The class is 2047 , the position is Neptune ’s orbit , and the psychological mindfuck component is off the charts , for the rescue crowd aboard the Lewis & Clark . The film is Event Horizon , named for a long - lose infinite ship which has mayhap been to HELL and back — and it ’s one of the most underrated space - repulsion flicks ever .
Spoilers ahead !
Yes , Event Horizon commits many flagrant fouls when it comes to ripping off other , good films ( include , but not bound to , Alien , The Shining , 2001 : A Space Odyssey , Solaris , Hellraiser , and The Haunting ) . It has some head - scratching anachronisms ( in the year 2047 , will paper photographs and candela - ROMs still exist ? ) and some daffy science , excuse away in one quick , gobbledygook - stuff scene in which Sam Neill ’s Dr. Weir is ask by a character as befuddled as the hearing , “ Do you even utter English ? ” Upon its discharge in 1997 , it was wide panned , and it tanked at the box office .
But if you may get past those roadblocks and settle in for the ride , Event Horizon is a capriciously gorgeous ( set design resembles steampunk track with a slaughterhouse ) , fast - step ( notoriously , then - neophyte director Paul W.S. Anderson was forced todrastically trimhis original cut for both time andthis - is - too - goryreasons ) , agreeably dread - filled movie .
It ’s further elevate by knowingly over - the - top acting turns by deafening Laurence Fishburne ( who plays the Lewis & Clark ’s skipper , Miller , and who bring in gravitas to lines like “ This ship is a tomb ! ” ) and Neill , who explicate the Event Horizon ’s mysterious gravity drive ( which “ creates a dimensional gateway ” via a black fix , allowing it to zip from one point in the population to another ) by folding a page from a girlie mag in half and punching a kettle of fish in each side .
So . The Event Horizon ’s backstory , tardily sussed out by the Lewis & Clark ’s unfortunate rescue posse , is that the seven - years - gone vessel has guide through hell , or a the pits - like space ( the film is lacking in much religious sentiment ) , alternatively of get to its specify intergalactic address . And the scenes that feature the neglect Event Horizon crew ’s eery final audio transmission — afterward reveal to have a picture constituent direct a la Hieronymus Bosch , pure with an bacchanalian presentation of fury , figure - ripping , eye - gouging ( there ’s a lot of body repulsion in this pic , and eyeball get the uncollectible of it ) , and ranting in Latin , the external dead spoken communication of panic and day of reckoning — are genuinely unsettling .
But the ship itself , more than the property it ’s been or the masses who give out on it , is the unfeigned evil here . Its gravity drive whirl and frisson and harbors a sludgy pond leading to myriad darkness , and like some deep - space Philadelphia Experiment , its bulkheads are infused with Things That Should Not Be . Its most terrific power is its ability to overwork the guilt and care of graphic symbol who keep their tactual sensation close to the surface ( like Kathleen Quinlan ’s med tech , Peters , who has vision of the wheelchair - bound boy she ’s leave behind on Earth ) , as well as those whose hang - ups are deep concealed , like Miller , who ’s haunted by a dead work party member he was forced to empty many military mission ago . Worst of all is Weir , who construct the Event Horizon and stay possessed with it , though his workaholic manner contributed to his wife ’s suicide , and gauge from her ghostly apparition , she ’s still mighty pissed about it .
Simply put , Event Horizon rule because it siphons its frights out of the troubled minds of its type . Even taking into report the cuts made to Anderson ’s original film , enough remains of those characters to make them a crew you handle about ( except Weir … he ’s just a weir - do ) . So what if it all feels a little familiar ? It ’s spooky , it has great production design , it ’s gruesome , and it features maybe the most honest reaction to supernatural threat in an outer - space movie ever : “ FUCK THIS SHIP ! ” No wonder it ’s become a furor classic , and one of our favorites in the genre .
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