"Dark Star" is filmmaker John Carpenters' theatrical debut, expanded from a college short he wrote with his fellow student, Dan O'Bannon. Brian Narelle, Cal Kuniholm, Dre Pahich, and O'Bannon himself play a quartet of astronauts, 20 years into an incredibly dreary mission where they occasionally get to have some fun destroying "unstable" planets. Some trouble arises when one of their talking, sentient bombs malfunctions, and has to be reasoned with.
Although not nearly as slick as many of Carpenters' subsequent efforts, the director and his crew do the absolute best that they can with a shoestring budget (supposedly, around $55,000 all told.) Executive produced by Jack H. Harris of "The Blob" fame, it benefits from a wonderfully wacky approach. It was always intended to be a comedy, and to lovingly spoof vintage science fiction while also paying tribute to it. Nicely performed by its no name cast (with O'Bannon a comic standout as the frustrated Sgt. Pinback), it does have some genuine tension as well. There's a big elongated sequence with Pinback being forced to deal with an alien "mascot", played by a beach ball with claws. O'Bannon chases the beach ball into a series of shafts, and this material works as a forerunner to some of the stuff that O'Bannon wrote for "Alien" several years later. Best of all is the way that Lt. Doolittle (Narelle) must engage in that philosophical debate with Bomb # 20. "How do you know you exist?"
Longtime Carpenter associates Nick Castle and Tommy Lee Wallace also worked on this show. Carpenter, as was most often the case with his work, composed the music himself, and it's quite enjoyable. Carpenter also wrote the catchy country song "Benson, Arizona" (lyrics by effects expert Bill Taylor) that is heard twice, once over the opening credits and once at the end.
Good fun overall, especially for science fiction lovers and surfers. O'Bannon always vehemently insisted that he co-directed, leading to a rift between him and Carpenter when the latter took sole directing credit.
"Let there be light."
Seven out of 10.
