"Event Horizon" is a 1997 sci-fi horror film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne obviously shine as the two main leads, but the entirety of Fishburne's crew on the Lewis and Clark spaceship is a solid cast. The plot is essentially focused around the characters heading out to investigate a different spaceship - the titular Event Horizon - that disappeared without a trace 7 years earlier and suddenly hopped back into existence that day. Sam Neill plays Doctor Weir, the engineer who designed the Event Horizon and wants to know more than anyone what happened to his project.
It sounds like this film wasn't well received at the time of its theatrical release and has now become more of a cult classic. Overall I thought it was very well-done. It is certainly a film that "isn't for everyone" so I can lend that credence to some of the lower reviews I've seen around the internet - but 34% on Rotten Tomatoes feels like a crime to me.
As far as content warnings, this one has a BUNCH: blood and gore, violence, torture, suicide, body horror, skin lacerations, maggots, cannibalism, sex, rape, removal of one's own eyes, vivisection, third degree burns, hallucinations, and -- excessive use of barbed wire. Apparently some folks fainted while watching the original uncut screening. Test audiences as well as Paramount executives both reacted negatively to all of the carnage and the film ended up being about 30 minutes shorter than the director had initially planned.
At first it would have been too long and then it ended up being too short to tell the story it wanted to tell. Cast and crew described the process of working on the film to be "cursed," due to budget cuts and time constraints. Directors usually have 10 weeks to edit their films before they are released and yet "Event Horizon" only had around 6. Honestly, we are probably lucky to have the film we have after all of the frenzy and stress.
In light of all of those complications, I believe the cast and crew did the best that they could. And it did some things incredibly well. It is sooo gorgeous in its set designs and its use of color and lighting. All of the actors and actresses gave solid performances and the musical score was also finely crafted and perfectly fitting to a science fiction horror film. Again, the colors. So bright and beautiful. Everyone knows a film being visually appealing will automatically give it +4 on my 1-10 review scale.
Image containing a series of screenshots from the film - I found it on a Film page on Facebook. I did not make it and claim no ownership.
Okay I think I'll get into a couple specifics and don't want to spoil anything so
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SPOILER
WARNING
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I think I'm gonna talk about the colors some more. The BLUE, the GREEN, the RED. Apparently the director made the inside of the Event Horizon ship to resemble the Notre Dame cathedral, with all of its gorgeous intensity and awe-inspiring power. A center for the grandiose, a place to meet God - or the Devil. The cinematography and camera work are just fantastic.
Just gorgeous. The hallucinatory dreams among the blue cryosleep pods, like the frozen blue waters under the arctic ice. The green cubic hallways Dr. Weir climbs into in order to work on the ship's systems to try to understand why they are not working as expected. A wave of blood that flows outward from the central containment cylinder in the cryosleep room, a direct homage to "The Shining."
The chamber for the rotating Gravity Drive is a particular favorite in regard to lighting and mood. It looks medieval, primitive, and yet so far into the future that we shudder to think of what it is capable of. Just fantastic.
The film makes you doubt what is real and what is a nightmare conjured from the deepest recesses of space. The way that the Event Horizon keeps tormenting its occupants with visions and hallucinations from the things that they fear and regret most. A fellow soldier consumed by flames who you failed to save. A child that you miss terribly, lightyears away, whose legs may be rotting as you speak. Who knows what Justin saw on the other side when the Gravity Drive drew him in to its darkness. Dr. Weir in particular keeps seeing visions of his wife who committed suicide. He sees her walking about the Event Horizon's halls as if she is really there with him, asking him to join her, staring pleadingly at him with her empty eye sockets.
They tease and hint at what happened to her until the very end, when you see her drawing her bath and picking up the razor. The visions and hallucinations are incorporated so seamlessly into the current scenery of the ship, as if they are really there. The little boy runs across the Gravity Drive room as if he is playing hide and seek. It really is a fantastic concept that is executed very well.
The characters overall have such substance, their own distinct personalities and relevant backstories. It really makes you relate to them and care about them as a viewer, even as the possessed ship claims them one by one. Their deaths are all the more crushing, even as you see them coming in classic horror film trope fashion. Peters and Justin call each other Baby Bear and Mama Bear, respectively.
As far as mentioning some negatives - the things that made me give the film an 8/10 instead of a perfect score. Obviously there are some pacing and plot issues that do mar the brilliance of the film overall. There are some special effects that definitely suffered because of the limited technology available at the time. The explosion effects are particularly bad, looking very low quality compared to all of the sets and scenes that were actually built with practical effects. The various items floating about in zero gravity are also far too bright to look like they belong in the dark hallways of the ship.
It just kind of takes you out of any attempt at realism, sadly. Tarnishes your suspension of disbelief a bit. But it wasn't because Anderson and crew didn't care, it was because CGI as we know it today just literally hadn't been developed yet.
Overall I really enjoyed the film and would certainly watch it again. It certainly scratched my "H P Lovecraft" itch that I try to indulge as much as I can during the spooky season of October. It wasn't perfect but the concepts and characters that it revolved around were as well done as they could've been at the time, with the complications that took place outside of the film's immediate control.
I'd say a 7 or 8/10 is more appropriate than the 6/10 given by most critics and audiences, but maybe that's just me in particular. It did check a lot of my favorite boxes when it comes to cosmic horror movies.
Thanks for reading.
More reviews on the way.
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