Closet Sci-Fi Geek

Ahhhh, there’s nothing like blood and gore on a spaceship. If you like horror mixed with your sci-fi, then 1997′s Event Horizon is for you.

I like 90s sci-fi. Following in the heels of the Alien sequels, a fabulous trend emerged whereby a recalcitrant crew, often made up of a band of rugged misfits, meets terror and daunting challenges out in space (or, alternatively, underwater). It could be in the form of a creepy alien with slime dripping out of its mouth, some sort of terrifying time/space anomaly, or, in the case of Event Horizon, pure evil.

The crew in these types of films is always foul-mouthed and crude; they’ll often get into fights with each other when things start going seriously south. There’s always a few women included, and they are usually wearing the requisite army green tanktops with their hair loosely tied up into a bun or ponytail.

If we’re lucky, a few of these crewmembers will die horrible, nasty deaths, leaving the rest to run around in terror doing stupid things they shouldn’t.

This is, of course, the case with Event Horizon, which has the added bonus of Sam Neill, an excellent actor, duking it out with Laurence Fishburne, who only does well in The Matrix because his wooden acting fit that role. Neill, even with his crappy role here in Event Horizon, still manages to make the screen light up, whereas Fishburne is almost painful to watch at times.

This is too bad, because we get a lot of Fishburne in the film. He plays the captain of a rescue ship that has been called to recover the lost ship Event Horizon, which disappeared from time and space for seven years. Neill plays the scientist who originally designed the Event Horizon.

The Event Horizon is now a spooky relic, and the mystery is, where was it all those seven years? The ship was supposed to create a black hole to travel from any spot in the universe to any other spot. When crazy things start happening on the ship, and the blood starts pouring, it becomes quite evident that the ship has gone much farther – it really has gone where no man has gone before. Meanwhile, Sam Neill’s character starts going completely insane…

As plots go, Event Horizon has an interesting story, if just that there’s a mystery wanting to be solved. I wasn’t blown away by the horror, however, which is strange, since I generally have a low fright threshold. I’ve read others saying this movie was one of the scariest things they’ve seen. Well, not for me. This film did not scare me one bit, nor will it have me up at night with the lights on. That said, I enjoyed the story behind the lost ship, and found the concept to be highly intriguiging.

Alas, the special effects are showing their age: The CGI used in the film is obviously inferior to today’s. Most of this shows up when we see the Event Horizon zero gravity and computer-generated objects are floating around. The rest of the special effects hold up just fine otherwise.

And thus, I give Event Horizon a B grade, meaning it’s a worthwhile rental and a good thing to watch when you’ve seen all the latest releases. It’s not a classic, but it’s a decent flick.

August 20th, 2006 | Category: 1990s, Movies, Retro Sci-Fi | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL