Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Edge of Horror: Moon

I had a mini Sam Rockwell film festival recently. I watched Moon, Directed by Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie) and starring Rockwell as Sam Bell, an engineer stationed on a lunar base nearing the end of his 3 year contract. Bell is the solitary employee on the base, with only a HAL like computer voiced by Kevin Spacey to keep him company. Bell is already a little stir crazy, but he has his job and recorded messages from his wife and little daughter to keep him sane. Out of the blue he starts to have hallucinations of a teenage girl on the base. This leads to an accident involving a lunar rover.
From this point on the films becomes a psychological science fiction thriller. Sam realizes he is not alone. There is someone else on the base- and the identity of this person will change the course of Sam's life. That's all I will say. If you have seen the trailer you know who the other person is, but you don't know "why" he is. Neither did I until just before the big reveal. I love it when a movie can still surprise me. Moon is not a horror film, but it does have some creepy elements to it. Sam is isolated, alone, fearing for his sanity, and becoming aware that great forces are at work against him. Highly recommended.
The other Rockwell film I saw was Choke, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk. It is a really funny movie which stays pretty close to the book.
I also watched The Pregnancy Pact on the Lifetime channel last night, only because I was too lazy to get up and go to bed. The acting was on par with Death Tunnel. I have only myself to blame....(this film did not star Sam Rockwell.)

2 comments:

Dwido said...

Yes, excellent sci-fi, but only
for those with patience. Now where is the sequel: Earth

Franco Macabro said...

Loved this one, very philosophical with its themes. Plus they did so much with so little! Only 5 million dollars!