Event Horizon

Director - Paul W. S. Anderson (Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat)

Starring - Laurence Fishburne (Matrix, Pee Wee's Playhouse), Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, In the Mouth of Madness), and Kathleen Quinlan (The Doors, The Hills Have Eyes)

Release Date - 1997

Genre - Sci-Fi/Horror

Tagline - "Infinite space.  Infinite terror"

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     I've always been a cinephile.  I remember spending most of my childhood in front of the television watching anything and everything that slightly held my attention.  Horror took over in late elementary school but I still found other genres to be entertaining.  I remember when I was in middle school I watched the sci-fi horror flick Event Horizon for the first time.  I enjoyed it and when the local video store went out of business I snagged it on VHS for my collection.  It has been sometime since I had viewed it so I didn't remember a lot about it.  A few months ago Scream Factory announced the release of the film on blu and I started chomping at the bit wanting to see it.  I emailed them and they were kind enough to send a review copy my way.  It arrived a few days ago and I quickly put it into my movie rotation.  Thanks Scream Factory for hooking me up!

     The film follows a salvage crew who travel deep into space to recover the lost Event Horizon which disappeared 7 years prior.  The ship was a prototype to travel faster than light and was engaged in testing when it disappeared.  Now, they salvage crew is tasked with finding the crew and determining what happened to the ship but what they find is something from Hell itself.  

     I remember watching Event Horizon all those years ago but I don't remember a damn thing about the movie.  This made for this revisit to be a fantastic one because it was almost as if I was seeing the movie for the first time...which is not far from the truth.  The movie was extremely fun and one that I can't believe I went so long without revisiting.  It was a blast.  The acting in this one is unforgettable.  Fishburne absolutely nails it as the space captain trying to protect his crew.  He never disappoints and this is no exception.  The real star of the show is Neill who delivers a very grounded and charismatic performance at the beginning of the film only to go completely off the rails in a performance that rivals his character in In the Mouth of Madness.  I absolutely loved watching the progression of his character and how he fully evolves at the end of the film.  The supporting cast is just as entertaining with no weak links in this chain.  The story for this one is nothing new especially for 1997 but most of the other films are sci-fi action adventure films where this one is a horror sci-fi mash up.  A salvage or rescue crew retrieving a lost ship is something that has been in sci-fi flicks for several decades.  However, this story has a little bit of Doom mixed in with it which is extremely fun.  Having a black hole punch a way into another dimension allowing something evil to escape is absolutely fantastic.  I loved how the story and characters slowly descended into madness.  When you mix the story with the sets you get a claustrophobic horror story that works very well.  Finally, the film has plenty of great effects and some unforgettable deaths.  It's not gory but has plenty of blood, eye-gouging, and great practical effects.  One death in particular continues to play over and over in my mind.  I absolutely loved it.  Overall, Event Horizon is one of the most underrated horror films of our age.  It's got one hell of a cast and the story really does send some chills down your spine.  I was absolutely blown away by this one and will be revisiting it again soon enough.  This Scream Factory release is a must own for genre fans.  I highly recommend it.