Spaceship Terror |
USA • 2011 • 94m •
   • Directed by: Harry Tchinski. • Starring: Kristen Springer, Jay Wesley Cochran, Lacey Blair, Stephen Lestat, Emma Lee Nguyen, Ronda Olshefski, Yulia Hancheroff, Jenny Lin. • Music by: Eric Bridenbaker.   Marooned on a deserted planet, and picked up by a old derelict spaceship, six unwitting travelers find themselves enslaved in a torture filled blood lust ride into hell.
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Review:
The rules are simple: the medical bay is a "safe zone". If the women try to leave, they will be stalked and killed. After each girl is killed, the hunter will leave a number on the wall, written in the victim's blood. The last surviving girl must correctly enter the numbers on a keypad in order to launch a lifepod and escape. If the girl enters the sequence incorrectly, or if she is caught by the hunter, she will be tortured mercilessly and held until another group of victims is picked up.
We've seen similar ideas before; think "Saw" meets "Aliens" and you have a pretty good idea of the plot. The hunter looks a lot like the killer from "Hostel", complete with blood-splattered apron. This brings up my first criticism of the movie. A good horror movie has a bad guy with a back story that's plausible +1. In other words, his life is normal except for one abnormal thing, whether is supernatural, extraterrestial, or psychological. We don't get a backstory to the hunter. All we know is that he likes to play games involving blood, pain, fear, and death. The movie would have been improved dramatically if the hunter had been explained as being a former crewmember suffering from "deep space dementia" and had been dressed in a uniform of some sort. The best scene in "Halloween" is, just when we think Myers has been killed by Jamie Lee Curtis, we see him arise in the background behind her. We don't get that payoff here because we have no foundation of understanding the bad guy. In "Halloween" we were told its a human being behind that mask, so when he resurrects, it makes that scene that much more chilling.
There are two good parts to this film and neither of them involve actors. The first is the ship itself. The interiors are very well done and very detailed. It's obvious that this is where most of the development focus was placed, and it pays off nicely. For a low-budget horror film, the set is convincing.
The second good part is the music. The themes contribute greatly to the feeling of foreboding and despair that resonates throughout the film. In the DVD bonus features there's an interview with the composer. To be honest, he's just as creepy as his music. Perhaps they should've cast him as the villain in this one.
The costuming is terrible. At first the astronauts are wearing the equivalent of biohazard suits - not flattering at all. Generic coveralls would've been better. The costuming actually improves once the suits come off, revealing the crop-top t-shirts, panties, and bra worn underneath, but these quickly get coated with blood, grease, and more blood so even that is a bit of a turn-off. Only one of the women thinks to take a bath, and we still don't see anything. Such a waste.
The nudity is not egregious, despite the cast being heavy on women. In fact, its not erotic at all. Despite the potential for T&A, the filmmakers dialed way, way back on the skin. There's only one or two scenes that show a bare breast, and it's covered with burn marks, blood, and grease as part of a torture scene. Not a turn-on at all but totally realistic to the plot. In fact, we only see two women actually get tortured: one is electrocuted and the other enjoys some vivesection and amputation of her legs without anesthetic.
Two of the actresses seem to exist simply as a plot point, which is a shame because they could've been so much more than just another body to kill. Gore fans will like it.
Overall, it's not bad, but could've been better. Most of the problems could've been solved at the typewriter.
Review by troywhigham from the Internet Movie Database.
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