“Will you cut it out with this sci-fi bullshit”
In 2022 the crew of Spacecore 1 is sent to fix a nuclear satellite that is orbiting the Earth, near the moon. This is part of their normal maintenance procedures. The crew consists of Flynn Harding (Robert Sampson), Lt. Giles Stewart (Will Bledsoe), Philip Jennings (John Diehl), ship’s doctor, Dreyfus Steiner (Alan Blumenfeld), Alex McInny (Wendy MacDonald), and Paxton Warner (Joe Turkel), who runs the ship’s specialized and very sexy humanistic computer, Lesli (Camilla More). The satellite is drifting toward Centrus B-40, the dark side of the moon. Before they reach the satellite, the ship experiences a power failure. They are now running on auxiliary power and are running out of oxygen.
Suddenly they see a ship coming toward them. The ship turns out to be the NASA shuttle Discovery. NASA has not operated the shuttle program for thirty years. The ship was registered lost in 1992. Their mission was to collect core samples from the dark side of the moon. It is believed that the ship, during reentry, went down somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle. When the crew of Spacecore 1 tries to contact the shuttle there is no response yet the shuttle automatically docks with Spacecore 1.
Flynn and Giles suit up and venture onto the shuttle to find out what is going on. On board the shuttle they find the body of one of the crew, Michael Gotier (Ken Lesco). They bring him on board the Spacecore 1 for Dreyfus to do an autopsy on. Except for a huge triangle shaped hole in his stomach, he appears to be normal. Later, Gotier comes to life and attacks Alex. It’s not long before Giles realizes that an entity is aboard the ship and is hopping from crewmember to crewmember. Giles is faced with trying to find a connection between this entity, the Bermuda triangle and the dark side of the moon.
“The Dark Side of the Moon” was released direct to video in 1990 and was directed by D.J. Webster. It is a science fiction horror film. The movie was released on VHS. I believe it finally had a DVD and Blu-Ray release by Unearthed Films.
I’m not sure why this film never had a theatrical release, it’s creepy as hell. It’s a standard plot, sure, but it was done well. Take a little bit of “The Thing”, a tad of “Alien” and a smidgen of every other science fiction movie with an alien force running around a spaceship occupying people and you have “The Dark Side of the Moon”. Add to it just some religious undertones and it gives a normally regular space opera a slightly different twist. It goes from the standard science fiction tale to something rather intense and unique. The film is well worth seeking out.
Yes, there are some inconsistencies with the film. Why they have a leather clad female computer among all the regular flashing lights and switches seems a little out of place. Other than eye candy she didn’t contribute much to the running of the ship. Her role was more of a pleasant looking Alexa or a talking space Wikipedia. The budget wasn’t big, but they managed to do quite a bit with what they had. Also, the dark side of the moon aspect doesn’t have a lot to do with it, but it was a cool title and the cover art on the DVD is great. The ending is not totally explained but, once again, it was pretty cool.