Be very afraid of the dark in Pitch Black. When the lights go out the things do more than go bump in the night.

 I'm not giving anything away. There's an impending doom feeling to this quasi-scary David Twohy sci-fi flick.

 You get the ghoulish picture almost right away, after the crash landing of a spaceship, which leaves some crew and a few surviving passengers stranded on a desolate planet.

 As in most sci-fi movies, the planet has lots of oxygen, but doesn't make much science sense. Mostly, there are Dune-like landscapes.

 The scene is set. So is the mood. So now we can look at the left-over crash people as either choice monster fodder or gritty folks with some back story to tell as the drama unfolds.

 Expect the unexpected, however. The humans are not exactly what they seem.

 There is a pretty and gutsy pilot (Radha Mitchell). There is a suspicious lawman (Cole Hauser), a Muslim holy man (Keith David), an antique dealer (Lewis Fitz-gerald), a geologist (Claudia Black) and a young stowaway (Rhiana Griffith).

 Oh yeah, and there's a convict (Vin Diesel). He was being transported to a prison for the terminally dangerous. He's not the heroic type, and soon poses a threat to the rest. But as he explains ominously when he returns to the fold, the bad guy in this tale is the least of their worries.

 Their worst nightmares apparently live underground, away from the bright lights, and are set to return above ground as soon as -- arghhh! -- a total eclipse.

 Cue darkness, as those who dare head back to the crippled ship for live-saving supplies and fuel for an abandoned space vessel.

 Fearsome fun begins and attacks abound in a series of blood-splattering sequences designed to gross out even 14-year-old boys who live for this sort of thing. Missing are the shamelessy gratuitious sex-capades in between the trashy slashings.

 Present and accounted for are some glib one-liners, lots of tongue-in-cheek ironies and even a few tributes to the spooky Alien and the campy Road Warrior.

 Diesel, Pvt. Caparza in Saving Private Ryan, does his threatening best to play something other than the bad-dude-with-heart-of-gold cliche. Hauser is decent as the cop with secrets. Even Mitchell is convincing doing the earnest but flawed pilot.

 Pitch Black does have its grey area of not-quite convincing sequences. Sometimes, the acting is flagrantly over-stated. And after a while, the special effects monsters are not so special and kind of affected.

 That's okay. Don't take Pitch Black too seriously, and it will scare you silly.

(This film is rated AA)

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