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Event Horizon

Event Horizon

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $13.49
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: You Don't Need Eyes to See the Fear...
Review: Very few movies scare me...and this was one of them!

The very notion of a ship going into Hell and coming back was enough to keep my attention. But the bloody visions of Hell was what frightened me the most. The gory, inhumane, and demonic things this film reveals WILL scare the living daylights out of you.

The film gradually builds from a stylistic atmosphere of mystery and turns into a suspensful pursuit. The film ultimately reaches an exciting climax. The story itself seems unoriginal, since there have been other films that have dealt with the theme of black holes leading into other dimensions (like "The Black Hole"). But the story doesn't truly dominate the movie.

The characters take more presidence, and constitute the events that occur. Acting is particuarly fantastic with Sam Niel, who plays Dr. Wier. It is interesting how Wier starts as being the film's good guy, but turns evil, while Laurence Fishborne plays a character who starts kind of bad and finishes as the hero. The subordinate characters also show some decent development.

The special effects are very noteworthy, especially for its time. The ending black hole sequence is fantastically done.

The set design further exemplifies the inhumane and demonic nature of the Event Horizon ship. Metal spikes and blades make it look like a torture chamber.

All in all, this is perhaps one of my personal favorite horror films. It stands true to the very nature of the name of the genre: HORROR!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Unknowable terror... where was Clive in all this?
Review: In scientific terms, the Event Horizon is the precipice of a black hole, the point of no return before one is hurled into the endless unknown. How appropriate for this Sci-Fi set gothic Horror. I loved this twist on the derilict spaceship plotline. At the beginning of the movie it feels like another Star Trek - Battlestar Galactica-esque movie; you are in deep space searching for a lost ship and then when you find it there are no life signs. The movie stays calm for exactly 15 minutes.. then all Hell breaks loose, literally. I have seen such darkness come from H.R. Geiger as and artist, and Clive Barker as a writer so you will understand my shock when I found neither name attached to the film. With a feel like "Hellraiser" and nonstop action like - well, anything with Bruce Willis - "Event Horizon" grabbed my attention from the first pulse-pounding chord of it's soundtrack to the very last (?) scream. I enjoyed seeing the dark transition of Dr. Weir from a seemingly normal scientist to an individual so obsessed that he becomes the darkness we all fear. Sam Neill has shown a tremendous expanse of acting through the past several years, from a Palentologist in "Jurassic Park" to the fantastic "Merlin" even as far back as "Dead Calm" he has unerringly played the good guy, it's a delicious twist to have him cast as the antagonist in Paul Anderson's horrifying tale. The one hard point in the movie is the decision one must make as a viewer, can you really hate this man? From the beginning of the movie we share his pain and loss, we share his desire and then are challenged to share his mania a truly unique psychological horror. I must give this a perfect "10" as this movie shows no signs of a "cheese factor," no overacting, nothing overdone and everything played and built to perfection. This is where reality and fantasy meet to push the envelope within the mind.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Blood and gore coat a point about human insanity and space
Review: It is the year 2047 and suddenly a signal is received from a research space ship called the Event Horizon that disappeared years before. Equipped with a drive that will allow it to exceed the speed of light, it used conventional drive to get beyond the gravity well of the sun. At that point the drive was to start and jump them to Proxima Centauri, but when the drive was activated, all contact with the ship ended.
The signal being received is an automated one, so a rescue ship is sent to investigate and the designer of the ship joins the captain and his crew as they move out to rendezvous with the Event Horizon. After making contact and boarding her, they are able to download some of the logs, and what they see is frightening. This is just their first step in a journey through a gauntlet of terror. This movie is tense and very gory. People shed a lot of blood and one is even surgically dissected will still alive. In my opinion, the gore was overdone, the same effect could have been achieved by leaving some of it to the imagination. Done right, it could have increased the tension.
While it is coated in blood and gore, there is a major philosophical point that the movie raises. At this time, humans have not journeyed far from Earth, always remaining within short-term radio contact. No one knows how human behavior will change when they move significant distances from Earth. While there is no doubt that humans will remain humans as they move out into space, the key question is whether our unstable behavior will become more or less pronounced. Other science fiction venues have occasionally raised this point, for example the Star Trek episodes of The Naked Time, The Tholian Web and The Naked Now feature normally repressed behavior becoming dominant or regions of space that make people crazy.
This is a movie that lovers of horror and gore will enjoy. Even though I do not care for such things, I still liked it, because of the tension and the possibility that humans may find regions of space that will drive them mad.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Easily Overlooked
Review: Perhaps I am one of the only person out there that enjoyed thisfilm. True, there is a wealth of similarities to Alien and 2001. ButI believe that instead of a cheesy rip-off, what we have here is a very well laid out movie that, if viewed with an open mind, will shock you and horrify you at the same time. There is a good deal of gore, which I admit can be a negative. But as horror genius Clive Barker once said: "You can't make an omlet without breaking a few eggs, and you can't make a horror movie without breaking a few heads." There are also some great performances here by Lawrence Fishburne and Sam Neill. Also you may want to take a close look at a truly inventive production design, giving the interior and exterior of the ship the look of a seventeenth century torture chamber. All elements combined makes for a really freaky experience. Best viewed alone, in a really dark room with a great sound system.

Also, check out the "written by" credit. Although the first draft was by Philip Eisner, A-list writer Andrew Kevin Walker penned the final draft. You may remember him as the screenwriter of "Seven", "Eight Millimeter", and "Sleepy Hollow."

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Sci-Fi Horror Favorite For All
Review: Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill star in this 1997 Sci-Fi horror film. It is some time in the not so distant future. A missing experimental ship known as the Event Horizon has appeared somewhere in the solar system near Pluto after years of mysteriously disappearing years ago. Dr. Weir (Sam Neill) had overseen the ships design and craft, yet has no explanation for the ship's unexplainable disappearance or re-appearance. All heck breaks lose when the ship comes alive and begins killing people. This movie is so scary you'll never forget it. Directed by Paul Anderson.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Well done Anderson you git...(2.5/5)
Review: ... you have taken a potentialy brilliant film that could have had all of the phsycological terror of texas chainsaw and the smarts of the matrix (arguable), but instead you turned it into a 2 hour blood and chunk soaked remake of hellraiser.

before i proceed, may i take a parting shot at paul anderson... thank you. this is the general plotline of EVENT. (and as a matter of fact, any other film by Anderson. capitals refers to event horizon.), thrown together crew find abandoned SHIP/house/military base, go on board then find a TAPE/book telling them to get away. but instead of leaving to find ammo and support, they decide to stay for a search/picnic/CHANCE TO GET TORN INTO SPAGHETTI BOLOGNASE. With him (anderson) getting hold of Alien vs Predator, i think of reconsidering my front seat ticket...

as for event horizon itself, i found it a deeply frustrating experiance. yes, the flashes of hell are horrifying without being used in overkill, (DO NOT slow down these scenes on your DVD!. i still get shivers...), but i was expecting a more intelligent and mentally gripping film and not the innards soaked barbarism i witnessed. As many of you have pointed out already this film takes from so many others, but this time i will defend. if you can name a film which hasnt stolen from another, i will step back.
the acting was the strong point here, es[pecially the unnerving, yet trying too hard to be scary same niell (dr.wier), but it couldnt save it overall.

there were some bits that i laughed at when it didnt intend me too. (HEY, Miller!...hehehehehehehe....). and also the constant use of gouged out eyes was good at first, then just got me wondering how uncreative and uninspiring it will be when i see it elsewhere.
overall, it started brilliantly, and just when i was getting fully involved the cheesy gore effects really broke that bond.im sure there were good ideas here, they just drowned in the EXTREMELY fake blood.(i like some, but talk about OVERKILL).
Please paul, just quit now and write a book on how to ruin potential masterpieces with shoddy workmanship and dumbed down directing aimed for a brainless gore obssesed audience. others may enjoy, but its just not my cup of tea...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Event Horizon
Review: Director Paul Anderson (Soldier) brings us this tale of the lost research vessel "Event Horizon" and the crew of the "Lewis And Clark" who were sent to salvage her wreck. On arrival they find the ship in a decaying orbit around Neptune, life support offline and no trace of her crew. The would be rescuers soon find themselves the ones in need of rescuing as the Event Horizon "reacts" violently to the presence of the new crew. Laurence Fishburne (Boyz N The Hood), Kathleen Quinlan (Breakdown), And Sam Neil (Omen: The Final Conflict, John Carpenter's In The Mouth Of Madness) star in what could be described as a Haunted House story set in outer space. Opinions on this film appear to be of the love it or hate it variety with not much middle ground. I for one loved it, the Michael Kamen(Die Hard, Lethal Weapon)/Orbital score is top notch, the two different styles of these artists when combined are surprisingly effective. Set design and special effects are much better than average (look for the duct tape holding Captain Miller's chair together - this helps to make the "Lewis and Clark" look as though it has been in some tight spots, which I thought was a clever touch). While not the most original film (the concept of "Folding Space" comes from "Dune", "Alien" was likely an influence as well) it is still an atmospheric and spooky movie. Paramount's DVD version is worth the couple of extra bucks for the letterbox presentation as well as the original theatrical trailer.

Best quote from the film: "Hell is just a word, the reality is much, much, worse." -Dr. Weir (Sam Neil)

Hope you enjoy the movie!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Save your money
Review: Note that this review is only of the movie, sorry that I don't have info on the DVD features.

Plot: a top secret mission to recover a ship that has been lost for seven years. The twist: the ship to be recovered was an experiment that consisted of trying to make a worm-hole in space-time (basically squish space together to get through it faster), and the experiment had already gone through the experiment once with its previous crew, which are now all dead. This was a great start to a science-fiction movie, but then the actors opened their mouths and there is all this talk about "the ship is alive" because something in another dimension came back with it from its previous trip with the now dead crew... I WASTED MY LIFE WATCHING THIS MOVIE, YOU DON'T NEED TO AS WELL!

Basically this movie runs from science-fiction to science-junk. Most of the characters become annoying because there was no depth to the script. The plot reminded me of something a 5th grader would come up with. The script could have been done by a high schooler.

Paying to see this movie is basically giving money to Hollywood for wasting your life...don't watch it. If you must watch it, borrow it from a friend (who may just give it to you anyways since it is so awful).

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: horrible
Review: some of these reviewers must be completely stoned. this movie really sucks. i often refer to it as the worst movie ever made. and i even saw something amusing in 'blood beach'.

please do yourself a favor and take your life rather than watching this movie.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: THE BORROWERS
Review: Considering how well this film starts, and how promising its basic theme is, it really is a monumental let-down. A secret space mission is on its way to rendezvous with the spacecraft Event Horizon, now orbiting Neptune after returning from an experimental outreach into hyper-space. On board the rescue vessel is the Event Horizon's designer, forthcoming up to a point about what its mission had really been but beyond that point evasive. All very promising so far. The camera-work and effects are excellent, and while I couldn't help noticing a certain resemblance between the spaceships and their counterpart in 2001 A Space Odyssey, and even more so between the interior of the Event Horizon and the Nostromo in Alien that did not trouble me in any way. The first sign of trouble came with the recorded transmission from the crew of the Event Horizon, which turned out to be in Latin, the shape of bunkum to come.

The borrowings then start to come thick and fast, particularly, I am inclined to say, thick. The designer has to investigate a possible short-circuit in a way reminiscent of Bowman disabling the computer HAL in 2001. While doing so he encounters a hologram of his wife and I began to be reminded of Solaris, and the lights start to fail in a way reminiscent again of Alien. The Event Horizon has, I am sorry to say, been out into the unknown and unthinkable only to return as a kind of Hell House from hyper-space, possessed of some kind of sentience of its own, bent on consuming its crew and in contact with a wretched gaggle of revolting Latin-speaking mutants who would have disgraced many a B-movie and who make the Cellulites (or whatever they were called) in Hellraiser look brilliant. The crew's escape is again in line with the Alien series, and the final would-be coup de grace is some sort of ultimate in predictable hackneyed bathos.

The acting does a certain amount to redeem a disappointing film, particularly Fishburne as the captain. The real pity, for me, is what it all might have been if more effort and imagination, indeed any effort and imagination at all, had gone into the plot-line. We are offered a glimpse of some of the ultimate secrets of the cosmos and all they seem to amount to could apparently be found in reach-me-down pulp magazines of a particularly downmarket kind. I hope someone will try again.


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