Future Cult Classic

Rating: 7/10 (20 February 2000)

OK... Watching this movie, I was thinking "Deep Blue Sea" meets "Cube," but that doesn't detract from it's entertainment value. A group of very... unusual characters get together and crash on a planet infested of flying, nocturnal, man-eating creatures and, of course, terror ensues. Yes, yes, the plot has been done, but still an entertaining flick. What really saves this film is the group of un-likeable characters. Basically, there is not really a character you find yourself cheering for... and I find that a big plus. You have a criminal with cats' eyes, a pilot who'd realistically save her own ass before thinking about anyone else, a cop-like character who's almost as dangerous as the criminal he's captured, and several other disposable characters that predictably turn on one another as soon as the suns go down. The special effects are good, but I preferred how they didn't focus to much on them. What gives this film the bit of creepiness it has is what you don't see hiding in the shadows. To think of it now, you don't actually SEE the monsters all that much. What you have is a "Blair Witch" element of "sometimes it's what you don't see that scares you." In any case, not a bad movie, but I can't help but feeling like I was watching a direct-to-video flick that got mixed up with a film with better production-values.