Pandorum 2009 Film Starring Dennis Quaid

A Technician Wakes up on a Space Ship Infested With Mutants

Oct 8, 2009

Two men struggle to save their ship which is infested with humanoid monsters. Their cargo is made up of settlers hoping to establish a colony on an Earth-like world.

Pandorum is a 2009 science-fiction/horror film. It is set onboard a massive space ship called the Elysium. At the beginning of the film two men wake up from hypersleep with no memory of who they are or why the flight crew that was supposed to relieve them are absent. As they explore the ship they discover terrifying creatures are lurking in the corridors and other survivors hanging on to their sanity by a thread.

In the film Pandorum is a form of psychosis which can happen during extending space missions, and is triggered to an uncontrollable level by a massive emotional trauma. Those suffering from Pandorum experience severe paranoia, vivid hallucinations, and eventually homicidal rage.

Due to massive over population, probes have been sent into space to find any Earth-like planets for the human race to establish a colony on. Eventually a suitable planet was found and 60,000 people were placed in hypersleep onboard the Elysium, which was expected to take around 120 years to reach the planet.

An astronaut named Bower (Ben Foster) awakens in a hypersleep chamber with no memory of who, or where he is. He begins to explore his surroundings and eventually wakes someone in an additional chamber whose name is Payton (Dennis Quaid). Together the pair tries to get to the bridge but are unable to access the rest of the ship or make contact with anyone else onboard. Bower slips through a ventilation shaft and begins to explore the eerily quiet vessel only to discover a mutilated body. The power is failing and as the memories of both astronauts slowly come back, Bower works to repair the ship.

Along the way he encounters other survivors as well as a group of strange humanoid creatures that have a taste for human flesh.

A Film Inspired by a Thousand Others

Pandorum is a film that is firmly rooted in the quick shock section of the horror genre. Director Christian Alvert uses long periods of near silence with abrupt moments of loud noise to make his audience jump. Other elements of horror come from seeing unfortunate people ripped apart and eaten alive by the screeching creatures.

Whilst Pandorum is an entertaining enough film there is nothing about it that the audience won't have seen a dozen times before.

There are many films set on dark spaceships and the idea of people going crackers whilst in isolated place has also been done. The members of the Elysium suffering from Pandorum begin to behave in an increasingly unstable way, however, this idea was done in the film The Abyss in which a marine went crazy whilst in an underwater facility.

The creatures roaming that ship have a lot in common with the mutants in Ghosts of Mars, and typically the explanation for them sits well within the horror comfort zone. A dying ship requiring repairs has also been done in games like Dead Space and films like Event Horizon.

The cast of Pandorum work hard to create tension and atmosphere but there is simply nothing new on display. The idea of ordinary people going insane during intense situations has been done over and over again. The audience will wonder on occasion if what they are seeing is a hallucination but more often than not what they are seeing is real.

There are a couple of twists that are interesting but unfortunately the film seems to play out almost like a live action video game. Bower wanders around the ship and encounters other survivors, some help him some hinder him, and he has a general objective of restarting the reactor. Once that is done he needs to get to the bridge. Once he has done that he needs to determine how many people are still alive in stasis. He needs to do this because as his memory returns he believes that his wife is onboard somewhere.

Horror fans that enjoy films for their shock value are given a few moments that will make them jump. But there is nothing that makes Pandorum stand out. The plot and situation could have been inspired by a thousand other films which ultimately makes Pandorum easily forgettable.

Pandorum is a below average film in which Alvert remains firmly within the established comfort zone of sci-fi/horror and does not try anything new or original.

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