John Carpenter is known as many things to many people. To some, Carpenter is a master of the horror genre; to others, he is the king of modern cult classics; and to others, he is the man who took B-movies into the mainstream and turned them into outright blockbusters for their time. In a career spanning over fifty years, Carpenter has directed some of the most important movies in modern cinematic history, most notably 1978’s Halloween, 1980’s The Fog, 1981’s Escape from New York, and 1984’s Starman.
However, it all started with a small 1974 indie sci-fi comedy, Dark Star, which premiered in 1974 but wasn’t released until January 1975. Today, Dark Star has been eclipsed by Carpenter’s future endeavors, most of which are foundational pieces of modern horror. However, Dark Star‘s influence on genre filmmaking shouldn’t be counted out; if anything, it should be more widely discussed. In honor of its 50th anniversary, it’s time to revisit this seminal picture and discuss its legacy and importance to contemporary science fiction.
A misunderstood gem
Dark Star explores a very simple premise: space travel, for all its groundbreaking and mind-blowing qualities, is actually quite boring. The satirical film follows a crew of astronauts aboard the titular space vessel twenty years into its mission as they kill time in the great unknown while on a mission to destroy rogue planets. It stars a bunch of unknowns and follows a vignette-like plot that takes shape after a now-famous mid-section.
The film actually started as a 45-minute student film that Carpenter and co-writer Dan O’Bannon put together as part of their graduation from the University of Southern California. When expanded for a theatrical release, the mid-section was added to fill the runtime, and the film was ready to screen, premiering at the 1974 Filmex, the Los Angeles International Film Exposition. Described by Carpenter as “Waiting for Godot in space” and with the tagline, “The spaced-out odyssey,” the film went wide in January 1975 to a mixed and confused reception from audiences.
In 1975, science fiction wasn’t what it is today. The genre, which spent most of the ’40s and ’50s related to B-movies with shoddy and quaint special effects, had seen a major shift with Stanley Kubrick’s game-changing 1968 masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. Afterward, most sci-fi movies didn’t know whether to copy 2001 or go in a different direction. Similarly, audiences didn’t know what to expect from the genre, with many relating it to the cerebral and almost phantasmagorical approach of Kubrick’s seminal effort.
Suffice it to say that any movie described as “Waiting for Godot in Space” did not meet either of those standards. Audiences did not respond to it, with Carpenter and O’Bannon finding empty theaters and little to no reaction to the film’s distinct humor. Never ones to give up, Carpenter and O’Bannon pressed forward and found success with Halloween and Alien, respectively. However, it would be years before Dark Star received any recognition. As it turns out, its legacy would be far more than either the director or screenwriter expected.
The eighth passenger
Today, Dark Star is best remembered as a cult classic of the 1970s and a starting point for Carpenter’s career. However, it’s also the inspiration for what is arguably the inventor of the sci-fi/horror subgenre: Alien. Indeed, Dan O’Bannon wrote the screenplay, based on the mid-section of Dark Star featuring Sargeant Pinback, played by O’Bannon himself, interacting with a beach ball-like alien that he eventually kills by popping it like a balloon.
After Dark Star failed to make audiences laugh with its admittedly absurdist humor and novel premise, O’Bannon retooled the concept into a horror movie. It was a real stroke of genius on his part to identify the common thread between the story of a lonely astronaut bonding with an alien and that of a terrified crew being haunted by one. Yet, the gamble paid off, as Alien not only revolutionized science fiction and horror but launched a franchise that continues to this day.
Like Carpenter’s subsequent oeuvre, Alien has eclipsed Dark Star in reception and endurance. However, O’Bannon’s achievements in the former are, in large part, due to the latter. There is no Alien without Dark Star, similar to how there is no The Thing without Dark Star. Alien might be the only one that directly spawned from the 1974 movie, but Dark Star‘s influence can be found everywhere in Carpenter’s movies: the disillusion and boredom with reality disturbed by the arrival of the dangerously supernatural is a recurring theme in his work, from Halloween to the misunderstood In the Mouth of Madness.
The ultimate cult classic
In many ways, Dark Star is the perfect cult classic. Underappreciated in its time, it has quietly crawled its way into the very fabric of the genres it represents. Yet, it has never seemed or received the attention it deserves for being such a groundbreaking piece of entertainment. Instead, it has been uplifted by a select few who sing its praises to anyone willing to hear, becoming a crucial part of the 1980s generation. Dark Star has quietly settled to be the unsung hero of its story, whose lingering touch has graced everything from major motion pictures like Danny Boyle’s Sunshine to massive cultural phenomena like Life on Mars.
Like its protagonist crew, once they’ve come to terms with their ultimate fate, Dark Star has also quietly settled into a peaceful yet unacknowledged existence as a father of a genre that seldom remembers it. Cult classics are seldom appreciated outside of their designated space, a shame when one considers just how influential most of them are. Yet, like Lieutenant Doolittle, the surfer who uses debris to surf into the atmosphere and die like a falling star, Dark Star understands how to make it epic. After all, it became such an institution with minimum resources; is anyone surprised it keeps making the most with the least? It will never be Alien, but that’s for the better; there are countless Aliens, but there’s still only one Dark Star.
Dark Star is available to stream on Tubi.