Pandorum
You would be forgiven for thinking that "Pandorum" is simply a mish-mash of bastardised elements from every sci-fi horror film and game from the last five years posing as an intellectual futuristic thriller, and, well, yes, it is. But it is also so much more. From the production team behind zombie film franchise "Resident Evil", the plot centres around two astronauts waking up from prolonged hyper sleep, 500 million miles from earth on the seemingly abandoned spaceship Elysium only to slowly discover that they are very much in bad company.
This is where "Pandorum" gets interesting; there is no coy delay in revealing exactly what is lurking in the bowls of the creaking ship. That is one of the things that makes this film so wonderfully terrifying, the audience knows exactly what is hunting the astronauts under that demonic blue strobe lighting in those dark corridors. In fact it is what happens to the human psyche in the silent depths of isolated space - the madness of pandorum - that they should be more afraid of.
Dennis Quaid and the underrated Ben Foster head a superb cast as amnesiac crewmen Lieutenant Payton and Corporal Bower and both offer surprisingly charismatic and controlled performances alongside the quietly menacing portrayal of Corporal Gallo by Cam Gigandet. What the story lacks in credible or developed plot, it makes up for with action packed drama containing more twists and turns than featured in the labyrinthine confines of the ship. This is not a clever analogy on the prospect of futuristic human existence, or even a comment on the psychologically damaging behaviour of human beings, but, for edge of your seat, compulsively terrifying horror, you can't do better than succumbing to "Pandorum" fever.