yes, that was a line delivered with absolutely no context or feeling...yechhhh. The entire script was nothing but sparse and unnatural sophomoric dialog. The acting was about as emotionless as I've ever see in a movie...all lines delivered like a 6th grader reading a book in front of class. And since it is a scifi movie I should mention that there are NO special effects or costumes worthy of putting into a modern day movie. I could go on, but I have already deep 6'ed this movie and don't want to think about it much more. Save yourself a trip to the trash bin and skip this movie.

This will be a short review, the only other review here seems like it must be someone related to the film, because they gave it a completely undeserving, glowing review. The acting was terrible, the writing was atrocious, the effects were, how shall I put this, I've seen better effects in "Asylum" made movies, which, until now, I believed to have the worst SE team in the business.

The characters were all white stereotypes, the "strong" white woman, the "hippie" white chick ("The universe will take care of us"), the paranoid white girl friend of the strong one, the super-scared nerd, the more manly nerd that lusts after strong white woman, and finally, the d-bag chauvinist.

Nothing like seeing some Halo armor wearing rip-off alien shooting a scoped sniper rifle from the hip.

Someone with absolutely no talent must have watched AvP and thought to themselves "hey I can do that". Oh how horribly wrong they were. Apparently they think that if one cheap jump scare is great, a hundred of them is even better!

A taste: in one scene, an idiot hears a noise outside his ship (you always know it's an alien by the very loud and very generic "jump scare" sound that plays when the run by. Naturally, said idiot walks outside to investigate. He stands out in the open for what seems like forever making no attempt to conceal himself while the alien jump scares around. Seriously this happens dozens of times. It's never scary, and by the fiftieth time they try the cheap jump scare, you just want to mute the television.

Anyway, while he is standing just outside the ship, right in the open, the alien walks inside the ship where a girl is lying unconscious. Oh, she also has a skin piercing, fully fractured, infected leg. The ship is a tiny one room vessel with one door. There is no other way in or out. Inexplicably the girl manages to sneak out of the ship, out into the woods, and back to the idiot outside, who is now hiding behind a tree. The alien completely misses the guy who made no attempt to hide himself at the entrance of the ship, and the girl with one leg in an empty small room. It's hilarious.

Also, the look of fear on the actress's face looks more like she is trying really hard not to sneeze.

Despite her horrendous acting, she's actually the best of the lot. The two other girls are completely emotionless. At least broken leg girl has a sneezeface. One of the actors, the "cocky", Hudson-from-Aliens knock off, seems to be trying really hard to remember his lines. Bless his heart. The men seem to be playing drunken frat boys, but look well into their thirties.

Otherwise, the movie is poorly shot and edited. Much of the action is confusing if not completely cut altogether. There are plenty of shots of the party from behind bushes to give the sense they are being watched, random blood sprays in place of actual effects, and of course, the dozens upon dozens of lame jumpscares. Mostly it just looks like a cheap vacation video.

The effects are weak. The space stuff is passable, but the beastlike aliens are ultra generic, and The invisible dudes' (*cough*predators*cough*) first appearance is particularly terrible. It seems that 99% of the budget was wasted on their admittedly nifty helmets. Good job, helmet design guy. You get the one star.

One more great one: after the party is chased and one of them vaporized by what appears to be thousands of Predator knockoffs, our Hudson knockoff then recites the scene to his two friends... who were right there with him, as if they weren't there. Hilarious editing fail.

Low budget or not, its no excuse. Worst of the worst, but as long as you have your finger on the fast forward button, its kinda funny in a so-bad- it's-good sort of way. Sort of.

A fun "Campy" low budget B sci-fi flick reminiscent of classic B sci-fi movies appealing to youth such as the original "Blob" and other films of the 50's-70's

Young people will find this fun because it's fun watching other young people do dumb things and the foreshadowing is within reach of a teen.

This is a better movie than many "A" Studio sci-fi flicks and "bad science" is forgivable in B movies if they're fun.

Considering the low budget the effects were well done... Good direction, adequate acting.

Refreshingly politically INcorrect. Even more refreshing are people who are upset by this aspect of the movie. har har har.

OK, first off, when reviewing/analyzing this movie, look at the fact that it has a budget of only 750,000 U.S. Dollars. I've seen Syfy movies made with budgets of 1.5 mil - 10 mil U.S. Dollars and are worse than this movie in almost every way. For the budget of this movie, they pulled off some unbelievable stuff - to the point of you hoping that they find a bright future in movie production, because if they had 10 mil U.S. Dollars, I can guarantee you that the movie will be a huge hit!!

Now, given the budget of $750k, the effects of the armor, the hull integrity, the space ship designs, the Artificial Intelligence built into the ships' mainframe, and the planetary (both, from space and ground) effects were stunning! In terms of effects and atmospheric simulations, this automatically gets a 7/10, given the budget.

However, the acting was very good for first-timers or at least beginning actors, as I don't recognize many faces in this movie. They could've done better -- but could they, really? Think about it, most good actors are behind a green screen or actually jumping out of windows, but these people only had a budget of $750k, so they didn't have much to go on, and they pulled it off nicely!

Sure, it had a generic plot, but this is typical with low-budget movies.

Overall, I give this movie a 6/10, because it had great special effects, not bad acting, and generic plot with slight enhancements - throw in an extremely low budget of $750k, and you got yourself a seller!

Given the low budget, the space suits and the shuttle craft are credible, and the special effects are fine, I'd say better than those seen in other Sci-Fi movies spending millions.

However, I'm certain the background idea can be better developed and the uncharted planet be given a far more alien look; that Earth-like aspect is something not to be expected and must be ruled out.

The characters must all be changed, since they become annoying stereotypes of a terrible performance; the writing was unsatisfactory as well.

This movie deserves a second chance; nonetheless, I'd suggest re-writing the script in most parts and gather a completely new set of actors and, finally, give it a more space exploration spirit.

For crying out loud other reviewers, don't take yourselves so seriously! Have you heard of CAMPY, "B" rate. This movie fills the spot and is worth the watch. Not an Oscar nominee, but wasn't trying to be from what I see. Acting was definitely the weakest point, from my perspective, but I was able to laugh at the moments when appropriate and if you pay attention there is actually some full circle, human introspection at the end. This is better than a lot of big budget movies. Yes, low budget, yes, not-so-great acting, but also yes, entertaining. Looks like a first attempt, and I would say, better than I could do on a first attempt.

What this movie has that most low budget sci fi efforts don't is a decent effort in nearly every department of film making.

On a budget of just $750,000,you get a movie with a plot that isn't necessarily anything special,but it's clear to see so much has been done with the money.

The plot has a group of youngsters hiring a shuttle to a certain planet for a bit of fun,but end up crash landing on an uncharted planet in a restricted system,where everything from the planets creatures to human soldiers who shouldn't be there,are out to get them.

Time and effort was clearly put in to the above average special effects.The indigenous creature effects are actually rather good,and the armour the human soldiers wear actually looks like some thought and imagination was put into it.

As far as the acting is concerned,nobody comes across as particularly wooden and they give it a good shot so kudos to them.

let's be clear though,there will be scenes where you will look at the screen in amazement thinking "No way would THAT happen",or "No sane person would do that" The soldiers come across as not being able to hit a barn door from 20 paces despite possessing weapons seemingly capable of destroying entire forests in minutes.There are more than a few flaws to be seen.

But you know what?.Look past it's failings and at the budget and what we have here is a movie worth watching far more than a lot of the crap churned out by the Sci Fy channel and Asylum.

There will be a lot of haters of this one,but it deserves a lot more praise than it has been given.

I like discovering movie gems, and Dark Space is certainly among my favorites. The sci-fi action thriller may be low budget, but it's sourced from a well-written script and very original story. Some of the acting and production value keep it from getting a higher rating, but any fan of science fiction should check out Dark Space.

reviews should consider that this is a low budget scifi b-movie, so benchmarks have to be set accordingly.

the plot is not groundbreaking, special effects are not very special, characters are not developed and acting is student like.

i've seen almost all relevant sci-fi movies, most of them with far higher budgets, and this one definitely has something special. somehow stupid, somehow brilliant. camera, editing and light are involving the viewer, technically well done. the idea of the film is worth more - with a 130 million "after earth" budget this movie would be a milestone.

anxious in all aspects, "dark space" is a movie which delivers polarizing entertainment. a story, which is well told, with the given resources. for me, a surprise.

Your basic SyFy movie. Poor acting, silly plot, weak special effects. Expect little, and you won't be disappointed.

I don't know what I could add to other reviews except to say whatever they paid these "actors" was WAY too much. Two of the girls sounded like they were drunk all the time with a delivery as flat as the floor, which is also exactly the way the ship's computer voice sounded, so one of them obviously did the voice-over. Everything they did throughout the movie was exactly the wrong thing to do, This movie was 90 minutes of my life wasted, and I love bad sci-fi.