The exotic-sounding title of this seriously second-rate spaceship flick starring Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster refers to a fictional but violent psychological condition that sets in after too much time in suspended animation. I experienced some violent feelings of my own as the end credits rolled–and had a few choice words–having plunked down $10 to see the thing in a theater.

Foster and Quaid play astronauts on a giant “sleeper” spaceship far in the future who get rudely awakened from hyper-sleep without a clue as to who or where they are, what’s happened to the rest of the crew, or what exactly are the nasty-looking humanoid creatures roaming about.

I will admit that the massive Alien-like sets do look impressive, that Foster (3:10 to Yuma) is solid, and that the script by Travis Milloy contains a couple of nice twists at the end. And the creatures themselves, seeming relatives of the cave dwellers in Descent, are something I would never want to encounter, not on a spaceship in the dark, not in the daylight in a park.

Too often, though, the direction by Antibodies helmer Christian Alvart verges on the chaotic, especially in the annoying, herky-jerky way the creatures move. Good-ole-boy Quaid is all but drained of any personality, and his scenes with a freaked-out crewman (Cam Gigandet) border on the absurd. I think Foster and Quaid should have switched roles.

The script basically just mashes together elements from Alien Resurrection and Resident Evil, to name a couple, and some of the costumes just scream Mad Max. There’s plenty of unpleasant violence, too, like when the creatures spear a guy right through the top of his head as he’s waking up from hyper-sleep. Alvart shows it in all its full, bloody glory.

At one point I actually thought the film as bad as Supernova, the wildly illogical James Spader spaceship flick from a decade ago, before realizing that it actually does kind of make sense. Alas, by the end it’s still not the entertaining trash that is Event Horizon, nor is it as intelligent or visually impressive as Danny Boyle’s super Sunshine. It’s enough to make a sci-fi fan go crazy. – [DVD]

Horror/Sci-Fi/Thriller

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 1/19/10

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