Warning: Suggestive Spoilers

Dimension Films got their hands on NASA’s leaked declassified video footage from their Apollo 18 mission, which to the public was previously “canceled”. While what was being kept from the American people will definitely shock and cause panic, the footage itself isn’t all that frightening.

Featuring unknown and uncredited actors, Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego directs the latest found footage genre film that takes the audience 238,854 miles from Earth to the dark side of the moon where “something” is alive.

The film introduced three NASA astronauts who are pulled from their family’s backyard BBQ to go on a top-secret mission. They’re to go to the moon and set up some devices that will help America defend against Russia and other potential attacks. Little do they know that they’re actually there for another purpose.

Apollo 18 unfolds a bit like Ridley Scott’s classic Alien or James Cameron’s Aliens as the audience is taken on a fish-out-of-water sci-fi trip that results in clueless humans being used like sheep in the name of “science” (or money). But unlike the two aforementioned classics, Dimension’s found footage horror flick never pays off. Imagine if the Alien franchise was all about the little facehuggers and we never saw the actual Aliens – this is the crux of the problem behind Apollo 18 as it feels as if there’s no actual climax or big reveal. In all honesty, your imagination is probably about 100 time cooler than what you’ll see in theaters – and even more frustrating is that Apollo 18 is built around actual internet web conspiracies, ones that are way, way, way, wayyyyyyyyy more insane. Think about it: the filmmakers are taking the audience to a place only seen by a few men, and even more so they’re heading to the DARK SIDE of the moon, which is basically un-photographed and unexplored. There are no rules and no boundaries; it’s an empty canvass with an endless array of creative ideas that should range from finding alien-built structures to the moon itself being a giant, planet-sized alien base.

If anything, Apollo 18 lacks creative intensity. It’s a very lazy attempt at bringing terror to the moon. In fact, it’s not even scary, unless of course you consider a sleeping dude opening his eyes and yelling into the camera “frightening” (he does this twice, by the way). Unseasoned genre lovers may find entertainment in the slow burn, and may even experience goose bumps upon some reveals, but in all honesty their time could be better spent watch any of the Alien films.