Movie Review: 'Apollo 18'

Rating: 1/5
by Brian Kesler

I often say that films are very subjective. If that's the case, the ratings critics give to films must also be subjective. Here is a film that does so many things as they should be done, a film that does everything I asked of 'Don't be Afraid of the Dark,' and yet I gave that movie 2.5/5 and 'Apollo 18' 1/5. I got in a severely heavy argument over this movie and during the aftermath of the debate (as the steam dispensed from my ears and the red glow of my skin returned to pink), I thought arduously over what I'd just watched. The more I thought of it, the less I liked it.

The film is shot in the ever popular style of 'Paranormal Activity' and its derivatives. The footage we watch was found from a confidential mission to the moon. The astronauts in the footage think they're just studying moon rocks and atmosphere. They don't consider the possibility that it's really more than that (a confidential mission to study moon rocks?) until things start getting a little spooky. And that's it. Simple as can be. When I saw 'Don't be Afraid of the Dark,' I was disappointed in its liberal showcase of the little monsters through CGI. I wanted something more ambiguous. A threat I never saw or heard. Something that lurked in the shadows, only revealing incomprehensible fragments of itself so that I itched with an ever growing curiosity and fearful fascination. This movie does that. What these creatures are and how they got there and why they do what they do is never explained. We never even fully see the aspects of their physicality (though they greatly resemble a certain creepy crawly we all loath and fear). Logic clearly suggests I must give this film a good review based on that comparison.

However ... the horror movies that affect us most are about something more than what they're about. For example: John Carpenter's 'Halloween' is not a film about a masked stalker, rather about a girl who feels indifferent to her peers, so much that she'd rather babysit than socialize with kids her own age. In that sense, Michael Meyers is more than a killer, because his indifference to the world around him parallels that of the protagonist.

Another example: Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' is not about a haunted hotel. It's about a man whose isolation and writer's block force him to think and dwell and ponder and absorb until he is caught in a psychological maze (symbolized by the hedge maze chase sequence), driving him to kill his wife and child.

These movies are about something more than what they're about. They have underlying themes and symbolism. They have characters who carry fears more internal than those for monsters and serial killers. While 'Don't be Afraid of the Dark' wasn't successful in the usage of the creatures, it was still about something. The monsters had a thematic purpose, the characters had dilemmas and internal struggles. 'Apollo 18' is not about anything. It has no reason for being. Its characters have poor dialogue, and no distinct personalities or emotions. They don't carry weight or drama. Only one of the three seems to have an emotional attachment for his family, and it isn't much displayed. Every movie needs themes, symbols, and motifs. Without them, the film is lost in a sea of one-dimensionality.

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