British Film Institute (BFI), Irish Film Board, Qwerty Films,
Liev Schreiber, Elias Koteas, Romola Garai, Olivia Williams, Johnny Harris, Goran Kostic, Tom Cullen, Yusra Warsama
A group of astronauts are coming to an end to their first manned mission to Mars. They’re waiting to be released by the replacement group when they suddenly find a kind of bacteria that might be proof of life on Mars. One of the astronauts defies orders and goes out to investigate against orders, but his excavation triggers a cave in which causes his demise. When the rest of them go out to recover him though, one by one they turn up missing and they soon come to realize that the bacteria was a lot more menacing than anyone figured.
This science fiction / zombie film is pretty much alone in it’s class. I went into it expecting it to be really silly and very poorly done. I was kind of surprised as it was a lot better than I expected. There was a mixture of horror and suspense with the setting on Mars, so you really could feel the sense of isolation that they felt. If you are inside a house that’s haunted and the walls start reaching out for you, get the heck out of the house and you will survive! But on Mars, your options for escape are pretty limited, so mostly you have to deal with the problem. The film makers did a really good job of making us feel the loneliness of being alone on another planet. That part was handled very well. Liev Schreiber did a really good job. Some of the other characters where not really convincing that they could have passed the NASA requirements to be astronauts, but we can cut them a little slack. None of us have any experience with Martian zombies, so who knows how we’d handle it. I don’t mean to be flippant or mocking the storyline. They actually did do a decent screenplay here, and it does provide the chills and suspense that this type of movie should. All in all, it was a pretty good science fiction film, and one that makes a pretty good rental. It’s available for streaming, and is a good one to add to your queue if you like these kinds of movies.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
