

PITCH BLACK

STARRING:  Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Keith David, Cole Hauser
DIRECTOR:  David Twohy
WRITTEN BY:  Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat, David Twohy

Remember when you were a kid, and you were afraid of the dark?  Come on,
now, it wasn't that long ago, and don't hand me any of that crapola
about how you never needed a night light or a partially open bedroom
door.  As far as fears go, it's pretty much universal, hard-wired into
the primitive part of our brains that still recalls what times were like
before we figured out the fire thing.  As a result, it's also a handy
emotional trigger, one that fright films have always relied upon as a
cheap and easy way to heighten the emotion of horror.  In the movies,
what we can't see can (and usually does) hurt us, and it almost always
happens in the dark.  Light, in all its forms, means salvation. Pitch
Black takes this tradition and extrapolates it in a way that's so
ridiculously literal it should be awful.  Thanks to Diesel's great
charisma and a few well-handled scenes, though, it's actually quite a
bit of fun.

All you really need to know about the film is that it places a typically
diverse group of interstellar crash-landing survivors on a barren,
sun-soaked planet.  These include a strong-willed female pilot
(Mitchell), a Muslim imam (David) and his youthful followers, a fussy
antiquities dealer, and a sort of galactic cop (Hauser) along with his
prisoner (Diesel), who just happens to have surgically altered
night-vision eyes.  The film goes to great lengths to make it clear that
said prisoner is one bad dude before his obligatory escape, but I doubt
I'll be spoiling anything by saying he plays a key role in the group's
survival.  As the group attempts to find water, they discover a hostile
species that requires darkness for survival.  They also discover that
the planet's three suns are about to be eclipsed for an indeterminate
amount of time, rendering the entire place, well, you know.  The rest is
standard scare-flick stuff as the group's numbers (and light sources)
dwindle as they try to make it back to an escape ship.

In order to enjoy this film, it helps to purposely overlook the
implausible sci-fi trappings and horror-movie obviousness, because there
are elements that work.  The scenes dealing with the actual eclipse are
effective, building suspense as the suns are gradually blocked, then
showing hordes of light sensitive nasties coming out of what look like
huge termite mounds.  As for the creatures themselves, they're a
reasonably threatening bunch, created by Patrick Tatopoulos (also
responsible for the new-look Godzilla).  While comparisons to certain
H.R. Giger-designed Aliens will be inevitable, they reminded me more of
the creatures in Stephen King's novella "The Mist."  They fly, issue
deceptively cute sonar calls, and generally creep around menacingly,
always just outside the dimly lit perimeter of the group's flares and
flashlights.  In one memorable scene, a character is shown only by the
light of a Zippo, until a brief burst of illumination reveals that he's
completely surrounded by the things.  It's good for a shock (unless
you've seen the trailer), but it's better as a quick jolt back to a time
when you were certain that something waited just beyond the night
light's reach.

Diesel (an indie director also seen in Saving Private Ryan and heard in
The Iron Giant) never takes himself too seriously, and it helps.
Physically, he's a striking presence, with a deep, pliable voice to
match.  After the novelty of the creatures wears off (and it happens
pretty quickly), he's by far the most interesting and entertaining thing
about the movie.

While Twohy can't be accused of showing too much of the creatures,
neither does he leave enough to the imagination.  Given the film's
premise, it would have been nice if he had trusted Diesel's ability to
hold an audience and used sound and dialogue clues instead of computer
graphics to bring the beasties to life.  In shedding a bit too much
light on the subject, Twohy restrains the power that makes the imaginary
monsters of childhood so terrifying.

GRADE:  **1/2