"Apollo 18" is reminiscent of the "Blair Witch Project" … almost a "'Paranormal Activity' in Space." The trailers for "Apollo 18" are enigmatic, confusing and fragmented, which is a good representation of the one hour and twenty-six minutes of the film in its entirety. Viewers are first shown a disclaimer of sorts that proclaims: "What you are about to see is the actual footage which the astronauts captured on that mission. While NASA denies its authenticity, others say it's the real reason we've never gone back to the Moon." These words are accompanied by ominous background music and shaky film reel effects.
The story begins in December 1974, with three American astronauts receiving a top-secret assignment from the Department of Defense. This covert mission was the only one to succeed the first historical Moon landing with Neil Armstrong. This second landing was so concealed that the families of the astronauts were given false information as to their whereabouts.
Everything goes according to plan with the launch, landing, and the installing of transmission devices that were supposedly aiding the Department of Defense in keeping track of Russian activity. However, the astronauts soon experience a bizarre phenomenon which leads them to believe that they are not alone on the moon. When they anxiously tell this revelation to Houston, they quickly learn that they have become involved as guinea pigs in a government conspiracy. The astronauts are thus faced with an extraterrestrial and unseen nemesis, which is moving closer and getting more intrusive (due to the transmission devices actually being a lure of sorts) as the film progresses. There is a significant amount of gore in the film, as the men try to rid themselves of an infection from the alien virus.
The film is shot in a mockumentary "found-footage" style, reminiscent of the news footage of the 1970s decade. This adds to the suspense of the movie, which is intense in the beginning, but does not seem to diminish until the end. A big factor as to why this happens is most likely because the plot gets bizarre – and fast. The movie is definitely suspenseful, and the cinematography lends a "realistic" factor to the plot. However, there is little character development (besides a few references to their families back on Earth) and the events become so unbelievable that it's hard to go along with it.
This movie is the kind that you will see once, and that's it. The gimmick is clever but it just doesn't work as a whole. The images are choppy and hard to focus on, and the storyline is very fragmented with the switching of the camera views. Preceding the credits is a suggestion to reference www.lunartruth.org in order to see the "truth" about this movie. I took a look myself and found that all there was to this website was a black screen with white letters that simply stated, "THIS WEBSITE HAS BEEN FORCIBLY CENSORED. ITS CONTENTS CAN BE SEEN IN THE FILM". Once again, this movie has a good gimmick with a creative promotion team, but it is certainly not what I expected.
"Apollo 18" is rated PG-13 and is directed by Trevor Cawood. The film is in theaters now.
