Event Horizon (1997)
A haunted ship. A missing crew. An infinite evil.
It’s week six hundred and sixty six. I tried to find the most suitable movie for the occasion, but the pickings weren’t the strongest since the default logical things - like The Exorcist - have already been viewed and logged long ago. Of course, some might be slightly confused by the proclamation that this is the number it is, considering this is really only movie 513 - a far throw from what I’m claiming as far as the week number. The reason for this discrepancy stems from the fact that I started the weekly movie night long before I did logging these reviews to make me feel more productive having a weekly movie night. Really, this means I could technically give two moments of evil-themed events, but I tend to work off the week number as that’s when it all started (if I’m being nostalgic). Speaking of nostalgic, tonight’s movie is from the tail end of the 90’s from the guy that brought you the original Mortal Kombat movie and that Resident Evil movie franchise that kept getting worse as it went. Strap in for a trip to space-hell, it’s time to look for Event Horizon.
A ship got a new space-faring drive with the intent to allow it faster than light travel. Of course, this isn’t possibly, so they play it fast and loose by instead “side stepping” faster than light travel and instead opening a portal to slide through - in the classic multi-dimensional wormhole space/time travel pitch that’s used in countless media, usually described by folding a piece of paper in half and poking a hole through it to demonstrate to the non-science nerds. When it activated it’s drive, it straight up disappeared for many years, and it was officially covered up as “went and blew up” - except it just popped back up. A retrieval team has been sent out for search and rescue, as well as to bring the ship back, but when they arrive things start getting real weird. One could say hell-a weird.
Acting here is pretty good. It doesn’t particularly feel like anyone is explicitly chasing after awards here, but it feels like everyone is putting their backs into it and doing what they can to play their character the best they can. Sometimes, this leads to comic relief, sometimes it leads to character being a little bit annoying as they freak out about things - but it all feels pretty well done. It’s also safe to say that they are all playing quite well to their type, and most characters - particularly at least three of them - have a bit of history to play around with as the movie unfolds.
The characters aren’t quite as good as the actors are, but there’s at least a few with more to them than just the surface level. Having a ship, which effectively gets played up to be the largest “evil” character of the movie with a will of it’s own helps to bring out some of the nuance of the characters, particularly when things start getting spooky. Seeing how a character reacts under pressure with the actors pulling their weight makes for a good chemistry in most events, even though I think most would side with the crew in most instances as opposed to the scientist attached to the crew - but I would be lying if I didn’t think that was the point. Yes, you’ll get some Alien vibes and the likes from the crew sometimes, but it’s unfair to say it’s ripping on it as anything that has a well interacting crew would give off the vibes, so it’s less a comparison and more a compliment at that point. Three of the characters get some added backstory to help pump them up as characters, and really only one or two of the characters don’t feel like they get particularly utilized - which isn’t bad considering how many there are.
The crew
The Event Horizon (the ship itself) provides most the setting here - which directly contrasts the much more clean and comfortable Luis and Clarke ship of the crew. While some rooms - the bridge specifically - really throw out some Matrix vibes (which came out afterwards, by the way), especially with Fishburne in the command seat, it’s a nice mix of it’s own unique elements and that subtle nostalgic nod towards others. Meanwhile, on the Horizon, things look far more creepy and almost Enochian or Lovecraftian with the shapes and at times symbols and the likes floating around. It very much channels that Arkham Horror except in space, where things are beyond the understanding of folks - while at the same time also feeling quite a bit Hellraiser with it’s flashes of violence. Heck, you’d almost expect Doom Guy to pop out of a pod somewhere and just start punching things.
The costume department gets to have some fun - and not just because of the space suits (although largely because of that). We get a couple different sets to look at, and both are pretty cool. Of course, there’s also the various violent bits throughout the movie for the props and costumes and effects to get to have a bloody good time with - and for various reasons (the backstory to the making of this movie can be pretty interesting) a lot of it gets ripped down into very quick flashes on the screen. Sure, you could freeze frame it if you were weird or really just wanted to see the effort put into it, but leave it to be said there are plenty of things that would be home in a Hellraiser movie if they ever felt like someone wanted to amp them up a bit and throw more budget at them. The ships themselves - the models of them - look pretty dang good as well, which helps sell the whole package with the sets. With all of this praise being said, I will point out that it’s not all good. Some of the computer effects are quite a bit dated nowadays, and one might find it pretty easy to wonder why a floating bottle of water is sloshing around when there are “ice particles” floating everywhere - is it cold or not? Cold enough for a person to freeze but not a bottle of water? Awkward, but also not plot relevant at all.
Sound design is pretty good. Balancing is great, and the only time I didn’t understand what was being said is less because of balance and more just because I didn’t catch it. Background noises are great, and it has a lot of fun with it’s use of “spooky noises” including whispers, screams, and the old clanging objects and explosions. The credit’s song is pretty bumping as well - but as is typical of me none of the music stuck around with me after the movie. While it was going though, it all sounded good and fit in nicely.
Prepping for adventure
For a movie that’s a horror movie in space, it does pretty well. It could be better, but it could be far worse - and I can’t say that I really agree with the fact that move did as bad as it did when it hit theaters - IMDB is saying it’s worldwide gross is roughly about a third of it’s estimated budget. I know that science fiction in particular tends to suffer in theaters, and making it a science fiction horror to boot probably only further hurt it’s performance, but I’m guessing a lot of it was just the right crowd not finding it. Although I admit it’s not the greatest movie to ever exist, I feel like most parts that make it up are pretty solid - but if horror isn’t your thing, specifically the kind of horror that’s backed up with flashes of gruesome outcomes from a residency in a hell dimension - then I can’t see you really ever seeking this one out. That said, of the horror types that want a little bit of evil in space, it’s still a lot better than some of the franchise entries that went to space. A lot better.