The Dark Side of the Moon
Director-D.J. Webster
Cast-Robert Sampson, Will Bledsoe, Joe Turkel
Country of Origin- U.S.
Distributor - Unearthed Films
Number of discs – 1
Reviewed by - Bobby Morgan
Date- 07/31/2019
MIA on home video since the 1990’s, the underseen sci-fi horror film The Dark Side of the Moon makes its world premiere on Blu-ray from Unearthed Films. Was this release worth the long wait?
The year is 2022. Satellites armed with nuclear weapons orbit the Earth and occasionally need repair work, so the task falls to the “Refabs” on the maintenance vessel Spacecore-1 to get this highly hazardous job done. During a routine mission, the ship’s operating systems malfunction, sending it and its crew drifting helplessly towards…. THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON! But wait, there’s more. With only 24 hours remaining until Spacecore completely dies (and everyone on board with it), the crew comes across another drifting vessel, the space shuttle Discovery, and pilots Harding (Robert Sampson) and Stewart (Will Bledsoe) board it to discover no signs of life and the corpse of a crew member.
Instead of leaving the dead body as is and going on their merry way, the Spacecore gang decide to bring the stiff back to their craft and try to use the Discovery’s equipment to get their own dead stick back up and running again. Hijinks do not ensue, but a dark force comes to life aboard Spacecore and starts to claim the crew one by one. Somehow, the mystery ties into the last place the Discovery splashed down in, somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle….
The sole feature credit of director D.J. Webster, a music video vet responsible for classic clips like ‘Til Tuesday’s “Voices Carry”, The Dark Side of the Moon is a slightly better-than-average outer space horror B-movie that makes the most of its limited financing with a few interesting narrative ideas and a handful of enjoyable, albeit predictable, set-pieces. The script by Carey and Chad Hayes (who went on to write House of Wax and The Reaping for Dark Castle Productions and later created the popular Conjuring franchise) employs a basic set-up and a bare minimum of character development that the film’s cast struggles to improve through their performances, which run the gamut from flat to as serviceable as the material demands.
Webster’s music video background comes in handy trying to make his scrappy little sci-fi thriller look more expensive than its actual $1.2 million budget. Though the script has modest ambitions beyond its visibly derivative origins, they’re quickly swamped by the plot’s hodge-podge assemblage of story beats and visual callbacks taken from far superior films like Alien, Aliens, The Thing, Planet of the Vampires, and countless Roger Corman and Italian rip-offs of Alien. Something interesting could have been developed from the third act revelation regarding the nature of the evil menacing the Spacecore crew, but it all gets forgotten during the expected onslaught of bloody deaths and paranoia-driven fighting and a nihilistic finale that makes everything that happened in the film appear even more like pointless schlock.
Cult favorites Robert Sampson (Re-Animator), Alan Blumenfeld (Wargames), Joe Turkel (Blade Runner), and John Diehl (Miami Vice) deliver the better acting turns of the cast, while little-known players Will Bledsoe and Wendy MacDonald do what little they can to make their one-dimensional roles stand out before their inevitable demises occur. One-time half of the Doublemint twins Camilla More (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter) is a goofy presence as Spacecore’s humanoid computer Lesli, because in the future it will be important for spaceship computers to resemble leather-clad background dancers from a Robert Palmer music video.
Cinematographer Russ T. Alsobrook deserves a little credit for cleverly employing creative lighting and camera angles to generate extra tension for the film. He would go on to work mostly in comedy, shooting classic TV series like The Ben Stiller Show and Freaks & Geeks and the hit films Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Paul Blart: Mall Cop. The music score composed by Phil Davies and Mark Ryder (Society) helps to set the right mood at the right time without any particular cue calling attention to itself. R. Christopher Biggs (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors) supplies some memorable gore effects that provide a welcome boost of watchability after a slow and uneventful first half.
A sad irony for The Dark Side of the Moon, which isn’t very original but remains a decent time-killer on its own merits, is that seven years after its wet fart of a theatrical release and a consignment to the purgatory of Mom & Pop video store shelves a much better (and better-known) movie would come along with a bigger budget, better actors, and the resources to realize a story similar to Webster’s on a larger canvas. That movie was called Event Horizon, and now I kind of want to watch that.
Unearthed Films gives The Dark Side of the Moon its first official home video release in decades in the form of a new Blu-ray that features a recent 4K remaster of the film from an unspecified source. Presented in 1080p resolution and in its original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio, the new transfer likely represents the best Dark Side could ever look on video due to its low-budget origins and the better-than-average quality of the film elements used for the restoration. Vastly improved sharpness brings out detail in faces, clothing, and set design previously dulled by lackluster video transfers, helped immeasurably by a thin, organic field of fine grain and color timing both natural and warm in the interior scenes and cold and blue at other times.
There are two English LPCM 2.0 audio tracks included here, one that appears to be created for this release and the other a more authentic recreation of the original Ultra Stereo sound mix. Purists will likely opt for the latter option, but I prefer the newer mix after comparing both tracks at several points during the film. Much like the visuals of Dark Side, the sound design is very basic and undemanding and the dialogue, music, and sound effects are layered together with an absence of overlap and distortion on both tracks, but the new mix is much clearer and even contains slightly greater depth than the vintage mix, which also suffers from modest muffling. No subtitles have been provided.
Unearthed Films honcho Stephen Biro moderates a new audio commentary track with Dark Side producer Paul White. The tone of the track is muted but conversational and informative from the producer’s perspective as White discusses putting the project together, script development, casting, working with D.J. Webster, releasing the final product, and much more. A worthwhile listen if you’re interested in the nuts and bolts aspect of making an independent genre film with a fraction of the budget of a major studio effort.
Next, we have three lengthy new interviews conducted with members of the film’s cast and crew via Skype: actor Alan Blumenfeld (40 minutes); makeup effects artist R. Christopher Biggs (35 minutes); and stuntman Chuck Borden (21 minutes). Combined, these interviews run longer than Dark Side of the Moon itself, and despite the janky video quality and the interviewer’s often annoying level of excitement, they’re very enjoyable and do a fine job along with the White/Biro commentary of giving viewers a well-rounded recollection of the film’s production.
A slim stills gallery and a breakdown of the film’s budget are presented as short full-motion videos. The disc-based extras conclude with a trailer for The Dark Side of the Moon and previews for additional past and future releases from Unearthed: A Record of Sweet Murder, Dis, Nightwish (which I really want to see after watching the trailer), The Song of Solomon, and The Unnamable. Included with the Blu-ray is a booklet featuring production and cast information and color photographs from the film.
The Dark Side of the Moon was never going to bowl me over, but I had a bit of fun watching it. The performances and technical work elevate the predictable material and it’s thankfully short at 91 minutes. The Unearthed Films Blu-ray presentation is far better than the film deserves, with an excellent HD transfer, solid audio, and a host of supplements refreshingly free of fluff to sweeten a package Dark Side’s modest fan base won’t be able to pass up.
