Starring: Lloyd Owen, Warren Christie

Directed by: Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego

Today, I decided to go to the mall, to go check out a movie. There were quite a few movies out recently that I wanted to see but it was hard to make up my mind. I was going to see either: “Conan, The Barbarian”, “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”, “Colombiana”, and this film, “Apollo 18”. I ended up seeing, “Apollo 18” first since I have a huge interest in science fiction and outer space things.

Here is my review:

Plot/synopsis: “Apollo 18” is set in December of 1974. The story is about a post-Apollo 17 mission to the  moon, explaining why NASA never went back to the moon, cancelling all future missions. Two astronauts visit the moon for a special mission, and while there, they discover parasitic lifeforms. These mysterious lifeforms begin to attack the astronauts and they try their best for survival. 

A lot of people seem to hate found footage hand-held camera movies that seems to be trending in Hollywood lately. Why? I think found footage films is a great idea. I love them, honestly. Here’s why…

In horror films of today, we get way too many high budget teen slasher flicks and remakes of older horror films lately. I find found footage films to be something unique, different and original. Of course, found footage films all started with the “Blare Witch Project”, and more followed after. Most of today’s horror films, the big budget ones are not scary. They are mostly blood, guts and naked women, but with found footage films we don’t get any of that. The found footage movies such as “Blare Witch”, “Paranormal Activity”, “Quarantine”, and many others can be very scary movies. In my opinion, I think they all do a good job in making them believable.

In “Apollo 18” was the most realistic found footage movie I’ve ever seen. I also think it’s the scariest found footage movie ever made. I’m about to explain why.

Ever wonder what it would be like to be on the moon? It may sound fun and very exciting but at the same time, it can be a very scary job being an astronaut. I’m pretty sure Neil Armstrong, was scared to death before he set his foot on the moon for the first time. That’s exactly what made this movie pretty fucking scary. This movie makes it scared to be on the moon.

The reason this movie makes it so realistic is, even though this movie was fiction, this movie was inspired by the real life story. They just added the fictional aliens into this story. While a lot of people don’t really believe in aliens and UFO’s, you still never know what could be out there. I certainly believe that there are other lifeforms somewhere other than us.

Anyway, the cinematography and the filming of the movie, was phenomenal. That is another reason they made this movie realistic, it was the camera work. To make a believable outer space movie, there couldn’t be high budgeted CGI effects. You ain’t going to see “Star Wars” or “Star Trek” in this film. This film is going to make you feel like you’re out in space, yourself.

Plus, the performances of Lloyd Owen and Warren Christie, were excellent. I thought this was the best found footage movie so far. It’s a nice mix of horror and sci fi. The funny thing is, that people don’t get into sci fi much. I absolutely love science fiction. I love to watch sci fi movies and read sci fi books. Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury are two of my favorite sci fi writers.

“Apollo 18” was fantastic, check it out!

Score for “Apollo 18” = **** (4 stars as in “excellent”)

Kev