The Rift: Dark Side of the Moon

source: The Rift: Dark Side of the Moon

Considering that a lot is happening with mysterious spacemen showing up, dead people who won't stay dead, secret agents and (I guess) the apocalypse, this movie is tedious and terrible. I got the impression it wanted to be something like Carpenter's Prince of Darkness but just without the skill or competence. And the whiniest, weakest female "top agent" the world has ever seen. That woman had me driving pencils into my brain. I was hoping for a strong female lead, not this screaming, crying mess. And, without a doubt, the WORLD'S WORST MUSICAL SCORE! Ear splittingly loud and mind-numbingly terrible. And obviously the writers thought that if you're confusing and pointless and make no sense you can fool dummies into thinking your movie is intelligent and clever. But I've seen intelligent and clever and it would be ashamed to be in the same room as this flick. Spare yourself. Put a pencil through your eyes and listen to cacophonous heavy metal music while watching paint dry; you'll have a much better time.

This was a weird movie. We start off normally enough with a backstory to the protagonist woman having a child who died of cancer. She is briefly conversing with people some time later about pulling off an apparent robbery attempt, only for her to get a phone call and... she's not a criminal but a government agent. This apparent robbery attempt is never brought up again. What makes it weird is that virtually every scene has incessant music going through it, before, during, and after most scenes, varying between trance-like German electronica pop and a generic 60s sounding psychedelic rock. This goes on constantly in almost every scene, to such a point that I felt genuinely confused about the production or if this was a European style of moviemaking like a rock opera without the singing. Sometimes this music greatly aids and enhances the plot, but most of the time it's distracting. Without it, though, the film would be pretty bland. The plot involves this woman agent, along with a CIA agent played by Ken Foree putting on his best Keith David at times, a Serbian agent guy, and a professor and former astronaut, going to investigate a satellite crash. When they get there, there's no satellite and no crash site. What we get instead is them being attacked by a feral-looking elderly couple in a house where they have an astronaut lying on a table. A shootout ensues at the start and the Serbian guy is shot and presumably dies. When they get inside, they find the astronaut. The professor somehow recognizes him (despite the helmet glass being utterly opaque) as being a fellow astronaut during a classified moon mission in 1976 where they found a "rift", a purple portal which the astronaut went through and disappeared. What follows is a colossal waste of a good idea, as they have a brief sequence where the woman finds the Serbian guy alive and walking around, and she herself encounters a rift as well, one in which she sees an astronaut, and the astronaut grabs her and takes her crucifix necklace. It's soon revealed that the professor was that astronaut, as he tells of a mission going back to the moon in 1976 to try to find the original astronaut, and he remembers reaching into the rift and grabbing the necklace. The rift apparently bridges time and space. Inexplicably attached to the Rift phenomenon is the idea of "death is dead", in that the people in the house are constantly coming back to life, and CIA Agent guy John Smith discovers that cutting their heads off stops this permanently. From there, we get a lot of incoherent eerie voices saying stuff like "Nothing" and "Death is Dead", and CIA Agent guy is roaming around killing the owners of the house and trying to kill their teenaged boy with an axe while the female agent runs from him with the boy. He never once threatens her, and frequently catches her, only to give her a stern talking-to and her escaping. this takes up the majority of the film, complete with the incessant music going through almost every scene, until the end where it's implied that the astronaut escapes and brings the Resurrection to the entire world. Zombies without the zombies. It could've been an incredible idea to explore in a movie, but instead we get a build-up that goes nowhere, and an inexplicable, anemic slasher-movie chase sequence from a hardly dangerous "killer".

I hadn't even heard of this movie prior to finding it by sheer random luck. And I decided to give it a go, as it was listed as a sci-fi movie and the synopsis seemed adequate, plus it had Ken Foree on the cast list. Now, I would be lying if I said that I had any expectations to it. And for good reason, because this movie turned out to be nothing out of the ordinary. There was nothing memorable about this movie at all, except you sort of wonder if this movie was really made in 2016. It just seemed like something that made it out of the late 1990's. The story is about some special agents who are sent to into Eastern Serbia to find and secure the remains of a downed satellite. However, it turns out that there is something wrong at the location, and not everything is as it seems. What is wrong with "The Rift" is that the movie lacks that special ingredient to make it an interesting movie. It just lacks that special something that sinks its hooks into you and keeps you rooted to your seat. The characters were adequate and the actors did good enough jobs portraying them. Ken Foree, is an iconic actor in his own right, but he was fighting an uphill battle with "The Rift". However, the movie just suffered from a poorly written script and equally poor transition to the screen. As for the sound effects, well let's just say that they are there and they are loud. A bit too much, some of the times, and that just brings a comical aspect to the movie, because it is over the top at times. If you enjoy a good sci-fi movie, then "The Rift" is not the best of choices.

This movie is aweful from beginning to end. Really don't waste your time its noy worth it. Horrible acting, music way off, stupid things that don't make sence. What is really happening here?? I have no freaking clue. I love sci fi movies but this is not even considered a movie.

Don't waste a second watching this incredibly bad movie! Oh my god ! Please stop doing these kind of weird nonsense low budget movies ... it's actually a discrace for the industry .

Moderate Plot Spoilers: Liz Waid (Katarina Cas) is a government agent cryptologist who has lost a son presumably to cancer. She is tasked to go on a mission to Serbia to get a piece of a crashed satellite that may have information. The mission is lead by John Smith (Ken Foree- a low budget Samuel L. Jackson). He is a "control freak." Also on the mission is a dying NASA scientist (Monte Markham) and Darko (Dragan Micanovic), Serbian agent acting as a liaison. When they get to the location of the signal there is no crash site, just Henry, the dormant astronaut on the DVD cover. There are some indigenous folks too. "The rift" is explained as some" science theory" and that is about all we get for closure. It incorporates non-linear time and some kind of space-time travel. Add a Pet Cemetery and ax murders and you got a film. Is it possible to check a pulse while wearing heavy gloves? The film used low budget effects. The horror/gore scenes are done off camera. The guys on the moon did "bounce" when they walked, at least they had enough money to properly fake a lunar walk. Katarina Cas takes a tease shower early in the film with side nudity. Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity. Not for everyone.

Yes, the music was bad on this movie. I would have rather watched in silence. I eventually turned off the sound and read the captions.

Right from the start of this horrible creation, the music is inappropriate. An intro-tune which is an unapologetic attempt at ripping off just about any Pink Floyd tune. As it proceeds on a seemingly course-less attempt at a plot, the soundtrack is beyond obscene! Why? Because you don't put electro-european club tracks in a scene that is supposed to be sad!! Or piano music in an actions scene?! I mean really?! Whoever did the music for this movie had to be either a personal friend of the producer, a grade-school friend of the producer (with ZERO soundtrack experience) or both! And it isn't just the selections! The volume goes from whisper-quiet to deafening and bombastic! Also at the worst possible--and unexplicable times! Do NOT waste your time on this garbage! It's awful. And if you're morbidly curious--if you watch the introductions scene, any intelligent viewer can figure out how the movie will end after seeing it. To say the ending is cliche' is being too nice!

This is one of the worst movies I've ever had the pleasure, I mean torture of watching. Luckily, we were cooking maple syrup and got something else accomplished while this garbage was playing on the tube. Don't watch it. Consider yourself warned.