This low-budget sci-fi thriller starts out semi-promisingly and then runs out of steam, ideas and, seemingly, interest from the film-makers in getting the job done, given its fizzle of an ending.
Four would-be astronauts – Brandon Routh, Dane Cook, Caity Lotz and Ben Feldman – sign up for a private-sector-funded experiment, a sort of hi-tech dress rehearsal, in a fake space ship buried underground to simulate the conditions of deep-space travel. They are warned that there may be surprises in store to test how they handle emergencies. But when the air supply is damaged, is the quartet’s paranoia the result of oxygen deprivation or justified anxiety about who is controlling the experiment and what’s going on?
The first third generates a modicum of drama out of interpersonal tensions, especially given the revelation that Routh and Lotz used to be a couple. But nearly all the spooky bits are achieved by pure aural assault, and the characters are such stock types, haunted by such predictable backstories, it’s like watching Solaris performed by sock puppets.
