Country: Germany, Britain
Director: Christian Alvart
Horror themes: Space, loneliness, mutation, creatures, survival, dark, madness, murder
Verdict: 80/100… A fantastic, gripping film

Synopsis of Pandorum (Overture Films)
Two crew members are stranded on a spacecraft and quickly – and horrifically – realize they are not alone. Two astronauts awaken in a hyper-sleep chamber aboard a seemingly abandoned spacecraft. It’s pitch black, they are disoriented, and the only sound is a low rumble and creak from the belly of the ship. They can’t remember anything: Who are they? What is their mission? With Lt. Payton staying behind to guide him via radio transmitter, Cpl. Bower ventures deep into the ship and begins to uncover a terrifying reality. Slowly the spacecraft’s shocking, deadly secrets are revealed…and the astronauts find their own survival is more important than they could ever have imagined.

Observations about Pandorum
Several things about Pandorum stood out to me. First of all, Pandorum is a far better movie than some of the variables seem to indicate; for example, according to one set of figures, Pandorum took in around $20 million USD on a budget of $33 million USD – making it a loser. (According to a more recent source, the budget was $40 million USD and the horror film has taken in around $23 million USD.) Pandorum deserves to have been a blockbuster. Second, Ben Foster is even more versatile than I thought. The moment I saw him appear on the screen in Pandorum I thought of how different he appeared as the wanna-be vampire in 30 Days and 30 Nights (one of the best vampire movies, IMHO). Third, Antje Traue – the lovely girl who plays Nadia – is an incredibly attractive blue-eyed brunette: one of my favorite aesthetic combinations for the fairer sex!

Resources: Pandorum, 2009 sci-fi horror film

• Pandorum 2009 – IMDb (user rating: 6.8)
• Pandorum – Wikipedia
• Pandorum – Official movie trailer – YouTube
• Pandorum – Video with movie clips, comments from Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster (3 min.)
• Beyond Hollywood – Pandorum review
• Antje Traue: Pandorum’s gorgeous brunette Nadia – IMDb
• Pandorum director Christian Alvart – IMDb

Pandorum movie reviews

• SciFi Cool Pandorum review
• HollyBolly Live Pandorum review
• Horror Movies – Pandorum review (8/10)
• Pandorum review from Slangards
• Pandorum on Rotten Tomatoes (critics: 28%; audience: 49%)
• Pandorum on Metacritic (Metascore: 28%; User Score: 7.7)
• Review of Pandorum – About Horror – About.com
• Pandorum review – Filmofilia

This post was started on Monday, June 20, 2011