By Jonathan Klotz | Published
John Carpenter is known today as the Master of Horror, but that’s where he got his start. dark staran offbeat sci-fi comedy that began as a student film while attending the University of Southern California. He also befriended Dan O’Bannon, who helped him write the script for the film. While the carpenter was going to make Halloween And thingO’Bannon was inspired by the reaction to his low-budget sci-fi comedy to write a sci-fi horror that you may know: Elaine.
dark star It may be a cult classic today, but when it was upgraded from student film to feature film and released in 1974, audiences had no idea what they were watching, and much of the humor was missed. O’Bannon realized this and shared his thought process in later interviews, “If I can’t make them laugh, maybe I can make them scream.”
After being made available on VHS, the film found its audience, including Metal Gear games creator Quentin Tarantino, Hideo Kojima, and Doug Naylor. Red Dwarf. Given Carpenter’s musical talents, several bands have used vocal samples in their songs or paid homage to the film.
Cabin fever in space
Links between dark star And Elaine Evident from the start, both films take place on ramshackle spaceships that share the same retro-futuristic style, and the crew consists of characters who don’t fit the typical sci-fi hero mold. dark staras a parody of 2001: A Space Odysseycranks the crew personalities up to 11, which somehow works. As a result, it feels like the brothers are stuck together in space, and they can’t get along, but they have to.
The crew’s mission is to find and blow up potentially dangerous planets, but the catch is that after a massive malfunction, the thermostellar bomb develops a personality and tries to blow up ahead of schedule. The captain of the Dark Star, a former surfer, has to talk about detonating the bomb.
It’s a brilliant sci-fi parody that dabbles in deep philosophy, and was deliberately designed to be a parody of HAL. It’s part of the humor that O’Bannon was frustrated with, which went over the audience’s head, but it’s the weird beachball alien who turns out to be a proto-xenomorph.
A comedy routine that became stranger.
Working under tight budget constraints, Stranger Within dark star There is a painted beach ball with floppy paws loosely attached. Sergeant Pinback, played by O’Bannon, tries to contain the alien in a storage room, but he keeps escaping and tries to kill him, and eventually, Pinback accidentally kills him. Causes cracking and cracking. This entire sequence, played here for laughs with some ridiculous physical humor, is what directly inspired Elaine.
Replacing the cute but slightly murderous joke Beach Ball with an H. R. Giger design of the terrifying, super-killer xenomorph but retaining a similar setting and sense of claustrophobia provided the recipe for a genre-defining hit. dark starIt should be noted that it’s also rated “G,” which gives you an idea of the level of physical humor that O’Bannon brought to the role. Still, given how the movie ends, it’s only suitable for kids if you want to impress one. The never ending story The level of shock on them.
If you’ve never seen dark starIt’s worth your time, even today, because it’s a full-on sci-fi take on a custom tone that’s just right. It’s streaming for free on Tubi, Pluto TV, Peacock, and The Roku Channel, and is also part of Amazon Prime.
