The fish-like alien has psionic powers. When the lost astronaut enters the cave, the alien makes her believe she is seeing herself in the pool. This allows it to get close and suck her mind (and body) dry. The alien then dresses in her suit and starts walking, using the compass to find the other astronauts, just as the lost astronaut was doing. My guess is that it use its psi powers to pass itself off as their lost colleague (it knows her memories now, as well as her form). Whether it wants to feed on them or infiltrate the crew we don't know. Note, the motes of light outside the cave (which follow her in) indicate that the carving is a figment of the astronaut's imagination, induced by the alien. This also goes for the pool! And if you're asking why the astronaut saw herself in the pool, well she's the first human the alien has met, so that's the only image it could send into her mind. And the alien was naked, so she had to be naked too.
4 Reviews
Just your everyday fish-alien/naked cosmonaut psychedelic sci-fi-short.
BA_Harrison14 September 2011
Warning: Spoilers
There's very little in the way of a coherent narrative to be found in this bizarre sci-fi short, but director Richard Stanley's keen eye for a stunning visual still makes it worth a watch, particularly if surreal weirdness if your thing.
As female cosmonaut Sly Delta Honey (Maggie Moor) explores the barren surface of Mars, viewers are treated to some breath-taking shots of the bleak alien landscape, beautifully captured by cinematographer Immo Horn; after the woman encounters her exact double, totally starkers, emerging from a pool in a cavern, we get some equally spectacular shots of Miss Moor's impressive bod; and when the naked doppelganger-in reality, a hostile alien out to assume Sly Delta Honey's identity-plants a smacker on the surprised cosmonaut's ill-fitting helmet (check out the hair poking from beneath the rim), Stanley gives us a brief psychedelic whirlwind of random imagery, followed by a suitably strange shot of a fish-like alien wearing the space traveller's spacesuit.
As female cosmonaut Sly Delta Honey (Maggie Moor) explores the barren surface of Mars, viewers are treated to some breath-taking shots of the bleak alien landscape, beautifully captured by cinematographer Immo Horn; after the woman encounters her exact double, totally starkers, emerging from a pool in a cavern, we get some equally spectacular shots of Miss Moor's impressive bod; and when the naked doppelganger-in reality, a hostile alien out to assume Sly Delta Honey's identity-plants a smacker on the surprised cosmonaut's ill-fitting helmet (check out the hair poking from beneath the rim), Stanley gives us a brief psychedelic whirlwind of random imagery, followed by a suitably strange shot of a fish-like alien wearing the space traveller's spacesuit.
Huh?
timhayes-126 February 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Man, I love Richard Stanley films. Both Dust Devil and Hardware are understated gems. I just don't get this one, however. Has it been too long in between films? I mean, granted this is a short film and its hard to fully convey a complex story in such a short runtime, but what the hell? What we get is a cosmonaut exploring an area in Mars. She enters a cave and finds a pool of water. Then this naked little tart who looks just like the cosmonaut steps out of the water, kisses her helmet and she has a little trippy flashback moment full of bizarre imagery. Then she turns into a skeleton and that's about it. Oh, I almost forgot to enter the humanoid frog cosmonaut that shows up at the end about to enter the same cave. The beginning states that this is episode VII (Where was part 1-6 to explain all of this?) and also that it will be continued. I sure hope so cause for now I can't give it too high a rating as its just a little too off centre yet to make any sense.
A nifty and offbeat sci-fi short from the always interesting Richard Stanley
Woodyanders6 December 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Richard Stanley, the wildly creative maverick auteur who blessed us with "Hardware" and "Dust Devil," comes through with a typically odd, yet stylish and compelling eight minute science fiction short that's admittedly light on plot and coherence, but compensates for these deficiencies with a startling array of hypnotically bizarre visuals. Feisty cosmonaut Sly Delta Honey (well played by attractive brunette Maggie Moor) finds herself stranded on the desolate planet of Mars. Honey discovers remnants of a lost civilization and enters a remote cave with a pond in it. After seeing an alluring vision of herself as some kind of nude water nymph, Honey has a heavy psychedelic trip about her death and gets turned into a skeleton. The picture concludes with a freaky humanoid fish creature walking across the surface of Mars. Okay, so the story doesn't make much sense, but thankfully Immo Horn's stunning cinematography (the evocative shots of the barren bright orange landscape are simply exquisite), snippets of various songs featured on the eclectic soundtrack, Johann Johannsson's brooding score, the dazzling special effects, a wickedly amusing sense of dry sardonic humor (the wacky ending suggests that this whole film might be some sort of cosmic shaggy dog joke), and the overall feeling of general strangeness make this baby well worth seeing for fans of Stanley's ever surprising and intriguing outré work.
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