by Shannon Hilson, MoreHorror.com

I’m a long-time fan of the “found footage” horror sub-genre for lots of reasons. Really, when I first saw The Blair Witch Project, I was sucked right in and positively fell in love with the way it let my imagination run wild as far as what was going on and the way it was totally different from anything I was familiar with at that point in time. I’m also a bit of a space geek who loves to study the planets and stars. Naturally, this meant I was excited to have a chance to finally check out Apollo 18.

Officially and historically speaking, Apollo 17 was the last American manned mission to the moon. However, Apollo 18 asks us what would happen if maybe – just maybe – it wasn’t. Supposedly, this movie was edited from 84 hours of real found footage that had been mysteriously uploaded to a conspiracy website. The “footage” in question tells the story of an off-the-books space flight and the astronauts who were part of it in an effort to explain why we never went back to the moon.

The set-up for the movie’s theatrical release was very Blair Witch-esque in that the marketing campaign was advertised it as being real footage. In this day and age of government conspiracy theories, that approach was just believable enough to cause a considerable amount of buzz – so believable, in fact, that NASA itself released an official statement insisting that yes, this was just a movie and there was in fact no Apollo 18 space mission. However, the idea remains an interesting one to consider.

One of the most noteworthy aspects of Apollo 18 is the way that it was filmed – using a technique that very accurately mimics vintage 1970’s cameras. I appreciate touches like this that help add an air of authenticity to movies set in yesteryear, so to speak, so I noticed and liked this approach to the material right away. The filmmakers also employ quite a few techniques – like “convenient” outages or scrambled transmission signals – to help maintain the need to use your imagination as to what’s going on.

However, I also think that some of the choices made as far as how much to show you in regards to the mysterious situation that is plaguing our astronauts are also the movie’s downfall and the reason it wasn't as well-received as it could have been. It’s almost as if they couldn’t decide whether they wanted to keep people guessing or actually give them the visual pay-offs an audience tends to think it wants. As a result, they wind up doing both when I think they would have been better off choosing one approach or the other.

Even so, I really have to say that I enjoyed this film… quite a bit. The actors are unknowns to help preserve the movie’s illusion of being true found footage, but I thought they were quite good. I also enjoyed the build-up to the actual space flight, although some people who aren’t particularly interested in astronauts or space might find it a little slow to start. There are plenty of moments that have you watching with bated breath in anticipation of whatever catastrophe will be happening next, so I personally felt there were enough scares to please horror fans who like this style of filmmaking as well.

It’s not quite what I felt its predecessors like Blair Witch or Paranormal Activity were, but I found it enjoyable and worth watching nevertheless. It’s definitely a must-see for sci-fi fans who would like to see a noteworthy found footage-style approach to their favorite genre. Check it out when it hits DVD and Blu-Ray December 27th!