Pitch Black (2000 Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell)

A space transporter full of cyro-sleeping passengers is suddenly struck by small meteor fragments that pierce the hull, killing both passengers and crew. A handful of survivors huddle into the ship’s forward control capsule and, jettisoning the rest of the doomed craft, crash-land on a bleak unforgiving planet circled by three suns. Among those living are pilot Carolyn Fry (Radha Mitchell), mystic Imam (Keith David), the louche Paris P Ogilvie (Lewis Fitz-Gerald) and, most dangerously, convicted murderer Richard B Riddick (Vin Diesel), and the cop guarding him, William J Johns (Cole Hauser).

The first thoughts are of survival and escape – they find an abandoned settlement but within it find evidence of both violent death and what caused it – every 22 years, there is a total eclipse and that is when the blood-thirsty flesh-eating denizens of the planet emerge from hibernation to feed. Now the battle is to work together, jury-rig the settlers’ derelict craft and escape with their lives as the darkness gathers and their pitiful supply of light, the only weapon against the razor-jawed killers, begins to fade…

Twohy, much regarded for his budget sci-fi thriller The Arrival , can’t avoid having his film compared to Alien (Mitchell’s blonde locks are about the only difference to Ripley) but the film stands on its own merits – the initial bleached look of the planet (shot where Mad Max was filmed and created by the same set designer) is a stunning almost monochromatic illusion of a multi-sunned wasteland, while, once darkness falls, the glimpses of the aliens are satisfyingly horrifying.

But the film is stolen by Vin Diesel in his breakthrough role. Taciturn, tough and endowed with night vision, he turns from dangerous killer to reluctant saviour. Originally, he was due to die but such was the power of his performance, a sequel was quickly agreed (due out next year, with Twohy again helming) and someone else dies in his place in this engaging, fast-paced science fiction/ horror thriller.

production details
USA | 108 minutes | 2000

Director: David Twohy
Script: Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat, David Twohy, Jason Brubaker, Fireball Tim Lawrence, Brian Murray,

cast
Vin Diesel as Richard B. Riddick
Radha Mitchell as Carolyn Fry
Cole Hauser as William J. Johns
Lewis Fitz-Gerald as Paris P. Ogilvie
Claudia Black as Shazza
Keith David as Abu “Imam” al-Walid
Rhiana Griffith as Jack / Jackie
John Moore as John ‘Zeke’ Ezekiel
Simon Burke as Greg Owens
Les Chantery as Suleiman
Sam Sari as Hassan
Firass Dirani as Ali
Ric Anderson as Total Stranger
Vic Wilson as Captain Tom Mitchell
Angela Moore as Dead Crew Member