Review of Apollo 18 (2011) by Owen A — 23 Nov 2012

You're probably supposed to hate this film. It's low budget, it puts an English man in space (not our natural habitat - we're better in spitfires and on boats, space always strikes me as a peculiarly American / Russian frontier) and it's more nonsensical found footage.

However, I didn't hate it. It's not something that bears any thinking about because the plot holes are plot craters but there is a claustrophobia to space travel. Astronauts float in tiny tin cans in tinier space suits and there never looks to be enough room.

You can't breathe properly and the only thing separating you from instant death is invariably a bit of plastic. Never have there been so many mundane ways to die horribly as in space. So there's always a palpable sense of threat.

It's also quite dark. And quite quiet. These are all primal fears. Where this film is smart (and I use the phrase advisedly) is that it takes the genuinely terrifying aspects of space travel and let's them be terrifying without trying to over do the space monster stuff.

It feels claustrophobic and sweaty and all a bit uncomfortable. You can imagine how horrible it must be to be so far from your loved ones and in constant fear of death. You are not happy about going into an unlit crater.

You feel at times short of breath. It does enough. It's no master piece but nor is it a piece of tosh as some said. It's cheaply effective in its own way.