The Dark Side of the Moon (1990) User Reviews

Not that bad really...

[trekkie-11 · 6/10 · 20 May 2001]

This movie scared me senseless some ten years ago when I watched it with a friend! Thus I had no reason at all not to see it now that I got the opportunity to watch it again!

My opinion of it now, ten years later? Well, of course it is not at all as scary, but it is not that bad! I've seen several space-thrillers not getting anywhere close to this one. Nice claustrophobic atmosphere through the entire movie and an ending not too predictable!

If you're bored and want something to watch to pass time, this is a very good choice in my opinion.

The Bermuda Triangle Meets Outer Space

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 27 December 2012]

It is the year 2022. A mysterious systems failure causes the crew of a spaceship to be stranded on the dark side of the moon...

While this is by no means one of the great science fiction films of our generation, it is unfortunately not easily obtained (although it is on Netflix). Some concepts here are rather clever, most notably the idea of bringing together the Bermuda Triangle and space travel... and then, even throwing in Satanic references, and still having it all make some kind of sense.

The gore was also quite good, though I was confused by the robot (Lesli). I understand she is sort of like the ship's computer and there to answer questions, and I think that makes sense (it sure seems to be common enough in science fiction). But I was confused why she had to be humanoid rather than just built in to the ship. If all she does is sit and talk, why have legs or arms, or even a face?

The Beast in Space

[Tweetienator · 5/10 · 4 July 2022]

The Dark Side of the Moon is a creepy but sometimes little stupid (storywise) space horror movie - we get the mark of the beast, the Bermuda Triangle, some space horror, a sexy AI/android. No doubt, this is a low budget B-movie but entertaining in that pulp fiction kind of way. Event Horizon (Paul W. S. Anderson, 1997) may have borrowed some ideas from this one, but is stronger in all aspects (acting, story, production). Anyway, if you want some space horror with a creepy atmosphere and you don't mind a B movie budget you may dare to lock your mind into this one.

Drifting towards Centrus B-40

[Cujo108 · 9 July 2010]

In the year 2022, SPACECORE 1 is a space vessel with a crew trained to repair nuclear-armed satellites. They are on their way to one such satellite near the moon when the ship suffers a mysterious systems failure. Without power and running out of oxygen fast, they also must worry about drifting towards Centrus B-40, otherwise known as the dark side of the moon. Not long into their dilemma, an old NASA space shuttle approaches and docks with their ship. Despite no signs of life on the shuttle, the SPACECORE crew need oxygen, so the captain and his second in command board the battered craft. They get the oxygen that they need, but they also get more than they bargained for when they discover the corpse of a NASA astronaut with a triangular hole in his stomach. Bringing the body back to their ship turns out to be a dire mistake, as something pure evil is using the dead man as a host.

This is an excellent little sci-fi/horror gem that is far too under seen. The plot having to do with the dark side of the moon (obviously), the Bermuda Triangle, Satan, paranoia and possession is one of the most original I've ever come across. This thing has more imagination than years worth of big budget blockbusters put together. The execution is solid too, as the mystery unfolds amidst an eerie mood and seriously foreboding atmosphere. The film's look is appropriately dreary, a perfect fit for the bleak tone of the proceedings. Despite a tight budget, the effects are also well done.

All around, this is one of the creepiest space films I've seen. A key asset in making it so is the film's score. Special mention to the opening credits, which are played against a screen of fire as the haunting score plays over them.

The acting is fine and all of the characters are likable to some extent. Even Jennings, the hick with a screw loose, is appealing in an off the wall kind of way. Joe Turkel of Blade Runner and Kubrick fame is here as Paxton Warner, as is Robert Sampson from Re-Animator.

As the film spirals towards its finale, I was completely enthralled. The ending is a great one, and very much in tone with the rest of the film. The final shot and voice-over is classic, and pretty damn eerie and hopeless all at the same time.

This is a great film, one that deserves more recognition. I recommend seeking this out if you can. Its quite a shame that it flies below most people's radar.

The Devil in Space.

[DigitalRevenantX7 · 4/10 · 2 May 2012]

PLOT OUTLINE: The year is 2022. While on a mission to repair nuclear-armed spy satellites in Earth orbit, the spaceship Spacecore 1 suffers inexplicable power failure. As it drifts towards the Moon, the crew realize that they have only 24 hours air & heat left. But the real nightmare starts when an old space shuttle mysteriously docks with them, bringing onboard a parasite that is revealed to be the Devil.

Call it what you like, but the one thing you can't accuse The Dark Side of the Moon of is not sticking close to its source material (in this case the landmark sci-fi / horror classic ALIEN). The cast is kept to seven actors, two of them are women as well as one of them being an android (although the android's identity is not a secret). The only difference is that we get not one but two large spaceships for the action to take place in.

On a technical aspect, The Dark Side of the Moon is quite good. The actors take their roles seriously & deliver their performances with a passable competence. Three of the cast are also veterans of the genre, with Joe Turkel coming from BLADE RUNNER, Robert Sampson from RE-ANIMATOR & Camilla More from Friday THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER. Director D. J. Webster keep things going at a modest pace while attempting to generate as much atmosphere as he can on a low budget (mainly by having the lighting kept to a minimum, which makes watching the VHS tape a real headache since the picture is so dark that only a completely dark room will allow you to see what the hell is going on). Not to mention a score that fits the film well, made by Mark Ryder & Phil Davies (who made the classic TRANCERS score). The only problems I had with the film were the interior shots of the shuttle, which are way bigger than what it should be.

If the technical aspects are good, then what drags the film down to the B-movie gutter is the script. It tries to blend religion with science fiction, something that almost never works, with some bizarre ideas about the Bermuda Triangle being a plot by the Devil to beef up his soul collection; Ol' Scratch being a parasite that hides inside people's bodies (a real half-cocked concept stolen from THE HIDDEN); much nonsense about the significance of 666. It is not hard to imagine that the ideas on paper have some merit, but on film it only proves to be routine B-film fodder that doesn't rise above the sea of similar films that came out during that decade.

You know what's the scary part? Eight years later, the concept was resurrected as EVENT HORIZON by RESIDENT EVIL director Paul W. S. Anderson.

It could have been better than what it ended up being...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 24 April 2021]

I stumbled upon the 1990 movie "The Dark Side of the Moon" now in 2021, and I had never even heard about this movie. And since this was an unknown movie to me, and a potential sci-fi horror movie worth watching, despite being 31 years old, of course I sat down to watch this movie from writers Carey W. Hayes and Chad Hayes.

And while "The Dark Side of the Moon" definitely was watchable, it was also at the same time a very cheesy B-movie sci-fi horror movie, for better or worse. I am sure that there is a wider audience out there for a movie such as the 1990 "The Dark Side of the Moon". I, however, just found it to be mildly entertaining.

The storyline started out pretty interesting and there were great moments where director D. J. Webster staged the scene and slowly brought more and more tension into the story. But when it was revealed that it was a biblical twist, I must say that the air went out of the balloon for me, and the movie started to slip down a slope. That was a twist to the storyline that cut down the movie for me, and it was hard to get back into the atmosphere and groove of the movie once that was revealed.

Now, I will say that whole approach with the Bermuda Triangle thing was actually interesting. Sure, it was pretty far out there - no pun intended. But it made for a nice twist to the movie.

Visually then you are not in doubt that you are watching a movie made in 1990, as the special effects are rather outdated and fairly simplistic by today's effects in movies. But still, they did manage to do what they were intended to do, even now 31 years after. But don't expect to be in for a grant spectacle of special effects.

The acting in the movie was adequate, although you will not find yourself in for a major Shakespearian thespian display here. The acting was what it was, and taking into consideration the storyline and script, I think the actors and actresses did good enough jobs.

Ultimately then "The Dark Side of the Moon" is not an outstanding sci-fi horror. There are many other horror movies set within the dark reaches of space that provide more intense entertainment than what writers Carey W. Hayes and Chad Hayes managed to deliver in "The Dark Side of the Moon".

All in all, definitely a watchable, albeit rather campy and cheesy horror sci-fi movie. My rating of the 1990 movie "The Dark Side of the Moon" lands on a less than mediocre four out of ten stars.

Bad science fiction without the science

[drbecker10 · 1/10 · 14 April 2011]

The initial impression of this film is that the writers threw it together as fast as possible with no research or really much thought at all.

The first, and possibly most frustrating, problem is the numerous and obvious scientific inaccuracies. A human cannot survive in space without a spacesuit. Even if he is carrying the only means of survival for the crew. A rifle fired in a spacecraft does not end well for anyone involve. (Still not sure why they packed an arsenal of assault rifles anyway). There was a surprising abundance of gravity and oxygen on the abandoned shuttle, which of course was never designed to leave low Earth orbit, let along travel to the moon. The list goes on...

Even if these shortfalls don't bother you, the acting sure will. Captain Mullet was the most competent of the crew, and that says very little. Each character was one dimensional, so of course the actors had to go overboard with the only emotion they were allowed to express. The old guy's creepiness, the former combat soldier's urge to kill everything, the woman's uselessness, and the doctor's cowardice/cream allergy all foreshadowed their individual (vain) attempts to move the plot forward.

The writing was completely nonsensical. The acting was terrible. It all works well together to redefine the term 'B-movie'.

Despite Captain Mullet's selfless heroism and noble intentions, why should we be led to believe that a nuclear blast will kill Satan?

Space horror with a supernatural twist!

[Aaron1375 · 7/10 · 24 May 2009]

I caught this film late night back in the 90's, when this old low budget horror films were actually done very well. Only saw it the one time back in the day, but bought it recently and gave it another watch. It is a pretty good horror film set in space and I like the supernatural flair added to it. I know Event Horizon is also a supernatural horror set in space and I got that one too. Wanted Nightflyers, the 80's movie, but looks like that one has yet to be released on DVD. I know a lot of people hate that one, but I thought it was pretty cool and totally surprised I found this movie on DVD and not that one. This one is a bit less well known.

So the story pretty much starts quickly as it is the year 2022 (wow, next year) and a crew that repairs satellites armed with nukes has some complications. Let me reiterate that, it has complications right out of the gate as there is no chatting, no backstory for each crew member and no kitty cat...they should of brought a cat along! The ship's computer, which for reasons unknown is a sexy gal sitting in an office chair claims the ship is fine, but things are not fine as life support is failing! Another ship approaches, seemingly piloted by someone and they manage to get air from it and they find the corpse of a man and soon the crew of the imperiled ship begin getting taken over one by one as something sinister is at play!

The cast is pretty good, not an A list ensemble, but they definitely know what they are doing. The sets are pretty good too, a lot of the films around the time this film were made do a better job of creating a spaceship than they do now. Granted, there is no explanation as to why there is gravity in the space shuttle. I can chalk up the gravity in the main ship as because it is so futuristic, but not the shuttle that was apparently from 1992.

So, the film was good, a good atmosphere and the music accompanied it well. It pretty much shoots out of the gates as the crew is in trouble almost immediately. Some gore is present, but this film does not particularly rely on that, more on the whole paranoia thing as anyone could be harboring the evil except for the main guy whom we see pretty much all the time. The film is not the greatest piece of work, but it was entertaining for what it was.

Not good even for a B-Movie scifi.

[chgoblkmasc · 3/10 · 4 March 2011]

When watching Sci-Fi movies, there is a certain level of disbelief that comes into play. But even then, there should be basic 'rules'. Here the director didn't even follow science rules that literally a first-second grader would know was incorrect. Example:

'When you are outside the spacecraft, and not in a space suit, you cannot breathe' "When someone is infected with something, and you know they are infected, you quarantine them. You do not merely put them in a room, unwatched, and everyone can come and go as they please"(this is even after the first discovered death) "Have a computer android built like a porn star dressed in leather(not making this up), who has access to every piece of data stored on any computer, anytime, including missing viking ships from 3,000 years ago, yet no one thought about rewinding the video feed to see how someone was killed in the medical lab"

I could go on and on. That's not being picky, or requesting common sense, or whining that someone has the wrong accent, just blatant disregard for the audience. The two things the movie had going for it was it creepiness, and neat plot line as to what was going on, shame it was wasted.

If you are remotely a thinker in any type of way, you will hate this movie. If you are a non-thinker and looking for mindless drivel, it may actually work.

The Devil and the Triangle Bermuda

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 14 August 2022]

In 2022, the six-man crew Spacecore is sent to fix a nuclear satellite in the Earth orbit. Out of the blue, the spaceship has a breakdown and runs out of power and oxygen to crash on the dark side of the moon. However, they find the NASA space shuttle Discovery stranded and they dock the ship with Spacecore. They explore the shuttle and bring the body of Michael C. Gotier (Ken Lesco) on board and the supply of oxygen to survive. But soon they learn that Gotier is the host of some strange force that possesses each one of them. Further, there is a connection between the Bermuda Triangle, the dark side of the moon and this force that is the devil himself.

"The Dark Side of the Moon" is a kind of rip-off "Alien" associated to the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, the dark side of the moon and the Devil. The plot and the film itself is not bad and entertains. The conclusion is good and the idea of the android (instead of "Hall") is great. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Lado Sombrio da Lua" ("The Dark Side of the Moon")

Wow, did this suck or what???

[agremlin82 · 1/10 · 30 March 2014]

DANGER…, SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

I'm very surprised that there were so many positive comments about this fine feature film. I'd hate to rain on this parade, but as "drbecker's" comments on April 14, 2011 mentioned, there were a few things that don't really work in this wonderful film. Not even referring to the acting, more the script. The writers really had no idea what they were talking about. The vast majority of the mistakes I saw should not have been allowed to stay in the script. Event Horizon came out years later with the same basic premise, but they did a much better job with the science woven into the plot. This one was a mess. Just a few things I had a problem with…

• Minor, but I gotta wonder, the production studio could afford decent replicas of EVA spacesuits which have area lights on the helmets which are never used. They carry hand-held flashlights instead when entering the shuttle. • 2nd in command doesn't tell anyone anything about what he's found out about the Bermuda Triangle (B.T.), maybe important to let the gang in on why they're all screwed. And if they don't believe him he can remind them that they just docked with a 30+ year old spacecraft with no crew or fuel onboard that was never designed to go to the moon. Any far-fetched claims would be looking pretty good by then. Also, you see a crewmember being attacked and you've been locked in the computer room, hey, how about calling somebody else to help her? • It's idiotic to lock-out the rest of the crew from the computer just because you're the ships I.T. specialist. If you die they're screwed. Also, an incredible amount of space wasted by installing a sexy manikin/A.I., unless of course it's used for sex then it's justified. • A demon is in control the ship, shutting down needed systems, locking doors and isolating crewmen and women at the worst possible times. Collecting parts from the derelict would also be expected to fail. Why not blow yourself up now and get it over with. No sense in letting El Diablo mess with your head if you blow your head off. That'll teach him. • Why are they carrying automatic weapons on a spacecraft??? You damage the hull, blow out a window or destroy equipment then you're pretty damn well screwed. • What's the deal with the abdominal slicing and dicing? • Passage behind the moon would only take a matter of 20-40 minutes depending on velocity unless you're hovering in the shadow or falling to the moon's surface. If you're falling it's not going to take 24 hours to hit the dirt, or bite the dust so to speak. And if your velocity was not enough to allow one to get caught in the moons gravity it'll just drift past the moon. • Alignment with the Bermuda triangle to that area of the moon would be constantly changing as the earth spins and the moon orbits the planet. An alignment would only be effective for a few minutes in a day. Additionally, the area they refer to as "the dark side of the moon" is always faced away from the earth so alignment with the B.T. is impossible. • The typical design of the space shuttles contains a command section and a cargo bay. There are not several floors, corridors, compartments, crawl space vents or sunken floor saunas built into it. The cargo compartment is just a big open space. • Why put an orbital missile platform anywhere near the moon. Its 258,000 miles away. Missiles fired from the weapons platform would have to compensate for the moons gravitational field as well as go around the moon; also it's generally more than a day's travel from a high-speed platform compared to an earth orbital platform which can destroy targets in 30 minutes or less or your money back. • Detonating a nuclear weapon within close proximity to your spacecraft is really bad ideas as if it's a space-based missile system the warheads will likely have an incredibly high yield. In other words, there isn't enough sun block in Florida to help you • 1990's era shuttle craft does not have artificial gravity, umbilical lines or a docking tunnel. They don't have traditional fuel tanks, they have maneuvering thrusters only. • You cannot survive for more than a few seconds in zero atmosphere. • Electronics today change from month to month, The relays they spent so much time trying to find will not work in a craft made 30 years later.

It could have been better had they even began to understand a principal spacecraft they wrote into the script. This one doesn't support the story line. They could have poised it further into the future, using a craft made 50 years into the future. That along with the writing plot holes, primarily when facts are discovered and you don't inform the rest of the crew. If it slipped his mind this story line is crap.

Really a Well Done Movie With a Creepy Plot

[CMRKeyboadist · 8/10 · 6 April 2006]

It had been many years since I first saw this movie. Probably about 15 years, but I remember the premise was genuinely freaky and a few scenes stained themselves in my head. Finally after all these years I just got done watching the movie and had to sit through the credits to realize that the movie had ended.

The plot is that it is 2024 and a spaceship is out by the moon. A team is doing their normal routine when they have a power failer. This causes for the ship to not supply them with oxygen. So while they are trying to fix the problem a ship appears out of nowhere that is 30 years old and lands itself in front of them. Apparently the old ship is still functioning and they decide to use the oxygen supply from that ship and that is where everything starts to go wrong.

I was struck with this weird feeling after the movie was over and I wasn't sure whether or not I liked this movie. It took me about 10 minutes of thinking about this film before I realized that it was really good. The story is good, the acting is good, and the ending is incredibly creepy. I would have to recommend this movie to fans of both horror and sci fi because it really was a very good melding of both styles. In a way, I can see where Event Horizon may have got some of its ideas. 8/10 stars

A Nice little surprise!

[paulclaassen · 6/10 · 6 October 2022]

How do you make an 'Alien' movie different? Simple: take the aliens out of the equation and replace them with demons. While 'The Dark Side of the Moon' doesn't really offer anything we haven't seen before, I was intrigued by the link from space to the Bermuda Triangle.

'The Dark Side of the Moon' is set in 2022, so it was quite fitting that I would see it now for the first time. A Space ship malfunctions, and the crew now only has 24 hours of oxygen left. To make matters worse, they are heading to the dark side of the moon. They manage to call for help, but the approaching ship is not what they expected. When the ship docks and they go aboard, they find it deserted. And this is only just the beginning of their nightmare!

I enjoyed the characters, and the simple premise. There's also interesting character development as the crew start turning on each other, never knowing who to trust. The performances were actually pretty darn good. This film is not about aliens, but about demonic possession in space.

There's a few unexpected turns and the visuals and effects are rather good. For a film made over three decades ago and looking so good still by today's standards, it must truly have been quite something back in 1990. Why they released this direct to video instead of a theatrical release is beyond me. This was so good!

Rather sad .. even for a 90's B flick

[tanweth · 3/10 · 13 March 2011]

I'm reading through the reviews and figure they must be people that were in some way associated with this movie. I almost gave it a four but just couldn't do it.

This movie actually would make a good MST 3000 spoof. Outside of that .. the acting was poor (I felt that Turkel really didn't want to be in this after he saw what was going on) .. a dressed up sex doll is the AI computer? (cheesy) .. the actors sound like they are reading their lines for the first time .. and then things like a coupling that fits just perfect between two ships built 30 yrs apart? .. and why would such a setup be made in the first place (it certainly isn't now) ... the list keeps growing. Finally .. by the end of the movie .. we just don't really care about any of these people or what happens to them.

The idea of the movie wasn't bad and that's probably what got some of these actors involved in the first place. The entire movie could have been tightened and become quite a nice little thriller IF it had been condensed to a Twilight Zone episode or the like. So it's a shame that there was a nice idea and it was wasted this way.

An abject lesson in fear

[jjzzaahh · 26 January 2004]

I have seen this movie twice and although the actual plot could be deemed as a little far fetched, it really works.

Basically, after a systems failure a ship gets trapped upon the darkside of the moon, where all kinds of weird goings on begin to take place as slowly the crew members are picked off one by one by an unseen assailant/assailants.

The actual film idea itself is excellent and it really does use darkness in the film for the right reasons and as always, desolate space ships make excellent places for horror to hide round every unlit little corner. Add the fact that there is nowhere to run and the horrible feeling of claustrophobia and you have a gem of a move that is slick, doesn't seem over-produced and has a genius idea of a story running through its core.

It is nice to see a film made to scare and not to shock.

Comedic Gold!

[DanzWMe · 1/10 · 26 January 2022]

A 2022 six person space crew experience some malfunctions aboard their spaceship while on a space mission to fix satellites (or something) . Their ship is running out of air so of course they come across an abandoned lifeless spaceship that looks like the old spaceships from 1980. They board the ghost spaceship & someone remarks that it smells like sulfur & is very hot for a ship with no power. That was my clue one that the ghost ship would have some link to hell as the cause of its demise (ripoff Event Horizon much).

They find one dead guy, bring him aboard their ship & put his body in the med bay. The doctor examines the body & they discover that his belly is ripped open exposing his guts (ripoff Alien much).

The captain is seeking answers about the ghost ship & goes to the onboard computer for answers. Oh yeah, the onboard computer is a full sized anatomically correct woman that sits in an office chair in a broom closet & never gets up once during the entire movie. She tells the captain about the ghost ship & how it's from 30 years ago & it crashed out of space into the ocean & was lost. Blah blah blah & 30 seconds later, the captain miraculously links the ghost spaceship to the Bermuda Triangle. That's right, you heard me correctly - the Bermuda Triangle.

Apparently there's a portal/black hole/stairway to heaven that goes directly from the ocean through the air to space & then to hell (which conveniently is located on the dark side of the moon). Any object that gets caught in this portal/path is transported to hell aka the dark side of the moon.

The dead guy comes alive & the crew begin getting bumped off by Satan himself who takes over the body of whomever he kills & then goes off to kill the next one. Seems a bit petty of Satan to have to collect souls 1 by 1 like this but I guess the bad economy caused him to cutback on the Armageddon type big showcase gloom & doom everyone at once.

Aboard the ghost ship once again, a crew member falls into a room filled with water. It's seawater with algae & stuff. They wanted to make sure you understood that the spaceship had been in the ocean so that's how it got caught up in the Bermuda Triangle & transported back into space to hell aka the dark side of the moon.

After 3 crew members are killed, the remaining 3 crew members detach from & then blow up the ghost spaceship. Two kills later & it's down to just the captain who decides that he'll just blow up himself & Satan who's now taken over the last other crew member.

Boom bam boom! The End.

As end credits roll, you're given a glimpse of all the spaceships, boats, pirate boats, rockets, planes, trains, & automobiles that have fallen into the Bermuda space portal beam zone & ended up in hell aka the dark side of the moon. I think I even saw an ice cream truck surrounded by dinosaurs up there too.

Production Quality is Horrific: The spaceship's dining hall is literally the conference room of the film makers office. All the crew are sitting around what is clearly the table read table. The ship's bridge/control room is the size of the broom closet of the same building. The props & sets look exactly like painted styrofoam pieces.

I think they were going for an Alien, Event Horizon, Ghost Ship, Leviathan type movie but what they ended up with was comedic gold.

Come on folks, the film was laughable

[oldmotherchaos · 1/10 · 4 May 2004]

I'm not going to give away any spoilers, but this film is a real three-pint wonder. The premise is laughable, the acting non-existent, the action straight out of a dozen better films (particularly Alien) and the technical expertise... well... Where to begin? The 'computer' is a hot chick in red leather on lying on a couch. Uh-huh... One vital 'plot' clue is unfolded by the heroes taking a set of numbers, and removing every digit that is not one particular number. It's about as conclusive as grabbing a dollar bill from your wallet and announcing that the eye on the back means you are being watched. The deaths are, well, random at best. And by God, I want to meet the programmer who thought to include the particular user definition that triggers the computer's last words...

Believe it or not, I enjoyed watching it. But only because I sometimes like to watch some utter drivel. (Hints: if you actually _like_ this movie, you might find yourself enjoying "Saigon Commandos", "The Church", "Vlad", "FearDotCom", or "Manos, The Hands of Fate".)

MST3K

[manateez · 4/10 · 23 May 2022]

This will be an awesome movie to see if the characters of Mystery Science Theater 3000 get it & do their hilarious magic on this film. Some scenes are very cheesy & screaming for a sarcastic line to follow.

Interesting 90's B Movie

[l-heon · 6/10 · 5 December 2021]

Good plot, average acting, hilarious closed captioning (prostitutes, beer, rarely a sir-name correct). Reading the movie will take you in strange directions, makes it more interesting! 😆

Review of the movie

[deltavision · 2/10 · 14 September 2014]

Dark side of the moon is a very very bad movie. The acting is poor and the special effects are even worse. Many mistakes made which started in scene 1 when a huge, and I mean a enormous ship disappears behind the moon. That ship must be the size of a small moon, but when they approach it, it's about the same size as the ship they are on. Second mistake was the satellite shooting a rocket from earths orbit to the ship in orbit around the moon, and it takes just a second to reach. Then the interior of the space shuttle seems like the size of the death star. The only spaces in the shuttle are the flight deck, lower deck and cargo bay. Then the guy in the airlock while it detach, he should be frozen and dead.

The story is great and it would've been a great movie if the actors were good and the director wasn't a second rank idiot with a camera at his finger tips.

A shame, and hopefully one of the real studios will take the effort to make a remake.

it could be worse

[solacesoulless · 6/10 · 4 February 2006]

It's definitely a b-movie, but one with an original and intriguing idea. Original enough, apparently, to be borrowed by a handful of more well-known sci-fi movies - most notably Event Horizon, which is practically the same movie with a bigger budget (and minus the Bermuda Triangle). It's dark, disturbing and puts an unusual a twist on what initially seems like a standard sci-fi storyline - ship stranded on the dark side of the moon, no power, running out of air, people being mysteriously disemboweled. It's filmed in such a way that the images stick with you long after it's over, especially the ending. Of course you have to suspend your disbelief and ignore the ridiculous hairstyles, but if you like low-budget sci-fi/horror films, it's a lost classic.

Not Funny

[bhsfacebook · 3/10 · 12 March 2020]

This is the worst episode of Red Dwarf ever. I liked the first season much more.

A well done 'B' movie

[morrah · 8/10 · 17 December 2001]

Dark Side is quite an original story and deserves a merit for being a well written sci-fi film, apart from inheriting a B movie 'feel' about it. It parallels nicely with Event Horizon and Sphere as a movie that fits into the "crisis on a ship" genre. Joe Turkel from Blade Runner is particularly worth watching out for and Leslie the computer has interesting links with HAL from 2001.

One of the hundreds of 'Alien' rip-offs, but creepy and effective

[kclipper · 7/10 · 23 July 2011]

This incorporates many ideas directly lifted from 'Alien', and juxtaposes them along with some invigorating themes dealing with the biblical Antichrist and The Bermuda Triangle. Combine this with a harrowing sense of doom and ambiance, and you have yourself a genuinely scary sci-fi/horror flick.

The year is 2022, and its your standard "terror in space" set-up as the crew of a maintenance and repair spaceship experiences a power failure which causes the vessel to drift toward the dark side of the moon (hence the title). They discover what appears to be an abandoned space shuttle, and after boarding it, thats when they encounter such horrors as; demonic possessions, mutilated bodies and murder conspiracies. All of this ties together with the incarnation of pure evil and the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, and its done with a sense of technical proficiency. Performances range from fair to good, and the same with the b-movie quality production, but its intriguing concept and creepy mood raise it above par from most of these 'Alien' imitations.

The Devil lives in space.

[machrf · 1/10 · 2 February 2021]

I never knew that. The bare chested woman, the creator of Blade Runner's clones, and some decent stars could not save this script. Why would the Devil be so keen to hunt humans in space when he has so many on Earth? Don't bother to watch this one.