Pitch Black (2006, HD DVD)

I've been wanting to see Pitch Black for some time, and that time finally came last night.

The Plot

It's a pretty simple plot. A space ship carrying a dangerous murderer, the bounty hunter taking him to prison, pilgrims bound for New Mecca, and a few other random people crash-lands on a desert planet with three suns (producing eternal daylight). They discover that other people were there before them, twenty-two years ago, and that they all died. Then the eclipse happens, and they find out what killed the last group of people as the monsters come out to play.

The criminal has special eyes that can see particularly well in the dark, and a heck of a survival instinct. The monsters can be hurt by (and are afraid of) light. And of course our intrepid crash survivors get trapped away from their planned escape ship during the eclipse, and have to somehow get back and take off without all getting killed.

Why We Had to See It

There are several reasons why we felt we had to see this movie.

1. I love horror. Particularly creepy horror.

2. Claudia Black is in this movie, and she's our favorite actor from the TV show "Farscape."

3. The ads just looked neat, with all those critters swarming just outside of the light.

4. A little while before ads for this movie started running, some creatures disturbingly like the monsters from Pitch Black showed up in the roleplaying run I'm in. The guy in charge of the run hadn't yet heard of the movie; it was just one of those odd bits of synchronicity. Since that was one of the most creepy and disturbing sets of runs we've ever had, we just had to find out how the movie went.

The Characters

Most of the officers of the ship are killed during the descent. Only Fry (the docking pilot) is left, and she's the one who tried to jettison the passengers in their cryo-tubes during the crash landing in an attempt to save herself. She's feeling pretty guilty over that, given that she ended up making it out okay after another crew member stopped her from jetisonning them.

I really like this character, and the way she's played. She's flawed, she's temperamental, and she finds it all too easy to take the quick way out of her problems. But it's up to her to figure out a way to get everyone off of the planet. She makes a fantastic flawed hero.

Johns is the mercenary taking Riddick, the murderer, off to jail. Johns is a druggie with a fair amount of attitude. Riddick is a psycopath with a fair amount of attitude, so they get along well (more or less).

Johns is more than just the straight stereotype he could have been, and he's played with a bit of complexity. As for Riddick, played by Vin Diesel, I can see why some people believe he overacted. I disagree, however. It seemed clear to me that the character was overacting, rather than the actor. Riddick spent a lot of time in prisons, where attitude and the ability to convince people you're dangerous is a survival trait. On top of that he tends to get off on knowing that people are afraid of him, and attitude helps him to accomplish that. I thought he played the character perfectly, overacting when appropriate and being subtle when appropriate.

The two other particularly interesting characters are the Muslim holy man and the teenaged kid. But those characters, I think, deserve to show you what they're made of themselves. Their stories are subtle enough that to sum them up in a sentence or two would do them an injustice.

Each character was an interesting person. The major speaking roles each had at least one surprise for the audience, I found, in terms of who they were, how they behaved, or what they did, even if that surprise was small.

My only negative comment here is that I felt that one or two characters didn't seem to serve enough of a purpose in the movie. Take this with a grain of salt, however. I went back and watched the movie again tonight, and found that all of the characters did all pull their weight, even if sometimes it was subtle enough that it didn't seem that way.

Victims and Victimizers

In a way, this entire movie was a study of victims and victimizers, and all of the dynamics between them. This ranged from the very subtle to as obvious as possible (monsters killing people). This was reflected in the harsh contrasts of the washed-out daytime light, and the pitch black of the total eclipse.

People in this movie kill each other. People try to convince each other to kill other people. People use each other. People hurt each other. And this entire dynamic swirls around the character of Riddick like a silent hurricane. It is most centrally played out in the character of Fry. Riddick comes close to killing her early in the movie, and changes his mind when he finds out she tried to jettison the passengers. At various times after that he tries to encourage her to become a victimizer, as he has; she also spends time trying to atone by playing the victim (going down the dark tunnel to find out what killed another passenger, also at Riddick's instigation. Pitch Black subtly points out that being the victim goes hand-in-hand with being the victimizer, and that both roles are equally bad ones to play).

This theme comes together as the movie approaches its climax. Each of the surviving characters must come separately to the conclusion that it's possible to exist without being either a victim or a victimizer, and Riddick can only come to this realization by experiencing Fry's own escape from the victim/victimizer dynamic.

It's actually much more subtle than I make it sound! The makers of this movie do a very good job of not hitting the audience over the head with their message. I'm convinced that the only writers and movie-makers who do a truly good job of getting their message across are the ones willing to be subtle enough that most people will never even notice there's a message.

The Details

If you like a good fright I believe that this movie delivers. There are plenty of tense moments, and scenes that make you jump out of your skin. It is definitely a bit bloody in places, though, or maybe that's a factor of our having gotten the "unrated" version. Perhaps the normal version isn't as bloody.

I won't give away the ending. Suffice to say that it played out well, and that it was satisfying. The folks who made this movie didn't fall into any of the many traps, easy exits, and cop-outs they could have, and that pleased me.