1974 · sci-fi · comedy
Dark Star
Directed by John Carpenter1h 23m1974
A group of scientists are sent on a mission to destroy unstable planets. Twenty years into their mission, they have to battle their alien mascot as well as a "sensitive" and intelligent bombing device that starts to question the meaning of its existence.
Our read: Dark Star (1974) reads as a sombre, measured, inventive sci-fi · comedy entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.
Sombre, measured, measured sci-fi / comedy, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, measured.
- sombre
- measured
- inventive
Watching Dark Star tonight? Spin for your lens.
Everyone on the couch spins once and gets one craft to watch for. After the credits, compare what you caught.
Your lens for tonight
?
Everyone on the couch gets one craft to watch for. Spin the wheel to get yours. Sound on: the narrator reads your mission.
More info & search links
How Dark Star feels to watch.
Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.
What watching it is actually like.
“You want lo-fi Carpenter comedy wrestling with boredom and cosmic absurdity.”
Skip it tonight — You need polished effects or dislike stoned-spaceship philosophizing.
Eight films that feel like this one.
Closest in the twelve-axis space, not “people also liked”. All films like Dark Star, with why →
Discussion
Make it a movie night.
Pick a mood, get a film the whole couch will enjoy, and give everyone something to watch for.
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