Basically Paranormal Activity in space, this purports to be an edited assemblage of Internet uploaded footage taken from 84 hours worth recorded by three astronauts on a secret mission to the moon in 1974 after America’s space programme had been officially cancelled. And which supposedly explains why.

Putting aside such problematic questions as just how you keep the launch of an Apollo spacecraft a secret and, given the ending, quite how the footage made its way back to Earth, this is slightly better than its cinema release reviews suggested.

That said, it takes forever to get the three astronauts (played by Warren Christie, Lloyd Owen and Ryan Robbins) into space after they’re recruited for the clandestine mission, which again begs the question as to why, whoever edited the footage, kept in all the boring stuff rather than going straight for the scares.

However, once two of them pilot the lunar module to the moon’s surface while the third remains in orbit, the tension starts to slowly crank up. Initially it’s just standard procedure; planting the Stars & Stripes, gathering samples, and so forth. But then the creepiness begins to build with the discovery of a set of footprints that aren’t theirs, the discovery of a Russian module and its dead astronaut, strange noises, unidentifiable tracks and the disappearance of the flag.

The claustrophobic confines of the module and the stark lunar landscapes make for an effective atmospheric mood, but inevitably suspense eventually has to give way to horror as one of the astronauts announces there’s something inside his suit and, back in the module, is found to have a gaping wound in his side and something, ahem, Alien, under his skin.

Unfortunately, from this point the film slightly loses its oxygen with a slide into overworked conspiracy theory territory  as Christie and Owen realise why they’re really up there and that NASA aren’t going to let them come home with whatever’s infected them.

The images supposedly filmed on the hand held cameras have that authentic grainy, Kodachrome black and white and slightly distorted look of those recorded on the real space missions and the actors do a good job of delivering some rather clunky dialogue as if they mean it. But ultimately, there’s nowhere for the film to go and the revelation as to what the aliens actually are feels like something lifted from some 50s pulp sci fi magazine. The Invasion of the Moon Rock Spiders, perhaps.