The Rift: Dark Side of The Moon Image

The Rift: Dark Side of The Moon

By Malik Adán | December 21, 2017

Imagine being sent off to a random European country only to find out that what you were looking for isn’t quite what you find. No, this isn’t the latest plot of a James Bond film. Rather, it’s the basic narrative of Dejan Zecevic’s The Rift: Dark Side of The Moon.

At its core, it’s kind of a canned Twilight Zone episode. So you get some great campy acting, exotic locales, a trusty team of Deep State operatives and a dying scientist with a dark secret.

“The strength of The Rift however is in its hard turn into a haunted house scenario.”

The strength of The Rift however is in its hard turn into a haunted house scenario. Shifting from spy movie to horror movie, it traps our protagonists in a rickety house. People die. People don’t explain things. There’s a couple jump scares. And there’s definitely an axe that becomes a grisly tool of death.

In these moments, it’s clear that the performances and tropes of genre are what make The Rift enjoyable. Ken Foree’s performance as John Smith shines as he quips, even when he descends into paranoia. Liz Waid (Katarina Cas) spends much of the film asking questions and running around, terrified. But it works, as she is us and we are her, experiencing the horror of being trapped in that drafty a*s house in Serbia. And, while both men have smaller roles, Dysart (Monte Markham) and Darko (Dragan Micanovic) complete the reliable roles needed to make the mystery work.

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  1. Bryer says:

    Oh please! I knew it was low budget before I canned the “film,” but good is a film if don’t even know what’s going on!? Utter garbage in my opinion, but who I’m I?

  2. Leland Thompson says:

    This was a rotten tomato!

  3. JD says:

    What was the name of German song playing at the end credits? It was not included in the soundtrack list or actual soundtrack record. Why not?

  4. G says:

    Oh my God! How can I prepare you.

    Here’s my suggestion: spend an hour & a half counting raisins.. corn flakes.. or even sunflower seeds. I guarantee you will be much happier than wasting the time to watch this insane drivel!

    Seriously – there is absolutely NOTHING in this alleged movie that can be remotely recommended. In my 60 years of viewing films, it is easily one of the 3 WORST I’ve ever wasted my time on.

    You have been advised.. get the corn flakes!

  5. Deuswrath Eternus says:

    Lol i had a laugh ???????????? reading these comments. I thought the acting was ridiculous and was amazed at all the tropes they uses. I was laughing and confused on the scene when smith call the girl crazy and snatch her pills and called her a drug addict using some new hip drug ????????????. It felt as if he was her dad and he was angry at her for popping pills

    • Mamamia says:

      I had to force myself several times to continue watching as self punishment for continuing to watch the first time. the consequence was finishing, I will not be seeing part 2

  6. Boing-boing-boing says:

    I’d rather stare into the void than watch this confusing nonsensical snoozefest again. Inexplicable in the case of this film does not equal mysterious, it comes across as though the writer had no idea what was really going on himself and just faked things and called it done.

  7. James P Henley Jr says:

    Lots of promise but the delivery killed it. Between the long periods when it was painfully drifting aimlessly along, to the awful suspense music, it was torture to watch. With judicious editing and a few tweaks to the screenplay I think it might have made a great 45 minute short film. I thought Katarina (Liz) and Monte (Dasart) did a good job, but Ken (Agent Smith) was awful. BTW, if you think Dasart (Monte Markham) looks familiar you are right. He’s been on so many TV shows you’ve seen him dozens of times before. Fringe, Hotel, The Golden Girls, Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Dallas, Baywatch, Melrose Place, Murder She Wrote, The Six Million Dollar Man, Love American Style, Mission Impossible, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Burke’s Law, The Incredible Hulk, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Alias Smith and Jones, Mary Tyler Moore, Hogans’s Heroes, The High Chaparral, The Virginian, The Mod Sqad, and even Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color! And he played Perry Mason on The New Perry Mason.

  8. gyrfalcon says:

    This is a bad story, with okay cinematography and acting. So in turn, it’s a BAD MOVIE.

    This is not subjective. The story if you want to call it that, meanders and doesn’t have any points. In summary…

    Some astronauts on “the dark side of the moon” discover a rift and one of them goes through it…apparently to the future earth. Some special agents are sent to recover data from a satellite in the future, but it’s not a satellite, it’s the rift location the astronaut on the moon came through. They find the un-responsive astronaut, an old man, lady and kid at this location. One agent is shot by the crazy old man and comes back to life. The old lady is killed by an agent when she goes crazy with an axe and comes back to life. One agent starts cutting off heads of people to keep them from coming back to life until just himself, and a lady agent and the kid remain.

    At the end, the agent cutting off heads kills the kid, who was apparently an older version of son the lady agent lost to cancer or something. The lady kills the head chopping agent after being mortally wounded. Then the astronaut magically appears as she dies, then she wakes up back in the hospital in the past where her son doesn’t actually die. Instead he’s alive and colors a picture of an astronaut while muttering some crap.

    Then they go to news flashes about chaos erupting around the world, and astronaut being seen, and people coming back to life.

    If what I typed doesn’t make any sense and seems like it was written by a junkie on acid, it’s because it probably was.

    Maybe horror fans that don’t car about plot or storylines will like this bad movie.

  9. Thought says:

    Whether the move was good or bad is purely subjective. What you all fail to see is that it did in fact make all of you think, to have a conversation about it. My opinion of the move is irrelevant. I think the writer accomplished what he wanted.

    • Steve says:

      Nailed it. The movie was evocative like good fine art should be. I don’t agree with the atheistic conclusion as I am an agnostic. There can’t be nothing and then something.

    • tr hen says:

      awesome review! this is the worst pile of s**t i have ever seen

  10. Alan Bryce says:

    There’s not much point saying anything about this truly terrible film…except to wonder how a filmmaker can con anyone to give them sufficient money to waste like this. The fundamental problem is a feeble, overstated and sub-sophomoric script. I got the feeling that the actors are those kind of performers who, if they are well-directed, can hand in a decent performance. But, despite basic cinematic competence (it didn’t look like an 8mm home movie) whoever directed this surely couldn’t direct himself out of a ladies’ rest room. So I felt bad for the actors and their deeply embarrassing work. Truloy this must be one of the worst movies with a decent budget ever to be made. Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad.

  11. Dingslingbonghonk says:

    Eating cold nasty beans would have been more enjoyable than this movie. I waited and said hey maybe there will be something worthwhile at the end. Instead a confusing ending and let down. Here on my 2nd bowl of cold beans i do not recommend this movie to anyone at all. In fact ive never written a review in my life for a movie and this movie just made me so mad im here venting. Yeah.

  12. Richard Rolls says:

    The movie had my attention, right up to the last 20 minutes . The movie, I thought was going to go into a fringe science development, which I like . However, towards the end I realized it was really a religious movie, disguised as sci- fi . I’ve seen this set up before in movies. They start out with science and detour away to religion. I hate this, thankfully small, genre. Also, the jump scare, pronoun, etc cliche count was horribly high .
    Acting wasn’t to bad tho .

    • Laz says:

      Uhh what? This movie is terrible, don’t get me wrong but I hardly think its religious. The thing in the space suit is constantly saying that there is “nothing” after death. Its clearly reanimating people’s bodies and controlling/speaking through them and it’s pretty obvious it has malevolent intent.

      • William says:

        That’s not true at all why did it give the woman her son back because she sorta slightly helped it out? Why was the thing never revealed because they had f*****g clue where to take the plot or what to label the creature as. It definitely had religion in it albiet to basically s**t all over it and be like see even the interdimensional being who reanimated the dead to use as puppets knows there is nothing after death. I can’t even think of what the hell the thing might have been or what it’s true motives are because the person who’s supposed to explain this stuff took the usual of late lazy way out. The whole oh you think what it was and why it did it blah blah lazy writing that is becoming more prevelant. If I’m going to tell a story I’m going to set in stone what my characters motives are what they are and why they did it that is your job as a story teller to create a world that is yours and flesh it out not sorta come up with a concept and just half assedly do it then have the consumer finish your damn story for you. This movie was a massive waste of time and they squandered the potential it did have.

        • Sean says:

          It only gave her son back to assimilate him and join the hive like mentality. Many people across the earth were reanimated suggesting that they all had their own personal encounters with the astronaut. I think it may have been the devil, tricking people to renounce their faith in God by saying there is nothing after death.

          • Tim says:

            Sounds about right. Seemed like a movie about the FALSE MESSIAH. He comes across as trying to do good when he actually has evil intentions. He was the Devil. Thats why you never got to see what he looks like because no one knows what the DEVIL looks like. This movie should have been listed sci-fi horror, or just horror.

  13. Clark says:

    I in fact did take a nap while this movie rambled on incoherently and awoke to catch the final few minutes, only to realize that the best part must have been when I was dozing. Horrible movie.

  14. Tom says:

    Don’t waste your time on this garbage, you’ll find it more entertaining to take a nap.

  15. Kim Lydick says:

    Frankfully confused, puzzled yet interested in this weird film….and I believe I’ll recommend friends to watch and get their opinions.

  16. Sean Austin says:

    Um, your writing style is fairly fresh out of high school. Anyone that takes a positive spin to this movie is obviously a shallow piece of chum. Sorry, but what a waste (in terms of watching time, review time, and plot.) You should be ashamed for thinking in any way this is a good piece of work.

    • Eliot says:

      I agree. This movie was a waste of time. Complete crap.

    • Nicole says:

      So is that a review of the film, or the reviewer. Thanks so much for your in-depth film review?

      • Eliot says:

        Nicole, the ARTICLE was supposed to be the in-depth film review. Was your comment meant to be an in-depth film review, or a review of the comment on the review? Way to miss the entire point of a comments section.

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