Close Menu
  • Login
  • Support Us
  • Newsletter
  • News
  • Features
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • Video Games
      • Previews
      • PC
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X/S
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Xbox One
      • PS4
      • Tabletop
    • Film
    • TV
    • Anime
    • Comics
      • BOOM! Studios
      • Dark Horse Comics
      • DC Comics
      • IDW Publishing
      • Image Comics
      • Indie Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • Oni-Lion Forge
      • Valiant Comics
      • Vault Comics
  • Podcast
  • More
    • Event Coverage
    • BWT Recommends
    • RSS Feeds
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Support Us
But Why Tho?
RSS Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube
Trending:
  • Features
    Momo and Okarun share a close moment in Dandadan

    Momo And Okarun: The Gold Standard For Shonen Romance

    07/03/2025
    Ironheart Episodes 4 6 But Why Tho 1

    ‘Ironheart’ Explained: Explore MCU’s Bold New Chapter

    07/01/2025
    Buck in 9-1-1

    ‘9-1-1’ Has To Let Buck Say Bisexual

    06/29/2025
    Nintendo Welcome Tour promotional image of the maraca mini-game

    The One “Game” That Justifies The Nintendo Switch 2 Purchase

    06/25/2025
    Destiel Confession in Supernatural - Castiel (Misha Collins) and Dean (Jensen Ackles)

    The Destiel Confession: The Lasting Importance Of Supernatural’s Greatest Ship

    06/22/2025
  • Squid Game
  • K-Dramas
  • Netflix
  • Switch 2 Games
  • Summer Game Fest
But Why Tho?
Home » Film » REVIEW: ‘Red Heaven’ – The Real Experience of Surviving on Mars

REVIEW: ‘Red Heaven’ – The Real Experience of Surviving on Mars

Jason FlattBy Jason Flatt11/07/20214 Mins Read
Red Heaven - But Why Tho
Share
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit WhatsApp Email

Red Heaven - But Why Tho

Red Heaven is a documentary film from Sandbox Films directed by Lauren DeFilippo and Katherine Gorringe and distributed by Utopia. The film follows six scientists as they simulate life on Mars, isolated in a living pod for 365 days. Shot by the subjects themselves, the film takes you through their daily lives in isolation, the arc of their emotions, and the purpose of their participation.

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

There’s been a lot of talk about manned missions to Mars for years now but rarely does the general public know much about what is going into planning for that mission. Red Heaven is an intimate look into a very specific aspect of that preparation. To be sure, it is a scientific experiment about the psychological conditions of isolation and crowded communal living on an uninhabitable planet. The individual science experiments the crew is conducting are important but rarely the focus of the film. Rather, it is entirely about their social dynamic and individual experience with the harsh conditions necessary to survive on Mars. As such, the movie is best viewed with those expectations in mind.

The life of astronauts on Mars is brutal. You watch in this film as its six subjects quickly lose their high hopes and spirits and devolve into individual cognitive decline as well as social distress. While the film never shows any outright animosity between folks, there’s certainly a lot to unpack among the six of them. It’s nothing salacious either, really just mundane frustrations with people’s tone of voice or how much water they use compared to others. But even in the minute details of their massive social experiment, Red Heaven is an immensely interesting film.

The interest, more than anything, is derived from its excellent direction and editing. The film is broken into several phases over the year of isolation based on the crew’s average reported mood. While the crew uses their cameras and prompts from producers to interview one another and highlight all aspects of daily life, what the film is really focused on isn’t the minutia itself so much as the clear shift in their collective attitudes and relations over time. The questions and answers themselves are interesting but less so than the overall tone they take as time crawls along. You get a clear sense of exactly how the crew feels at each average drop in the mood. It offers an element to the space documentary that I have certainly never seen before and found absolutely captivating.

The excellent editing may have come at the expense of the film’s timeliness somewhat. There is a sequence where the crew learns about massive terrorist attacks in Paris, France, and I have to be honest, with all that has happened over the past, so many years, I had to pause and Google what they were even referring to because I just simply did not remember this having happened. This, in a way, may have made the more than 6-year gap from filming to release more apparent, but also, in a way, reflects exactly the sentiment that the film was portraying. The isolation and ostracization that has ensued over the past several years, between the pandemic and just the social isolation wrought by political polarization, for that matter, may have had a similar effect on all of us as the isolation did for the crew of Red Heaven. Our experience of the passage of time and our relationship to people around us have irrevocably changed, as the experiment in Red Heaven starkly demonstrates itself.

A timely documentary, Red Heaven is an intimate and unique look into the world of space exploration and just what it will take to land humans on Mars.

Red Heaven is available now on AppleTV and Altavod.

Red Heaven
  • 7.5/10
    Rating - 7.5/10
7.5/10

TL;DR

A timely documentary, Red Heaven is an intimate and unique look into the world of space exploration and just what it will take to land humans on Mars.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
Previous ArticleREVIEW: ‘Doom Patrol,’ Season 3 Episode 9 – “Evil Patrol”
Next Article ADVANCED REVIEW: ‘Grrl Scouts: Stone Ghost,’ Issue #1
Jason Flatt
  • X (Twitter)

Jason is the Sr. Editor at But Why Tho? and producer of the But Why Tho? Podcast. He's usually writing about foreign films, Jewish media, and summer camp.

Related Posts

The Old Guard 2
5.5

REVIEW: ‘The Old Guard 2’ Is Distracted And Half-Baked

07/02/2025
Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey in Jurassic World: Rebirth
5.5

REVIEW: ‘Jurassic World: Rebirth’ Is Best When Nobody Is Talking

06/30/2025
MEGAN 2.0 promotional image
7.0

REVIEW: ‘M3GAN 2.0’ Puts Action First

06/29/2025
F1 (2025) promotional key art
8.0

REVIEW: ‘F1’ Is A High-Octane Blockbuster

06/24/2025
KPop Demon Hunters Promotional image form Netflix
9.0

REVIEW: ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Brings Beautiful Animation And An Even Better Message

06/20/2025
Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later
8.5

REVIEW: ’28 Years Later’ Is How Franchises Should Return

06/18/2025

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here
TRENDING POSTS
Taecyeon and Seohyun in The First Night With The Duke Episodes 7-8
7.5
TV

REVIEW: ‘The First Night With The Duke’ Episodes 7-8

By Sarah Musnicky07/03/2025

The First Night With The Duke Episodes 7-8 spends welcome time in pre-domestic bliss before new developments stir up trouble.

The Terminal List: Dark Wolf trailer First Look Image From Prime Video News

Prime Video Unleashes Teaser for Prequel Series The Terminal List: Dark Wolf

By Kate Sánchez07/04/2025

The first Terminal List: Dark Wolf trailer was released today by Prime Video. The series…

Together (2025) still from Sundance
8.0
Film

REVIEW: Have A Grossly Good Time ‘Together’

By Kate Sánchez01/27/2025Updated:07/04/2025

Dave Franco and Alison Brie’s Together (2025) is disgustingly funny, genuinely ugly, and just a good time at the movies.

Black Women Anime — But Why Tho (9) BWT Recommends

10 Black Women in Anime That Made Me Feel Seen

By LaNeysha Campbell11/11/2023Updated:12/03/2024

Black women are some of anime’s most iconic characters, and that has a big impact on Black anime fans. Here are some of our favorites.

But Why Tho?
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest RSS YouTube Twitch
  • CONTACT US
  • ABOUT US
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
  • Review Score Guide
Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small contribution.
Written Content is Copyright © 2025 But Why Tho? A Geek Community

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

But Why Tho Logo

Support Us!

We're able to keep making content thanks to readers like YOU!
Support independent media today with
Click Here