The Lowdown: Found-footage horror in space. Aside from the creative visuals and interesting setting, not much else sets it apart from any other average found-footage horror film. In fact, the drastic contrast is Apollo 18’s biggest stumbling block.
1. The Plot: The year is 1974 and the Cold War is raging. The Apollo 18 moon mission is announced as cancelled, but instead becomes a top secret Department of Defense mission to place detectors on the moon in case the Soviets try anything. Three astronauts are sent to space, but they never return. Lost footage of the mission has been discovered, and this is that footage, or so the movie claims.
Yeah right.
2. The Characters:Wow, talking about the performances of actors in a found-footage film really gets tiring, because the gist of it is that they are acting like they’re not acting. I assume this is not as easy as it looks, but there’s only so much to say about it because there is only so much that actors in a found footage film can do. With that being said, the acting in Apollo 18 is decent for a horror film and about as good as most found-footage films. At a certain point, it is all about suspending disbelief and making oneself believe that this found footage is real and that these people aren’t actors. If you can somehow convince yourself of that, then you really fell for the sales pitch.3. Suspending Disbelief: Speaking of suspending disbelief, Apollo 18 is set in space, which is odd for a horror film, don’t you think? It’s not that horror films haven’t taken place in space before (see: Alien, Jason X), but for a found-footage film, it’s a bit problematic. Found-footage horror has kind of backed itself into a corner. It is a subgenre that only so much can be done with, and it seems to have used up most of its ideas in just a few years. It’s clear after seeing so many that filmmakers are trying very hard to come up with fresh ideas for a found-footage film, but some ideas are stretched a bit thin. In the case of Apollo 18, creepy things now happen in space. It’s such a far cry from the haunted houses and haunted towns that people are more used to seeing in these sorts of films that one can’t help but get a sense that the filmmakers are trying too hard. The other problem is with the stuff that happens on the moon. Most of it is stuff that has been done in just about every other found-footage film. Video cameras being knocked over by an unseen entity? Check. Shaky-cam, especially during running scenes? Check. Creepy things happening when everyone is asleep? Check. There are even a couple of scenes where the astronauts have to illuminate a pitch-black area with a flashing light. This technique has been seen in Insidious, Mama, House at the End of the Street, and The Possession. It’s a cheap tactic since it’s an obvious indication of a jump scare. One would think that more interesting things would happen in space.
There's even this.
(WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW)Probably the most obvious example of the filmmakers trying too hard is the mostly-unseen scary entity. Usually, it’s a ghost, like in Paranormal Activity, or undead, bloodthirsty creatures, like in .REC or Grave Encounters. In Apollo 18, it’s alien spiders that disguise themselves as moon rocks. Yes, the things that the astronauts are running from are space spiders. Tell me that’s not a real stretch of the imagination. Of course there wouldn’t be ghosts in space, but they had to resort to making moon rocks scary? I guess having actual aliens was too cliché, but conceiving skittering moon rocks is clearly trying way too hard to avoid the cliché. In theory, moon rocks that become alien spiders that turn people into undead hosts (okay, now that’s really cliché) is quite creepy, but since I was never actually able to convince myself that this was real found footage, it ultimately took me out of the film.
(END OF MASSIVE SPOILERS)
The Bottom Line:Apollo 18 tries very hard to reinvent the found-footage horror film by setting everything in space, but it tries too hard. It’s not a terrible found-footage film, but it really isn’t as special as it could have been. In fact, it’s not that special at all. The bottom line: Apollo 18 is just another found-footage horror movie.
Apollo 18 is property of Dimension Films, Bekmambetov Projects Ltd., and Apollo 18 Productions. This review was written by me.
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