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Event Horizon

Event Horizon

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Less than stellar rip-off of many better movies
Review: "Event Horizon" tells the story of a salvage operation of the titualar spaceship. Designed by the enigmatic Dr. Weir, Event Horizon was the largest and most advanced spacecraft ever built (by man, anyway) when it dissappeared on its maiden voyage. Unknown by most, the ship was the prototype for an experimental propulsion system using artificial gravity wells, like those that surround black holes, to curve space. This was supposed to have the dual benefit of offering faster-than-light travel and a leg-up on Albert Einstein.

Unfortunately, much like the doomed experimental starship, "Event Horizon" fails because it can't escape its firmly 20th century roots. The conscience-plagued Dr. Weir can no more best Einstein when his prodigal spaceship reappears, than the producers of this film can succeed any one of dozens of films they ripped-off to make this movie. "Alien" is only one of the more obvious ingredients, along with "Jaws" (the invisible monster) and "Frankenstein". The producers must have been asleep for the past 20 years - the concept of humans running around like rats lost in the dark maze of some mammoth and inhospitable spaceship - vast and claustrophobic at the same time - has been done to death in movies, straight-to-video, late-night cable and hyper-violent video games. This is the kind of movie begging for the "Scream" treatment - knowing, self-reverential, yet self-parodying. But "Event Horizon" takes itself far too seriously - there are far too many British accents, giving the show an arch "Star Trek, nex Gen" feel, while Larry Fishburne is his usual dolemite self. I like Fishburne, but his dead-serious demeanor isn't served well here. It's hard to get scared by a film that remains so complacent in following other films - sqaundering possible plot ideas. Save for a horribly mutilated body, the ship is deserted. It's not so much that the script leaves the fate of the crew up to our imagination - it doesn't seem to care a whit itself. Why has it taken so long for the ship to return? Why was such an exotic technology tested on a manned prototype rather than on an unmanned probe? And why has the ship returned to Neptune, rather than straight to Earth? In films like the original "Alien" and its countless rip-offs (remember "Outland"?) the source of evil turns out to be man, defined by greed or petty hate. The mysterious evil populating "Event Horizon" is pure evil, pronounces Dr. Weir. That means it has no form, no definition and above all, no charachter. In that last respect, the film and the spaceship are one. Yet not even that can raise a chill. Instead, rent any of the first two Alien movies, X-Tro-2 (why not?) or the first American Werewolf movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I Loved the Story Line
Review: An excellant movie that truly gives scares. The story line of a ship that was lost and then come back seven years later only to be haunted by the crew aboard her was amazing. Who ever thought of that was a genious. I love Horror movies, not these slasher movies like Scream 2 (Scream was actually good)and I know What You Did Last Summer, but the ones that work on a pshycological level. Eg: The Changling, Poltergeist, The Exorcist, Black Christmas, The Omen and this one plus many more. The Special effects are great and they got top notch actors but still some scenes seem to faulter. There was alot of blood and that didn't bother me but bothered others they maybe should backed off a little on the gore. When it came time for the scares this one delivered. There are only two movies that I can't watch by myself and they are The Exorcist and Event Horizon. I know that Event Horizon isn't the scariest but... If your in the mood for a Horror you can't go wrong with this movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Hell breaks loose...literally. Highly recommended!
Review: I happened upon this movie on network tv a few weeks back and was thinking "What *IS* this?" Expecting a low-grade thriller, I continued watching, because cheesy sci-fi movies can be amusing. At first, I noticed it was closely in parallel to Alien. (A space crew unexpectedly detoured to help an ailing vessel with a distress beacon).

And then all hell breaks loose. I was blown away! I'm a fan of horror flicks (none too squeamish) so when I brought my legs up closer to me on the couch, wanting to turn the lights on, it was an unexpected thrill! And that's not even to mention that it stars Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) and Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix).

The oddest thing was that I mentioned it to a friend at work the next day, who said that our boss had mentioned it earlier at lunch, simply raving about it. And suddenly everyone was talking about how scary this movie was, and no one could figure out why it hadn't received more media attention!

Definitely worth watching...I'm adding this one to my collection!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: great movie
Review: I liked this mixture of sci-fi and horror. Overall it was great. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was due to some minor bloopers. Whoever wrote the script or designed the costumes mistakenly decided to put Army captain rank (two silver bars) on Captain Miller's leather jacket during one of the opening scenes. This would have made him one of the junior members of the crew, outranked by the medical officer who is shown wearing a gold oak leaf cluster as lieutenant commander! Miller should have been wearing 'the bird'.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Good Horror Flick
Review: I took this movie for what it was. Just a horror movie made to scare you. Alot of things pop out unexpected, combined with a decent plot and some good special effects make for a good movie. Nothing stellar, but the first non-Scream type horror movie in quite some time.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very bad... and thats a good thing.
Review: Despite being a box office miss upon it release in 1997, Event Horizon could be considered one of the best horror films to be released this decade. Unfortunately, its theatrical ad campaign gave almost no indication that the film was anything more a suspenseful sci-fi adventure flick, leading many unsuspecting moviegoers trapped in dark theatres, shielding their eyes from the ghoulish imagery that abounds throughout this, at times, disturbing picture. Seasoned horror veterans have wrote off "Event Horizon" as either being a Clive Barker ripoff or just too over-the-top grisly to be taken seriously, and critics denounced it as being a vehicle picture, focusing very little on plot or character development and instead relying on tried and true shock antics to keep the picture moving, and there is some merit to these accusations. But when its all said done, Event Horizon effectively delivers what it sets out to give: A thrill ride, no questions asked. And any average movie goer should be forwarned, this is one terrifying ride. For it seems in the not too distant future the experimental ship "Event Horizon", which breaks the law of relativity by bending space and literally travelling through other dimensions, disappears without a trace on its maiden voyage. Seven years later - surprise- it suddenly reappears out of nowhere, floating in the distant space just beyond Neptune. A somewhat generic crew of rugged rescue ops officers, headed by one Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburn), along with the ship's creator Dr. Wier (Sam Neill) are dispatched to investigate the vessel and hopefully establish contact with any surviving crew. Unfortunatly, the last transmitted message from the ship's log is an audio broadcast of what seems to be hideous shrieking and howling, muffling out a curious Latin ramblng, at first taken to mean "Save me". Upon arrvial and boarding of the ship, no life is found, but it is apparent from the floating cadavres and repulsively gore smeared walls that something unspeakably tragic has happened to the former crew. In fact, the ship itself seems to have taken on an evil cast, and its not long before the rescue team finds themself fending off the same nightmare that killed the original crewmen. The nightmare? Well, it seems the ship, while travelling through the dimensional rift, made a stop in Hell itself, and brought back a little piece with it.... So the story goes... nothing terriblly inventive, but delivered with a eccentric touch that will keep most viewers running for their nightlights afterwards. The very atmosphere in Event Horizon is enough to send chills down the spine. The ship's design (accented gorgeously with lightning and thunder from a never ending electrical storm on Neptune's green casting surface) is wonderfully gothic and clausterphobic, dimly lit and unforgivingly dismal - perfect for the LoveCraftian "nameless lurking terror" theme of the film. Basically the crew of the rescue shuttle "Lewis'n'Clark" are forced to face their own personal nightmares in the flesh (although Doctor Wier's haunted visions of a dead wife, sans eyeballs, begin even before they step aboard.. forecasting that he may be more pivotal to the story than the others). Inside all this horrific ambience is alot of shock horror aesthetic and "boo-made-you-jump!" scenes.. nightmarish imagery borrowing from both gothic (eyes and characters with a lack of them abound in this movie..)

and sacreligous elements are mixed with typical horror flick splatter. The ghastly renmants and audio broadcast of the former crew of the Event Horizon, combined with the increasing hallucinations of the rescue team culminate when a static filled video is brought online actually showing the grotesque fate of the ship's previous lot. After this all Hell breaks loose (no pun intened), and its a fight for survival against a monstrous force that has no intention of letting anyone leave.

Rollicking good fun, if you're into that sort of thing, but don't say you weren't warned, there's some intense material to deal with here, enough to make "Aliens" or "Freddy" look like a birthday party. The cast all around does a fine enough job splitting up and wandering around alone like fools, and you can always predict who's going to die 5 minutes before they do. Fishburn and Neill are the only two who have any subtance to their roles - Neill in particular does a bangup job (even in Jurassic Park he looked kind of sinister). Watch this one in a dark room, alone, right before you go to bed. We dare you.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A good surprise
Review: It's a really good surprise, I thought it would be an average sci-fi movie, but it's much better than that. Actually it's not really a sci-fi movie, science is completely overlooked, it's rather an horror movie, and a successful one. Those looking for a true sci-fi like Alien will be disapointed.

It's more like a mystic of good vs. evil in space. And that's what make it interesting, our world is very rastionalistic, if a plane crash down it's a tragedy but we have explanations: engine failure, poor design, human error, etc. People kill people, for greed, power, jealousy, stupidy etc. Our world is ugly but we do have explanations. But in this movie, there's the idea of another universe of "pure chaos" "pure evil", of things really beyond control and comprehension.

The movie is far from perfect. The special effects are less impressive than Star Wars Episode 1 and a lot of other ones, but are convincing. The dark ambiance on the other hand is perfect. Characters do not have backgrounds, except for Dr. Weir, but the acting is very good. Fishburne, Neill and the other actors and actresses are very convincing.

On the overall I think it is a good movie to own on DVD or VHS. I loved it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: sci-fi Amityville
Review: This movie is like, the sci-fi version of the movie The Amityville Horror, & its ok, m'kay

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Did I see the wrong movie?
Review: I went into the theater to see this film expecting what was promised in the trailer: a decent sci-fi based on the solid premise of a ship returning unmanned from an unknown fronteir. Instead what I got was a cheap horror flick with high-budget special effects.

I think a lot of people were generally disappointed that this wasn't the story everyone was led to expect from the trailer. I rolled my eyes when I found out that the plot simply borrowed a page from the story of the game Doom, rather than showing some originality. If originality wasn't in the recipe, they still could have done better by looking at similar "where has it/(s)he been" short stories for something with a little scary edginess.

According to a friend, this version is a lame rewrite of the original script; apparently the original was a lot closer to the trailer's premise, and in it the ship had merely been somewhere else and its creator just went crazy. It's unfortunate that what could have been one of the best sci-fis of the decade was altered by some studio goon to make it into a horror film. The places where the horror elements were spliced into the script stand out well enough. And as if the screenwriters couldn't convince themselves that this was a horror, they had to throw in a lot of pointless shock imagery in the end just to throw in our faces: "See? This is a horror. It must be a horror because we're showing maggots and stuff on the screen."

As both sci-fi and horror, this film fails. I find the Twilight Zone a whole lot spookier for the money. This movie only gets two stars because of the acting and the effects, plus its strong beginning. Unfortunately the cast and crew weren't enough to save this dog from studio mismanagement and bad revision.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Something Wicked This Way Comes!
Review: Event Horizon: The beginning point of intense gravitation around a black hole or other singularity.

Event Horizon: An experimental starship constructed in 2040 to be the first faster than light (FTL) vessel capable of reaching Proxima Centauri. Event Horizon lost with all hands only to reappear in a decaying orbit around the 8th planet of our star system.

And is another one of those haunted house in space films in the same vein as Ridley Scott's 1979 'Alien'. In this new feature by Paul Anderson, (Mortal Kombat). Mankind's reach for space has taken him somewhere he was never meant to venture, a place of perverse evil and unimaginable sin. However, this film strides past any notion of just being Hellraiser in Space, and comes across as an intelligent science fiction movie that slowly becomes a horror film. Anderson takes what we think frightens us and throws it out the window. Because the monster lurking behind the door isn't from another planet and dripping slime, it is from another dimension. It is hostile. It is malevolent. And it is Evil in its purest form.

The Event Horizon appears suddenly, broadcasting an IFF and emergency beacon. It is a gothic looking ship almost two kilometers long, appearing as though it were carved from rusted iron and copper. Beautiful. Going out to meet is the Lewis and Clark, a deep space rescue vessel whose crew specializes in recovery operations like this. Captain Miller (Lawrence Fishborune) is rankled to find an additional crew member added to the roster in the form of Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill), who built the Event Horizon's revolutionary gravity drive system and what was to have propelled the massive ship between the stars. When we first meet Weir aboard the skeletal Daylight Station, it is already obvious that he is a very troubled man- his wife committed suicide and he is haunted by her.

It takes 56 days for the Lewis and Clark to make it out to Neptune where the Event Horizon lies, wherein it plunges into the high atmosphere of the stormy planet to make a link up with the historic vessel. Already something is amiss when a sensor sweep returns dubious results on life readings. The ship is dead. The crew is missing, saving for a single frozen eyeless cadaver that crashes to the floor and shatters when the gravity is restored. Reaching out from the blackness an unseen force has new toys to play with. One crew member is pulled into the core of the gravity drive, others back away in fear as something tries to break through a bulkhead, another sees her crippled son pleading for help, the Captain is faced with a vision of an old crew member who was immolated in an oxygen fire years ago. They point to Weir for an explanation, but his response is unhelpful.

The last log is found and played back. Through half-seen glimpses of distortion laced video the Lewis and Clark crew watches those of the Event Horizon slaughter themselves in an orgy of blood and perversity- with one crewman screaming as he holds his bloody eyeballs up to the camera, "We don't need these anymore!" One by one the Lewis and Clark crew is slaughtered- one dissected, one in a trance walks into an airlock and opens it to space, another is led by visions of her crippled son into falling several stories to her death in the engine room. Even Weir is affected by visions of his dead wife, naked and eyeless. The survivors realize it is the Event Horizon herself that is killing them and they make a mad dash to escape on the Lewis and Clark only to discover that one of the spinal separation explosives is missing aboard the Event Horizon.

The rest you will have to see for yourself.

This is an excellent film, panned by the critics, but I found it exciting, disturbing and visceral. How delightfully un-Hollywood! Anderson makes excellent use of his effects budget; providing us with convincing space vehicles, both inside and out. This film doesn't have a break neck pace, rather it seems more methodical and deliberate, as though the viewer was being stocked by the evil that infests the ship. Scenes that shock are meant to, the violence goes past merely being gross until it achieves an almost phobic state or mania. Sam Neill and Lawrence Fishburne are very good and play against each other wonderfully, though inter-character exchanges are brief and there is little chance to build the characters into 'real' people.

I found the fact that my eyes were not being burned out by one colossal effects sequence after another refreshing. Like so many films these days, 'The Matrix' and 'The Phantom Menace' spring to mind, like to bury their viewers in an avalanche of special effects. This is done by and large to confuse the audience and distract them from just how bad the story really is. Heaven help us if they actually start producing films where the story is at least as important as the effects. Event Horizon is not meant to be swallowed and lost by its effects, instead it presents a rather esoteric story line that is enhanced by its effects. Maybe if it had Gungans and Bullet Time effects people would have liked it more.


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