Event Horizon

A guiltily enjoyable and disturbing horror sci-fi, Event Horizon provides gore and suspense as well as taking the viewer in a decidedly unexpected direction.

Dr. Weir (Neill) built the Event Horizon – a spaceship capable of opening a hole in space and travelling instantaneously across to another point. When the ship is lost in mysterious circumstances, he enlists the help of the Lewis and Clark, a rescue vessel, along with its crew and captain (Fishburne). On reaching the Event Horizon orbiting Neptune, they discover what happened to the ship and the implications of the discovery upon their lives and their ideas of reality.

Laurence Fishburne is captain of another ship before the Nebuchadnezzar here – and Morpheus he is not. It’s hard to remember that he was such a good actor other than his performances in the Matrix trilogy, but his tussles with Neill are fun to watch. Sam Neill positively ruins any and all innocent perceptions of him after Jurassic Park with this character – Dr. Weir is haunted by his wife’s suicide, and eventually driven over the edge, Neill conveying this insane man rather convincingly.
Joely Richardson and Kathleen Quinlan play the two women on board – but they don’t really have anything to do, and as a result their effect is somewhat diminished. No Ripley is on board this ship. Richard T. Jones (Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles), Jason Isaacs and Sean Pertwee present the different aspects of the ship’s male crew, each with a certain archetype but each presenting their character as someone the audience can relate to.

Paul Anderson (he of Death Race and AVP ignominy) makes what I would consider to be his best film here – an original idea executed in a very intelligent way through his direction. All the other aspects help give this film its deserved cult status. Anderson directs a cast of famous (and not so famous) actors in what they would probably have considered a ridiculous movie. Nevertheless, he does his best work here, and it’s a damn shame that he decided to go the way he did in Hollywood – this British director had excellent promise on watching this movie, and it’s a sign of the times that a new film from him is laughed at.

Much of the dialogue is hammy – but when the disturbances onboard begin to be understood, it picks up a little. Techno-classical beats background the uncomfortable tension and horror ever-present in the movie, giving it a bizarre and at times rather disturbing soundtrack. Space, as well as the spaceships themselves, is rendered beautifully for a ‘90s film – these effects are better than some of today’s, which says something about film-making. What is more significant though are the practical effects – the gore and presentations of torture are disgustingly done – again, the film appears to give more than you would expect from it.

I really enjoyed this film – it has that eerie balance between sci-fi and the supernatural that just makes it work. The cast and visuals go some way to making it even better – a true cult classic.

8/10