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Credits

Director: John Carpenter Starring: Brian Narelle, Cal Kuniholm, Dre Pahlch, Dan O' Bannon Screenplay: John Carpenter, Dan O' Bannon Country: USA

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It all started with a little student film called Dark Star. Four drugged out astronauts are floating in space on a mission to destroy unstable planets from outer galaxies using intelligent bombs. After a collision with a meteorite field their ship is invaded by a strange alien being and things start to go wrong as the already fragile psyches of the space travellers begin to unravel under the pressures of being in zero gravity for decades.

Co-written and starring Dan O' Bannon, one of the creative force behind Ridley Scott's Alien, this stoners in space comedy shows little of the virtuoso storytelling of Carpenter's later work but is an intriguing glimpse into what was to come. The film may lack the prosthetic mayhem of Rob Bottin or the prowling camerawork of Dean Cundey, but many of the hallmark characteristics of Carpenters later work can be seen in a somewhat embryonic state. Despite the low budget (this was a student film) the film holds up remarkably well. Yes, the acting is poor and the special effects are anything but, yet there is something about the film that works.

The talking, malfunctioning bombs and the seductive voice of the ships central computer are obvious homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, while Kubrick's was stately but sterile and ultra realistic vision, Carpenters has to settle for grungy space chic on a shoestring. The alien in particular is delightfully simplistic affair resembling a space hopper on steroids falling somewhere between a giant beachball and an over ripe extra from The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.