Event Horizon – 1997 – 95 Mins
What’s it about?
In 2040, the starship Event Horizon disappeared on its maiden voyage, upon which it was set to test a radical new method of interstellar travel. Seven years later the ship returns, sending out a distress signal from its orbit of Neptune. Captain Miller is entrusted to recover the ship and discover what happened to it, bringing along with him Dr. Weir, the scientist responsible for the experimental gravity drive on board the Horizon. What they find is more than they bargained for…
In Review
Event Horizon has all the makings of a terrible movie. It was rushed through development, chunks of its budget were blown on special effects, and it was helmed by director Paul W.S. Anderson – best known for such classics as Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, and Alien vs. Predator. However in spite of all of this I can’t agree with critics in calling this a bad movie, because it isn’t. It’s certainly an unfortunate movie, but no matter how many problems were thrown at it, it still managed to endure and give us a movie enjoyable even on multiple viewings, an opinion I can only hope to sway you into believing.
Event Horizon is at its core a haunted house in space. You may recognise this description as the same being said for Alien upon its release – you’ll also notice a few other similarities to other films when viewing Event Horizon; such as The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and most notably Hellraiser. This is textbook Anderson filmmaking, though where Horizon differs from say, the later instalments of the Resident Evil franchise[1], these similarities can at least be pardoned due to some degree of creativity in their handling. The ship itself has some wonderful imagery and is nothing like the Nostromo, with both the exteriors and interiors taking inspiration from Notre Dam cathedral – the classiest Anderson lift ever made – and managing to translate that look into a sci-fi setting so perfectly that it works. There’s then the room in which the gravity drive is housed; the gravity drive itself is an impressive and intimidating sight to behold, but it’s the walls of the room that hold it, the claustrophobic engineering ducts that run between it, and the daunting walkway that leads into it that truly evokes the fear of the crew and the audience. Just as with Alien, a good sci-fi haunted house movie needs a good haunted house to work, and both Alien & Horizon offer that in their own individual ways.
A sci-fi haunted house also needs its victims, and in Horizon our victims are the crew of the rescue vessel Lewis and Clarke. Helming the mission is Captain Miller, a no-shit and deathly serious man, who keeps a level head throughout a respectable length of the movie – and even when he slips he’s quick to recover. It’s this no-shit attitude which clashes with that of Dr. Weir, a guest on his ship who has been ordered to go along with the recovery of the Horizon as it was his own gravity drive that sent the ship wherever it ended up venturing to and from. When events transpire that make it clear this is no longer a routine rescue mission, Miller is determined to destroy the Horizon, whereas Weir cannot let that happen, and both men stand their ground with increasingly angry exchanges of words. As the situation worsens, we also learn dark secrets from both mens’ pasts - secrets that, naturally, come back to haunt them onboard this ghost ship. Secrets and fears are never really touched upon outside of Miller and Weir, except for maybe Peters, though that’s not to say the rest of the crew don’t get some form of time to shine in this film. Sure these remaining characters may not get much in terms of character development, but in a horror movie there is more than one way to utilise your cast, and we get plenty of utilisation once the secrets of the ship are unveiled.
Is the film scary? I’d say partially. It has its moments, but this is a horror movie that relies more on its gore content than scares – though the gore content can be very uncomfortable. Legend has it that some members of the audiences fainted during test screenings, whether this is true or not is up to debate, but what we do know is that the executives of Paramount also present at these screenings were not happy with the graphic nature of the movie and demanded cuts, so this should give you an idea on how graphic the film can get at times. Even with those cuts made however, the final product is still very unsettling in places. One particular scene involves a member of the crew getting trapped in an air lock during decompression, without a spacesuit. The decompression is a painfully long ordeal, during which there is plenty of time to show the audience in great detail what happens to the human body during decompression in space (at least in Horizon’s universe) and it’s as horrific as you can imagine it being. When I list Hellraiser as an influence for this film[2], I do so because both it and Horizon use gore in similar vein; it’s not just a case of splattering one’s entrails across the scene, there’s a desire to make the viewer truly aware of how horrific the gore is, and what a painful and terrifying ordeal it must be for the victim.
It’s only in brief that I can do so much to recommend Event Horizon to you. It’s by no means a perfect movie, but it is still a competent film that should be enjoyed – providing you enjoy the types of film it wished to be. I dare say that under better circumstances it may have been better received, but even after all the hurdles that were put before it I don’t think that matters too much. Some films truly suffer from studio meddling and putdowns, but at least Horizon can come away saying it’s still a blast to view and review. The imagery is very impressive minus a few scenes that look their age now, though on the whole the exteriors and interiors of the Event Horizon look fantastic even today. If that isn’t enough, there’s at least a cast of familiar faces to take you on this journey, too.
Captain Miller is played by Lawrence Fishburne, a man perfect for the role of a hard-ass emotionless space captain given that Lawrence Fishburne is a man who cannot act and can only portray what he is – an arsehole. Dr. William Weir is played by Sam Neill, who did a fantastic job with his role, a genius inventor who is level-headed at first, before the terrors on board the Event Horizon begin take a hold of him. As someone who will always see Sam Neill as a fatherly dinosaur hunting hero from growing up watching Jurassic Park it was great seeing him take on such a contrasting role, of possibly the best character in the film. Half of the crew were played by British actors; unsurprising seeing the film was shot in the UK by a British director, though interestingly these actors have popped up in some big name films. Joely Richardson who played Starck is best known for playing Anita in the live-action 101 Dalmations, Jason Isaacs who played DJ is best known for his role as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series, and Sean Pertwee who played Smith has popped up in two of Scottish director Neil Marshall’s movies Dog Soldiers and Doomsday. Pertwee also has an impressive resume of videogame voice work, including Colonels in both Killzone one and two, Captain Saker in Fable III, and Peter Chamberlaine in Assassin’s Creed IV. The rest of the cast have been in a few other notable films, though I’d say you’re certainly looking at the cream of the crop here.
Director Paul Anderson, who turned down Mortal Kombat II, X-Men, X-Files, and Alien: Resurrection to make Horizon also did a great job with the movie, which some readers may find hard to believe given Anderson’s repertoire, but I must stress that seeing is believing. Compared the his other offerings, Horizon is a joy, and showcases some creativity he must have locked away somewhere, even if he did lay these ideas on the foundations of borrowed ones. At least in the case of Event Horizon Anderson did have an excuse to issue in response to the films’ critics, in that he had very little time to finish the film,[3] and the studio issued some last minute meddling for good measure. In total the film took ten months from start to release, and where most films should have at least ten weeks for editing, whereas Anderson only had four weeks, which led to a severely rough cut of the movie being presented to test audiences – running at two hours and ten minutes with unfinished special effects and bad sound mix. Paramount demanded the film be trimmed (with gore being the focus of much of these cuts), which Anderson was more than happy to agree to given he knew this cut was too long, but he was forced to cut it to one hour twenty-five minute, which he felt was now too short – so he requested he restore some of the gruesome scenes he was ordered to cut, and Paramount agreed. Following the release of the movie there were talks of releasing a director’s cut, but unfortunately much of the content they wished to use had been destroyed[4], leaving only the version of the film we know today. Is it a shame? In some respects, but at least we can enjoy what we have, something most films that fall victim to this kind of treatment are unable to have said for them.
I’m clearly not the only one who feels this way either. Despite its commercial and critical failings, Event Horizon gained a cult following via DVD sales, and has popped up in other popular culture by those who wish to pay tribute to this unfortunate flick. Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar explains the workings of a worm hole in an almost identical style to how Dr. Weir does to the crew of the Lewis and Clarke, Futurama sees the Event Horizon in a spaceship graveyard in the episode “Mobius Dick”, and the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode “Spacecadeuce” is one big homage to the film, ending with the line “Event Horizon with Lawrence Fishburne is airing at three – and I have never seen it.” Most incredibly of all though, the video game Dead Space seems to lift numerous ideas straight from Horizon, such as the rescue crew being sent to an unresponsive ship, the destruction of the rescue ship, and the general hellish goings-on the crew find on board. Perhaps it’s only fitting that Anderson finally got a taste of his own medicine!
Watch if You Liked
Hellraiser | Sunshine | The Shining | Pandorum
Sequels?
There was no sequel to Event Horizon and there most likely never will be. Even in a current climate where films are being given the reboot/soft-reboot treatment, I believe Horizon will never be on any studios’ radar. The best any fan of this film could hope for is a director’s cut, which we’ve already covered as something Anderson and Paramount would wish to do. Perhaps one day an intact copy of Andersons’ original cut will be found and released, but the chances of this are very, very slim.
Easy to Find?
You can pick up the DVD Special Edition for anywhere between £2-£4, and the Blu-Ray for about £8. There’s also a limited edition DVD release that comes in a fancy case shaped a bit like the ship for about £25, but as far as I can tell all released versions of the film contain the same special features and the same cut of the movie. The film can be streamed or downloaded from all your major online services too.
[1] Fans of the Resident Evil game series who saw the film series’ 4th installment Afterlife were somewhat horrified to discover Anderson had lifted a fight scene straight from Resident Evil 5 for the finale of his film.
[2] Fun Fact : Clive Baker was brought in for guidance during post production to get a similar vibe as Hellraiser, in fact the gravity drive was re-designed to model the Lemarchand's box in homage.
[3] A huge part in this was due to Paramount’s worries that Titanic wasn’t going to be released on time, and as the studios wanted a quick cash cow before this was released, Event Horizon was rushed through production to secure some money. So blame one film about a doomed ship for the failing of another film about a doomed ship.
[4][4] Anderson and his producer spent much time attempting to track down parts the original footage – the strangest of locations being within a Transylvanian salt mine!
Comments