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The Latest Viral News for Films and Beyond!

Movie Review: “Apollo 18” Makes A Mess Out Of A Good Idea

Dan Koelsch, September 3, 2011

This weekend, Dimension Films released Apollo 18, a found footage sci-fi thriller for which we have been covering the viral campaign. Read my full review after the break (warning: some spoilers).

The premise of the film is that LunarTruth.com, a (fake) space conspiracy website, has obtained footage of the Apollo 18 mission to the lunar surface. What makes this footage so special is that officially Apollo 17 was the last manned mission to the Moon. Apollo 18 was a classified mission, and we see from the footage why that is. Lunar Truth has put together the footage with necessary editing, captions, and even spotlighting to better tell the narrative of what happened to the three astronauts who are on the Moon to install a device to spy on Russian communications (the film takes place in December of 1974 during the Cold War). However, before they can head back to Earth, strange things start to happen.

I obviously don’t want to give too much away, but if you have seen the trailers, than you know that there is something else on the lunar surface with our protagonists, and that is where the horror lies. The whole Lunar Truth framing of the story is actually pretty smart, as it presents a good reason for audiences to be seeing classified information, as well as alleviating the lack of editing, focus, and clarity, that found footage could cause. The mission itself is designed to be documented, so we get lots of different cameras.

I was excited for Apollo 18 simply because I love outer space and alternative stories that could find a way to fit into known history. The found footage aspect obviously intrigued me, as I had yet to see a true sci-fi film shot in this manner. As an entry into the found footage sub genre, Apollo 18 doesn’t deviate from the norm too much. The category became mainstream thanks to the likes of The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, and Paranormal Activity, with Hollywood studios finding the style especially useful for horror. By making the camera a character or at least part of the environment, the audience feels closer to the action, thus more vulnerable to scares. In fact, Apollo 18 shares a lot of similarities to Paranormal Activity in tone. While the multiple cameras help spice things up a bit, we are still left with a film that is mostly slow, has a lot of build up with lackluster payoff, and an impressive end to give us the creeps for a while.

Apollo 18 has several things going for it. As implied above, if you liked Paranormal Activity, you will probably like this. There are plenty of moments where you’ll be gripping your seat, just waiting for something terrible to pop up on screen. Also, I found it to be very realistic despite the small budget, which is partly due to the style in which it was filmed. From my basic knowledge of space exploration history, it seemed to be dead on. I really liked the climax and the implication that the problem could be bigger than what we see in the film. The twist as to the “reason we’ve never gone back to the moon” is a bit silly when you think about it, but in the moment it’s really cool and it plays well on screen.

My biggest issue with the film, probably ironically, comes from its filming style. We don’t get to see much thanks to the film emulating 1970s cameras and several convenient outages or scrambled signals. That would be fine for effect, but we also have a hard time keeping up with what’s going on, why the characters are doing what they are doing, and even hearing some of the dialogue when the astronauts are in spacesuits. The pace of the film is also dictated by the filming style. While I found all the necessary footage leading up to the moon landing itself fascinating, I know a lot of people will get bored with the first third of the film.

Overall, while Apollo 18 might not have lived up to its potential to make a truly intelligent and scary sci-fi horror film using the found footage filming style, there’s enough little nuggets to make it worth watching, at least for us space (and conspiracy) nuts. 2.5/5 stars




P.S. The Lunar Truth website and suspected viral site ApolloTruth.org are both down as of the writing of this review. Could this mean there was a big enough audience to crash their servers? We’ll have a full review of the Apollo 18 viral campaign later this weekend.

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Comments (52)

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  1. snoozeFest says:
    January 24, 2012 at 12:06 am

    $1.20 down the tubes.  I coulda had a candy bar!

  2. Aaweldingwill says:
    January 26, 2012 at 8:30 pm

    Well, people, if memory serves me ; i remember standing outside long after Apollo17 launched; and remember sayin’ to my parent,” hey, look-a-there Mom, that sounds & looks like a SaturnV liftin’ off?   WT? , they said it was only a military recon-data satellite going off today. Why r they using a SaturnV, they only need a oh whatever smaller booster i forget ,like they used on the Mercury projects (bottle rocket size) but, she turned to me and said ,with a Straight-Face,”Well, son, maybe they had an Xtra one left over!  Today, after watching the “18” movie i’m LOL ROF…Well I be  a “Fug-Buster..!  Had recently turned 21 and making tracks for Tampa,Fl.  I ‘member watchin’ it lift-off !   Saying, ” damn thats a few hundred Million $$$$$$$$$ wasted on a simple recon- satellite? humn?

  3. JoeinCleveland says:
    January 28, 2012 at 7:25 am

    It wouldnt surprise me if the Soviets did land on the moon, but never made it back and a one-man mission would make sense for them

  4. Payton says:
    January 28, 2012 at 7:47 pm

    it was okay good and scary at the same time so what do you think about that of and i like cheesecake

  5. lmao says:
    January 31, 2012 at 6:40 am

    haha redbox

  6. Bright47 says:
    February 4, 2012 at 6:32 pm

    people who make these kind of movies are lets just say are jerks, i know this stuff is not real, but the people in the world now a days are so goofy and belive this stuff. come on just tell the truth don’t make up junk to make it sell don’t use nasa to make money.
    i have a great idea lets send obama .

  7. Peter A. says:
    February 8, 2012 at 5:35 pm

    Simple explanation: the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project of 1975, a co-operative venture with the Soviet Union which made use of a left-over Saturn 5 to send three astronauts into orbit to dock with a Soyuz craft containing two cosmonauts.

    Don’t give this ‘mockumentary’ any credence whatsoever, there is absolutely NO truth to anything contained within it.

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