Johns: “Battlefield doctors decide who lives and dies. It’s called ‘triage’.”
Riddick: “They kept calling it ‘murder’ when I did it.”
Pitch Black is a bit of an edge case as to whether it counts as horror or not. The first two thirds of the movie are more sci-fi/disaster/thriller. For me, though, that last third – when the suns finally go down and the true denizens of the planet erupt into the dark – that’s full-on horror. In fact, when I went to see the movie in the theater (and I can’t believe it’s been 24 years since it came out) I thought I was going to see a horror movie. I based that assumption solely on one scene in the trailer – the only scene I remember from it – the one with the guy by himself in the dark with a flickering flame. He takes a swig of alcohol and blows the spray into the flame, causing a brief flare of light… and revealing the horde of monstrosities around him in the night.
Yeah, that’s what sold me on it.
I wasn’t disappointed in what I got. In fact, I remember being fairly impressed with the cinematography (the use of different filters was something I hadn’t seen much of before), the effects, the acting and the humor. And the monsters. There have been a bunch of Riddick centered films since this one, but this is the only one I regularly re-watch.
Writer/Director David Twohy (Fugitive, Below) and star Vin Deisel (endless numbers of Fast and Furious movies) announced a fourth Riddick film in 2023. I don’t have high hopes, but god help me I’ll probably go see it anyway. And then come back and watch Pitch Black again to remember when it was all just possibilities in the dark.
The Medium
I have the 2011 “Riddick Collection” Blu-ray, which contains Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick. It also includes the Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury animated film (by Aeon Flux animator Peter Chung), but only on DVD. I’ve watched both films in this set and the video quality is great, with lots of color, detail and clarity. I’d say the effects on Pitch Black still look decent, which isn’t a given for a 24 year old, low-budget sci-film.
I watched the Director’s Cut, which contains roughly 3 minutes of expanded footage. I have no idea what this extra footage entails, I’m just generally inclined to watch the extended version of a film, given the option. This isn’t always the best course of action (hello Exorcist), but it certainly didn’t affect my viewing this time around.
Arrow Films released an updated/restored version in 2020 (in 4k as well), which I keep meaning to pick up, if only for the extras.
Pitch Black is not currently available for streaming without paying for it directly (so not for subs on any service). You can rent or purchase at the usual vendors.
The Movie
A spaceship carrying cargo and passengers in cryosleep runs afoul of a rogue comet and has to crash land on an apparently lifeless planet. The few remaining passengers and crew must deal with harsh conditions, minimal supplies, and the presence of a violent criminal. And that’s before they find out WHY the planet seems lifeless.
The disaster that sets off the events of the movie is violent and terrifying – I vaguely remember muttering ‘holy shit’ in the theater as pieces of the ship came off during the landing. The damn ship is a brick, never meant to fly, and that anyone survives seems a damn miracle.
But survive they do – at least some of them. No thanks to the docking pilot, Carolyn Fry (Radha Mitchell), who attempts to jettison the passenger sections to stabilize the ship. Her copilot prevents her from committing mass murder but ends up dying in the crash. In the absence of any other surviving crew the other survivors mistake her for the captain.
In a disaster movie, the external threat is usually magnified by internal conflict and Pitch Black immediately gives us that in spades with the presence of Riddick (Vin Diesel), a gravelly-voiced killer with ‘shine job’ eyes that let him see in the dark. Though he starts out as a prisoner of Johns (Cole Hauser), it’s not long before he’s loose, ratcheting up the tension as the survivors look for supplies and a way off the desert world they’ve found themselves on.
I think I was more familiar with Cole Hauser and Keith David than any of the other actors when Pitch Black came out. Diesel has gone on to plenty of fame with the Fast and the Furious series, of course, but at that point in time I’d probably have recognized him as the voice of the Iron Giant before anything else. Mitchell has also gone on to do more horror fare, with roles in Silent Hill, the remake of Romero’s The Crazies and one of my favorite giant croc movies, Rogue. They all do good work in the film – as does Claudia Black as a tough-as-nails prospector and Rhiana Griffith as a kid who’s a little too impressed with Riddick’s badass routine.
When one of the survivors goes missing Riddick is initially blamed, but it quickly becomes clear that there’s something else on the planet with them. Something that’s hungry. In the face of that greater threat Johns offers Riddick a deal. Help them get off the planet and he’ll let Riddick go free.
All the cat-and-mouse games between Riddick and Johns, the moral struggles between Fry and Johns – that was all intense and suspenseful when I first saw the movie. Once you know the twists of the plot and the real danger it’s not as much fun, nor as suspenseful. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good movie, I just found myself waiting. Waiting for it to get dark.
The planetary eclipse is still an amazing visual, that huge, dark, ringed planet rising up over the horizon, moving inexorably to cover the suns, leaving the survivors in the dark for the first time since crashing. That’s one of my favorite parts of the movie.
And then the monsters come out. They’re a good design and the CGI (though maybe a little stiff and shiny) is decent enough to sell it most of the time, even a couple of decades later. One on one they’re bad enough, but the movie makes sure we know there are thousands – if not millions – of them. And the only thing they’re afraid of is light, which is a finite resource for our small (and rapidly dwindling) group of survivors.
With no other options and no way of knowing how long the eclipse will last, the group decides on a desperate journey through the dark to a waiting escape craft (found earlier and requiring batteries from the downed ship). So they set off with a few light sources, the batteries, and each other. They’re not all going to make it.
There’s a moment near the end where Johns and Riddick have moved ahead of the others – Johns is doing his best to convince Riddick to use the survivors as bait, or more accurately, like chum behind a boat. Fry, picking up on what’s being discussed, has the other survivors slow down, giving them more space. When the inevitable confrontation happens, and Johns and Riddick go at each other she gives the others the order to run. The two men have become as much a danger to them as the monsters they’re supposed to be afraid of.
I remember reading a review a while back that said that over the course of the movie Riddick finds his humanity while Johns loses his. I don’t really feel like that’s the case. Johns is merely pretending to be a decent human being and Riddick is pretending to be a soulless monster. Johns is honest only with himself, while Riddick tells anyone that will listen that he’s a murderer and that they would all be better off if they just killed him. It’s telling to me that he ends the movie without the glasses he’s been wearing for most of it. Even if his character turn feels a little fast there at the end.
The Bottom Line
Pitch Black spawned two sequels, mostly on the strength of Vin Deisel’s investment in the character of Richard B. Riddick. I prefer to think of Pitch Black as a stand-alone film, though. My enjoyment of it is enhanced by Riddick, but not defined by him. The sequels – which mostly leave horror behind and which I enjoy in decreasing amounts – expand on a universe and a character that I didn’t have that great an interest in and which feel unnecessary to my enjoyment of the original.
I did like the video games, though!
