NO FLAMETHROWERS!

Rating: 10/10 (22 February 2000)

By now, everyone knows this is part of the Alien "Puny Human" genre, where a group of people are forced to face an alien threat of the like never seen before. The difference here is that the director worked hard to get everything he could out of the limited budget. The nerve-wrackingly desolate landscapes are effectively turned into purely claustrophobic corridors of dark by what has to be the most spectacular eclipse scene ever in cinema. The special effects are either subtle or over the top, but they always achieve the effect on the audience the director wanted. Despite limited dialogue, the actors throw themselves right into character, explaining nothing that they can't demonstrate with their performance. Vin Diesel, in particular, makes himself an irresistably fascinating amoral predator, who deals with everyone at face value.
What really impressed me, however, is that there were no flamethrowers. In his illustrations for Species, H.R. Giger kept scribling notes saying "no flamethrowers", which were ignored. In fact, the flamethrower has become the worst cliche of the whole Alien genre, appearing everywhere from undersea mining facilities to L.A. sewers. Pitch Black avoids this crutch, impressive since flamethrowers would be doubly useful for the night-blind survivors fighting albino predators. The whole crew worked hard on this film, avoiding cheap tricks like this, and it shows.