Pitch Black Special Edition Review

Some films break all the rules, others just bend a few of them ever so slightly -like "Pitch Black”. In effect this is a latter day B movie and had it been shot some thirty or forty years ago would probably have been called something like "I Was A Teenage Alien Rip Off” or "Son Of Predator 3”.

A disparate group of space travellers are stranded on a deserted mining colony when their space freighter is forced to crash land. Amongst the not so happy band is the sole surviving flight crew member Fry, future lawman Johns and his now escaped prisoner Riddick (which is probably an abbreviation of

Riddick-ulously contrived). Just when our motley crew thought things couldn't possibly get worse, night falls on the planet and a horde of darkness-loving, multi-fanged monstrosities falls on them.

While "Pitch Black” does adhere to the industry standard formula for this sort of movie, to its credit it does at least make an effort (however feeble) to go against the grain by defying our expectations of this genre. So most of the party are picked off, but those party members who are traditionally eaten often manage to survive, and those who normally make their escape scant seconds before the closing credits eventually buy it in the final reel. Oops, have I given the ending away...