Enjoyable cult film that benefits from a low budget

Rating: 7/10 (10 June 2004)

this film is tense, well written (especially by genre standards) and infused with enough action to make it all work. i'm glad the film was a low-budge effort, as it forced the screen writers to focus on the human interaction and the situation rather than over do it with cgi monsters. sure the beasties look dated by today's standards (and looked dated at the time this came out actually), but by the time we actually see them we don't care, as we are engrossed by the very basic but well fleshed out plot. decent performances by relatively unknown actors, including hauser and the woman who played the pilot, added to the appeal, while the increasingly odious vin deisel was at his best here (probably because he kept his mouth shut most of the time, a lesson that most actions heroes would do well to learn.) i give pitch black a 75%, and urge sci-fi/action fans to seek it out as it is sure to become a cult classic.