A motley crew work in space aboard the dilapidated vessel, Dark Star as they destroy unstable planets to make way for future colonisation.

John Carpenter’s debut is ripe with stoner humour, perceptive insight (yes, even in space you can hate your job) and a delightfully minuscule budget.

Whatever they were partaking in whilst making this film must have been ‘far out’ as Dark Star features a talking bomb and an alien which is actually a beach ball.

Does it feel like a student film that they padded out when they managed to secure the funding? Yes. Is it still worth seeing? Yes.

An interesting sci-fi movie that is midway between 2001 and Alien (Dan O’Bannon stars here). It was also distributed by the mob-run company, Bryanston Pictures who also played Deep Throat and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

3 out of 5 stars