20131215: Horror Review--Stranded

Stranded

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Canadian live action feature length film, 2013, NR, 87 minutes, horror, SciFi.  Estimated budget, 2 million CAD.
2. IMDB: 3.4/10.0 from 1,730 audience ratings. Spoken word is in English.  Aspect 2.35
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 0% on the meter (impressive); 11% liked it from 1,011 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.3/5.0 from 6,306 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Roger Christian.
6. Starring: Christian Slater as Col. Gerard Brauchman, Brendan Fehr as Dr. Lance Krauss, Amy Matysio as Ava Cameron, Michael Therriault as Bruce Johns.


2. Setup and Plot
1.  A mining company on the moon has one of its bases damaged by a meteor storm.  Some of the rocks break open after finding their way into the station.  Some sort of life form is detected; it multiplies rapidly.  Communications are out; attempts to re-assert communications fail.


2. Ava gets a knick on her finger through which she is infected.  This gives rise to a rapidly accelerated pregnancy.  She gives birth, but no one will believe her.


3. Bruce Johns gets cloned by the aliens.  It takes the Colonel and the Dr a long time to figure this out.  In the meantime, they blame Ava and keep her locked up.  After a pleasant chat, they let her go and enlist her help.


4. The alien, as Bruce Johns, starts to shut down their oxygen supply system.  They attempt a counter-strike, but this fails badly.  Will their next attempt?


5. Does anyone survive this one?




3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Bad dialog, bad acting, weak script in this infection in space story.
2. One star of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 4/10 Dark, with shadows placed so that significant things are hard to make out, but trivial objects are clear as day.


2. Sound: 8/10 Reasonably good.


3. Acting: 1/10 Zounds.  Terrible.  Brendan Fehr: better in Roswell or Bones or CSI:Miami; not all that believable as a staff physician on a moon base.  Christian Slater: one of his worst performances ever.  Amy Matysio: have not encountered her before, and this was a bad start.  Michael Therriault: plays a weak, incompetent whom no one believes, and who is short on emotional stability.  Why would such a character ever be hired for work in space?


4. Screenplay: 1/10  Absurd dialog.  Weak, derivative story.  Logical mistakes aplenty.


5. SFX: 0/10  Terrible. The opening sequence with the meteor storm was laughably bad.  Creature effects were ridiculous.