Pitch Black

In David Twohy’s 2000 film a passenger ship is torn open by a meteor shower and crashes on a parched planet. Among the survivors is a shackled prisoner, Riddick, whose eyes were surgically altered to see in the dark. The story turns on the docking pilot, Carolyn Fry, not on him. Early on Fry tries to jettison the passenger cabin, everyone still in cryosleep, to save herself, and that decision follows her all film. Twohy has said three of his characters change from where you expect them to end up. The image changes with the plot. Under David Eggby, a bleach bypass separated the planet’s suns in the daylight scenes. Once the eclipse begins the light is gone and the group moves by what it carries. Patrick Tatopoulos designed the creatures; John Cox’s workshop built two full animatronics and nine lightweight bodies, while Double Negative did the digital shots. Shot at Coober Pedy in South Australia and Village Roadshow studios in Queensland, it cost twenty three million dollars and took fifty three million worldwide. A good fit if you want the light cut off completely partway through, the rest carried on whatever the group holds. Not for a viewer expecting Riddick at the centre from the first minute; the cast is wide and he is kept at a distance.