'Pandorum' deep-space-scifi horror 2009 film discussion

[jefferiestubes8]

In resisting posting to a thread that is almost 2 years old but is essentially the same topic with minimal replies I've started this thread.

The film 'Pandorum' was released 2 years ago and basically did not get any press or much marketing.

genre: Action | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

deep-space travel sci-fi film with astronauts waking from hyper-sleep at the start and the story is unveiled from there just like in Event Horizon (1997).

Budget:
$33,000,000
Gross:
$US20,213,000 (USA) which obviously was a commercial failure.

Now how much can you do with a pyschological space thriller/horror film without it borrowing or feeling just like others such as Solaris, Aliens, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Event Horizon, Sphere, and Moon (2009) ?


I felt it was overall very similar to very Alien³ (1992), Event Horizon, and some Resident Evil.

The first scene is pretty amazing. Just for the wakeup from hyper-sleep. Better than Event Horizon or "2010: The Year We Make Contact" (1984).

While watching this on Netflix streaming I felt it was the best deep-space-set-scifi film I had seen in a long time. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The last act was a letdown but the first two thirds of the film were great.

The cinematography was great. Lots of dark murky scenes but very motivated lighting. A great use of glowsticks to light scenes & motivate the lighting (green, red, blue for different scenes). A couple of the early scenes had some of the most realistic lighting I've ever scene of our lead crawling through a passage with only a single flashlight lighting the scene.
The music was pretty good. The overall sound design was great with the tension and suspense with the creatures' sounds. It has very good production design for the massive scale ship. The bridge and hypersleep areas are very high tech and look big budget. The rest of the ship looks like parts of Alien's Nostromo.

There is some repetition with some chase/action sequences. The last 3rd of the film could have went many ways plot-wise.

If you've been itching for a film similar to Alien3 or Event Horizon check this out.
For those who have seen it recently what did you think?

the original TrekBBS thread (with only 15 replies): Poll: Pandorum Grading & Discussion (Spoilers)

 

[RAMA]

I brought this film up in discussion once or twice...I was surprised that it didn't get more attention. While the zombie/vampire/mutant killer aspect was standard I did enjoy a lot of the normal crew interactions and the ending made it feel like Ellison's The Starlost's lost finale. Despite the standardized horror elements, I think this is a better movie than Supernova, Event Horizon, and many similar lesser films.

 

[JarodRussell]

I remember I read the first paragraph of the official synopsis, and got excited because of the interesting premise, and then the second paragraph revealed the zombies and I skipped the whole thing entirely.

And better than 2010? In no way can a zombies on a spaceship movie be better than 2010.

 

[Pingfah]

Good set design, everything else about it was shit. Especially the monsters.

Couldn't hardly be worse than Supernova though, so that's not saying much.

 

[AvBaur]

I really liked this one, too. I actually think this is one of the best space-set horror movies outside of the Alien series, imho better than Event Horizon, Supernova, or even Sunshine. The story isn't entirely original, but it looks great, the actors are good, and I even quite like the twist-y ending.

I think any fan of sci-fi horror who hasn't seen it yet should check this out.

I remember I read the first paragraph of the official synopsis, and got excited because of the interesting premise, and then the second paragraph revealed the zombies and I skipped the whole thing entirely.

I won't reveal what the monsters actually are, but they're not zombies.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

I watched the film after reading a Greg Bear novel called Hull Zero Three and reading they had essentially the same plot.

They didn't really.

I wasn't terribly impressed with the film. The sets were impressive, but I'm not a huge fan of zombie flicks.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

And better than 2010? In no way can a zombies on a spaceship movie be better than 2010.

JarodRussell I think you didn't understand my opinion and specific mention of 2010.

The first scene is pretty amazing. Just for the wakeup from hyper-sleep. Better than Event Horizon or "2010: The Year We Make Contact" (1984).

I was only talking about the first scene which was a crewmember waking up from hyper-sleep. It's been depicted in a number of films (with my two favorites above) and Pandorum does it very well.

I felt that Supernova wasn't much of a comparison to Pandorum since it was only a madman and not creatures.
Yes Supernova was a scifi thriller set in deep space but remove the creatures and it becomes like Sphere (and Event Horizon too.)

 

[Deckerd]

I felt that Supernova wasn't much of a comparison to Pandorum since it was only a madman and not creatures.
Yes Supernova was a scifi thriller set in deep space but remove the creatures and it becomes like Sphere (and Event Horizon too.)

You managed to get 4 shite films into one paragraph. Well done. If you'd got Sunshine in there too it would have been a full house.

 

[DarKush]

Pandorum was better than Event Horizon, which also had great atmosphere and some cool designs but the characters were too stupid and dry to boot. Pandorum had better written characters and I really liked the mutants (for lack of a better description). They were pretty vicious. It's unfortunate that Pandorum didn't do better at the box office. Maybe it will become a cult film in time. If Event Horizon or Supernova have become cult films (don't know if they have or not), then Pandorum definitely deserves that kind of reappraisal and appreciation.

 

[MichaelDornFan]

I loved Pandorum. The ending was great. It's probably one of my favorite sci-fi movies.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

If Event Horizon or Supernova have become cult films (don't know if they have or not),

I would say Paramount knew Event Horizon would sell well on DVD as they put on a very basic DVD in 1998. In 2006 they put out a Special Collector's Edition 2-disc DVD release with a lot of documentary material (102 minutes), an audio commentary, and 3 deleted scenes. That type of release would indicate a cult following in the scifi horror genre. 2 years later in 2008 they released the Blu-ray with the same special features.

I think I'll rent the Pandorum DVD to hear the audio commentary. or pick up the DVD cheap.

 

[OsmiumJohnnycake]

I find it hard to say much about this film. I enjoyed it. It wasn't great, but I enjoyed it.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Netflix predicts 2 1/2 stars for this film for me. That's below my tolerance threshold of 3 1/2 stars. I've tried defying Netflix in the past and learned the hard way that Netflix is usually right. I guess that's what happens when you've rated 2,166 movies, thereby giving the machine near sentient intelligence, at least on this one narrow topic.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

Like many other, I would not consider this a great movie however it is well worth the watch.

 

[Rarewolf]

I enjoyed it, I thought it was sort of like The Descent, in space

 

[Holdfast]

I keep meaning to reply, but I just can't differentiate this movie enough in my mind from Event Horizon and Sunshine. They all occupy a similar sort of place in my memory, and I'm not really sure which story is which any more.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Good set design, everything else about it was shit. Especially the monsters.

Couldn't hardly be worse than Supernova though, so that's not saying much.

Supernova had Robin Tunney's breasts at least.

 

[Venardhi]

Writhing piles of naked mutant flesh don't do it for you?

More for me then.

 

[RAMA]

Netflix predicts 2 1/2 stars for this film for me. That's below my tolerance threshold of 3 1/2 stars. I've tried defying Netflix in the past and learned the hard way that Netflix is usually right. I guess that's what happens when you've rated 2,166 movies, thereby giving the machine near sentient intelligence, at least on this one narrow topic.

You actually use the Netflix predictions? That's funny.

 

[Nowhere Man]

I saw this movie about a year ago. I heard about it on here. It was/is on netflix. I liked it a lot actually and have seen it twice now. I haven't bought the DVD, but if I see it some time, I will buy it. It's worh watching and worth purchase IMO. Not much more I can say about this movie, but I liked it.