Pandorum (2009)
Pandorum (2009), directed by Christian Alvart.
I was imprinted with science fiction horror at an early age by The Outer Limits (1963) TV series. I was too young and it gave me nightmares but the imprinting stuck. I always wanted more.
After Alien (1979) the floodgates opened and we saw more in the genre, some of good quality and many more lacking (see Creature (1985)). I try not to judge too harshly. Excessive gore and I'm out but if the makers believe in their project and are trying to do a good job, I can be happy.
This film "was poorly received and a box office flop", but I think it has some good features.
Crewmen Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster wake up from hypersleep in chaotic conditions with no one around and the ship breaking down. The passage ways are stalked by violent mutant-looking creatures who are fast, strong and savage. For some reason they carry butane-tipped lances, which are cool looking.
The spaceship and technology look good. Old run-down tech can be pumped up manually, which is better than immortal batteries. They do the old wheeze of crawling through the ventilator shafts, but in this case the passages are clogged with cabling, which is exactly what happens with real infrastructure.
Per tradition, we have a race against the clock to save the ship. Have to sneak through the really bad zones.
Gore level: getting there. In a truly horrific scene, a passenger awakes from hypersleep just in time to be torn apart and eaten alive by hungry mutants.
Generation ships have often appeared in written science fiction, where something always goes wrong and the voyage goes on much longer than planned and the crew have forgotten their original purpose. I remember:
Robert A. Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky.
Harry Harrison's Captive Universe.
Gene Wolfe's massive series The Book of the Long Sun.
In this film, the Elysium could have used Cordwainer Smith's wisdom from Think Blue, Count Two where safeguards are employed against the horrific space dementia called "pandorum" here.
I'm not recalling many film versions of the concept. The original Star Trek had "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky". I haven't seen Harlan Ellison's low budget Starlost series.
Available on Blu-ray with a commentary by the director and producer Jeremy Bolt.
