Yes, yes, I stole the line from some other scifi horror film, I'm a bad man. But I can live with that, particularly when its in the interest of something as intriguing as Almaz Black Box. This one appears to be right on the verge of becoming a lost film. The production year is listed as 2007, it appears to be the only thing that writer-director Christian Johnston has ever done, the production company's listed website is non-existent, and despite some scattered references to it having screened in the Cannes Marche Du Film - the market component of the giant festival - there is nary a single mention of it to be found on the listed sales agent's web site. When things like this happen it normally means that the backers have gone bankrupt after the film is finished but before it's paid for - exactly what delayed the release of Aaron Woodley's Rhinoceros Eyes for several years - but I honestly can't confirm that, either.
What I can tell you is this. Named after an actual program of the Russian space agency, Almaz Black Box is a first person perspective scifi horror story set on board an orbiting research station whose systems are overwhelmed by a powerful signal beamed at it from outer space, leaving the ship crippled and the crew panicked. And, frankly, I can't imagine why nobody's thought of taking those whole first person thing to space before. In the first place it ramps up the tension considerably, providing simultaneously a hostile environment and an air tight (ha, ha) reason to keep everybody crammed together in close quarters. More importantly, it also - finally! - provides a credible reason for cameras to be capturing all of this in the first place, what with video diaries and omnipresent camera gear being a fact of life in space.
Luckily for scifi fans the film isn't completely 100% dead. It's receiving a DVD release in the UK soon and going out theatrically in Japan. And to go along with the JApanese release there is one mighty intriguing trailer to be had, which you can find below the break.
Hmmmm... that shot with the burning debris was a bit in poor taste I thought. That image is intricately linked with one specific incident,and I find its inclusion here cheap.
going by the trailer, this film looks really good. and it does seem to justify the whole POV video camera idea, while most that have used it seem to have been sorely struggling to
sadly even the UK DVD release seems to maybe be in limbo...
http://www.bva.org.uk/node/664234 suggest the release has been delayed/cancelled, the distributor doesn't even list it on their site.
anyone know anymore? according to Amazon's listing it was supposed to have been released late March
the whole first person not being used in space before is kind of wrong...
Andrzej Zulawski's On the Silver Globe is totally first person in the first act. pretty wonderful aesthetic for capturing the strange new world and whatnot.
this film sounds pretty great as well.
I just got a message from amazon UK saying that the DVD was not sourceable and therefore cancelled from my ordered... not good news AFAIC