Event Horizon

Rating:
Summary: Shuddering Sci-Fi Horror Flick
Review: When I first went to see Event Horizon I was only going because Sam Neill starred. What I wasn't expecting was to be completely blown away by a truely fantastic film.

Many films nowadays attampt to be horror, and fail rather miserably. Most have no substance, no good actors, no plot and over the top monsters. All these apply for films such as Wrong Turn and Jeepers Creepers. Neither are genuinely disturbing or shocking. Event Horizon definately is.

I was sitting there thinking, well I don't mind a bit of nice sci-fi, I loved the old Star Wars. After about an hour I started thinking, what have I let myself in for. The living burning corpse, the eyeless wife, the gangrenous kid. Truely disturbing gore, not over the top but just right. Just to add insult to injury the suspense is on a par with greats such as Alien.

I would recommend this film to anyone willing to be taken on a wild journey, full of gut wrenching suspense, disturbing gore and a generally clever plot.

Rating:
Summary: Lost in Space
Review: Let's boil this thing down: "Event Horizon" is a haunted house in space with teeth---big teeth.

Is "Event Horizon" endlessly derivative from about a million other Space/Horror movies? Absolutely. Does it look somewhat like "Aliens"? It should, it has the same cinematographer (Adrian Biddle, who also did "Judge Dredd" and "1492")and set designer (Crispian Sallis, who also designed the sets for "Gladiator" and "12 Monkeys"). Does the movie break down into a gory, senseless cinematic stew of incomprehensibility in its final 20 minutes? You betcha.

But you'd be a fool to let any of these things get in the way of your taking a fun-filled two-hour jaunt to the very edge of the galaxy and doing some sight-seeing aboard the "Event Horizon", a special ship---a *very* special ship, actually, that was conducting experiments in trans-light speed (that's "warp speed", Mr. Sulu) before it disappeared seven years ago. And now it's back! Orbiting a black hole, no less! And attempts at radio contact have proved futile!

So pack of your blaster and get out that passport, it's time to join Dr. William Weir (played to the bloody hilt by Sam Neill, who appears to be having the time of his career) and journey to the edge of the galaxy to determine what happened to the Event Horizon's original crew in 2040---a crew which included Dr. Weir's wife (played by Holley Chant, a real trooper who proves you don't even need eyeballs to turn in a knockout and creepy performance).

Let's back up for a minute. When I first saw "Event Horizon" in a nearly empty theater in Upstate New York, I hated it. I disparaged it, loudly, to friends. Naturally I backed up my 'hatred' by saying the movie was plotless, the movie broke down in the end, that it was brainless, that a coolly atmospheric beginning was spoiled by an 'evil' that more properly belonged in a Hellraiser film.

But let me tell you what was really on my mind: "Event Horizon" got under my skin and really *disturbed* me. It gave me the creeps. It made me wince to watch its twisted, warped plot unfold on the screen. From the moment we're 'introduced' to Dr. Weir aboard the Good Ship Event Horizon, and especially when we get a good look at the gangrenous legs of the medical officer's 'son', I was saying "Uh oh---this movie is out of control". Me, a veteran, jaded gorehound!

That power to disturb in a horror movie is a rare gift, which is why I believe director Paul W.S. Anderson to be one of the finest genre directors working today. Anderson takes all the rules of the science fiction movie, sets them up, abides by them for about the first 25 minutes of the film until you really think you know what's going on, and then throws them out the window while you're yelling "hey---you can't do that with the Rules!". Anderson is the creepy guy who takes your arm and finds the nerve that hurts and then squeezes, and squeezes, and squeezes.

That's what watching "Event Horizon" is like: having a particularly sensitive nerve squeezed, over and over again---in the nastiest possible way.

It would be unfair to the viewer to say more about "Event Horizon" than this: the rescue team, including Dr. Weir and Captain Miller (played understatedly by the pre-Matrix Laurence Fishburne) of the 'Lewis & Clark', find the Event Horizon an abandoned derelict, orbiting a black hole. Well, abandoned, except for strange visions, and discomfiting voices echoing throughout the grim passageways---and then there's the matter of all the blood, gore, and other goop caked up in the alcoves of the Horizon's bridge, or the final broadcast made by the Horizon's captain...

Anderson directs much like a young Ridley Scott, which is not surprising, since his crew includes a number of Scott's colleagues. He has a flair at building up a sustained atmosphere of menace and brooding malevolence, and of getting the most from his eerie, ornately Gothic set design. Of course, I immediately wondered who on Earth would design the Event Horizon to look like it did---with spikes, flanges, and violent green access-ways---but then possibly the Horizon had undergone a few upgrades by the time we get to see it, and I don't think Earth had anything to do with the design changes.

Anderson is also particularly good in his sparing and careful use of CGI, which is used to telling effect in this movie: the sequence in which we see a cascade of items---a watch, a nail file, loose change---spiralling in zero gravity is beautiful and creepy all at once.

All that said, "Event Horizon" is a compact, stylish little piece of pure horror and it is very scary. It's also one of the goriest films I've ever watched. Ever wonder what a guy who wanders into an airlock without a spacesuit looks like over the course of a few minutes? Wonder no longer. Wanna see a full surgical lumbar dissection in the main bridge? No problemo, Sarge! Ever ponder what a little homemade LASIK surgery without anesthetic might look like? Ponder no more, pardner! Anderson finds the thing you really don't want to see---the awful thing, the thing that other directors are content to let happen offscreen---and forces you to watch.

There are a few missteps (Fishburne's encounter with a burning crewman and Richard Jones's obligatory laugh relief undermine the meticulous atmosphere), but "Event Horizon" is a mercilessly nasty and disturbing excursion into outer space horror that pulls no punches. It's a wicked tale, stylishly told, of a Deep Space Haunted House with very big teeth---and a powerful appetite.