Rent Event Horizon (1997)

Entertaining Scifi Horror - Event Horizon review by GI

This sci-fi horror film has grown in stature over the years after a poor release strategy and clumsy re-editing saw it fail at the box office. Rumours and hopes of the infamous über gory director's original cut still do the rounds but we're yet to hear if the footage has survived to enable one to be put together. In the meantime we have this Alien (1979) influenced film where the Event Horizon, a prototype deep space exploration craft, reappears on the edge of the solar system seven years after it disappeared without trace. A search and rescue ship is sent to see if anyone aboard has survived including Dr Weir (Sam Neill), the inventor of the the revolutionary 'gravity drive' system which allows the Event Horizon to travel faster than light. The crew led by Miller (Laurence Fishburne) soon discover that the ship seems to have a life of its own and they are unprepared for the horrors unleashed on them. The director Paul Anderson always claimed that under pressure he removed too much of the film and it does seem to rush along somewhat too quickly hardly giving the viewer time to grip the plot and take in the very clever visuals. The dark, moody atmosphere and grubby spaceships are very reminiscent of Ridley Scott's Nostromo spaceship with the long , poorly lit corridors and the faintly lit technology of the future. The cast are all on top form and include Kathleen Quinlan, Jason Isaacs, Joely Richardson and Sean Pertwee and again their characters and attitudes pay homage to the crew of Nostromo from Alien. But there's no extra-terrestrials here as this is a haunted house themed film with demonic possession thrown in for good measure. There's lots to admire here even though the film feels underdone, it has tension, disaster and violence so its a pity we haven't been given the full version which, shocking or not, is no doubt the better film. What we have is worth checking out if you've not seen it.

Event Horizon - Event Horizon review by RT

I was very disappointed. The main feature had large chunks cut out and endless slam bang sections edited in. This totally destroyed the early creepy atmosphere. It kind of fell off the end too, as 'you are alright now' was a real let down to finish. The ending was totally different, that I saw, with many unanswered questions and a remaining threat as the portal was left open for evil to come through. What happened to a director's cut? - far too much dumbing down for what was originally a good movie!

Don’t go into space with Sam Neill - Event Horizon review by HW

The director should have stuck to making pure horror movies rather than increasingly bad action-horrors, because he’s good at the horror! The quality of this haunted-house-in-space took me by surprise. Like ‘Alien’ (which this movie was a massive tribute to), you’ve got a building dread atmosphere and the terror of the unknown. I suspected that when a state-of-the-art ship returned from another dimension after being lost for seven yesrs, the outcome wasn’t going to be good. The last thing Laurence Fishburne’s crew surely wanted to do was get on Event Horizon, a hypothesis proven by the fact that events get more sinister and disastrous as the story unfolds.

 The cast were great, especially Sam Neill in the most unsettling role I’ve ever seen him in. He plays the designer of the dimension-crossing Event Horizon who starts off with good intentions but gradually grows more disturbingly protective of his baby ship. 

What I liked about this horror was the blending of advanced sci-fi ideas and technology with a good old-fashioned, Biblical concept of Hell; complete with flashes of outrageously horrific imagery. As well as similarities to ‘Alien’, there’s nods to ‘2001’ with the hi-tech ship that becomes more sentient and defensive. Obviously there is some dodgy space science, like how long characters can resist being sucked out into space as soon as a window is broken. 

Overall an impressively dark and thought-provoking sci-fi horror with a thrilling, straight-forward plot which pulled off its main objective: making you scared of going into space, messing with science and crossing dimensions. Who knows what’s out there?