APOLLO 18 2.5***

In "Apollo 18," the Department of Defense ( a red flag in and of itself) is in charge of the next and what ends up being the last mission to the Moon, but they keep it shrouded in complete secrecy. "Apollo 18" resembles low-budget horror films without a celebrity cast like "The Blair Witch Project" and "Paranormal Activity" where the chills are caught on camera as they actually occur. Apparently, everything that the "Apollo 18" astronauts videoed was transmitted back to Mission Control. Years afterward, some mysterious people gain access to these classified videos and edit the footage together and then upload it to the Internet. "Apollo 18" purports to be the reason NASA never launched another Moon mission. There are good performances by Warren Christie, Lloyd Owen, and Ryan Robbins as the astronauts. And indeed, our heroes encounter aliens, but not the kind of aliens that Hollywood usually serves up., "Apollo 18" qualifies as a creepy exercise in suspense and tension .Sort of a “Paranormal Activity” in space which is intensified to some extent because of the so narrow view from those space suits and the so cramped interior of the moon lander.
This is of course a make believe, i.e. fictional documentary. What is sometimes called a mockumentary. The problem with these films is the almost constant use of hand held cameras which result in a the picture being shaky and out of focus. They could've easily stationed a camera outside the ship and in areas inside the ship which would've given us a bird’s eye view and some good shots, but no, they persisted in the “reality” effects of hand held cameras. The picture is constantly shaking up and down, focusing on background shots and the whole thing gets a bit disorientating after awhile while trying to follow what's happening. You can hear the great stuff going on, but again the damned camera's block the effects and everything else that makes a horror movie great.

This was an excellent effort that was poorly executed. Saying words like “poorly executed” sounds so pretentious, but here it is so true.

Clark