Event Horizon

Event Horizon, released in 1997 is a sci-fi horror film starring Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill (famous for his roll in Jurassic Park), and Kathleen Quinlan. The film is about a rescue crew who is sent to salvage the wreckage of the lost ship Event Horizon, and to save any surivors if there are any. This film is best described as a haunted house in space. The Event Horizon had passed into another demension and had suffered a very shocking fate, before the rescue team found it.

The film was originally much longer, but they were forced to cut a lot out of it due to a long run time, and the fact that some of the gore and horror scenes were too shocking for the test audience, some of which who fainted when they saw the graphic images of the scenes. A friend of mine described the clips that were left in as Lovecraftian porn, and that is pretty fair. The scenes that remain from "the bloody orgy" that was cut, are in fact some of the most disturbing scenes in a film, and from what I have heard the cut scenes are even worse. Some of the scenes were so graphic that adult film actors were used to do the sex scenes. Even with those scenes cut out the film is still quite gory, and definitely a bit shocking for some audiences.

The film is a beautiful sci-fi horror film, it has a great claustrophobic feel to it. It creates this sense of inescapable terror, very effectively. The film uses the same concept as in films like The Haunting, where the "monster" in the film is unseen and it is left to the viewers imagination, which is a Lovecraftian style of horror writing. The Ship in the film had gone to a hellish dimension, and had gained an evil sentience about it. The ship is gathering the rescue crew to turn them into its new crew and to torture them in a most hellish way, which we see very quick glimpses of. The film has great effects, that work really well, it isn't overly CGI looking, which is refreshing, especially in the late 90s, many of the effects are practical, especially in the "blood orgy" scene, which we see very quick and brief flashes of. This film also has a fast pace to it, almost feeling rushed, which makes since considering how it was cut so much to give it that reduced run-time and reduce the gore factor.

I love the cast of the film. Laurence Fishbourne does a great job as the captain of the rescue crew, he is a strong pragmatic captain, and is a great force of reason. I enjoyed Richard T. Jones, as Cooper, he provides a needed light-hearted humour that the film needed to give it some balance. But the real star here would be Sam Neill, as Dr. Weir. Dr Weir is the man who designed the Event Horizon, and who was sent to look over the mission to save the ship he designed. But Dr Weir has a much more important role to play, and holy fuck does he play it well. I feel like he was much better here than in Jurassic Park, I was really impressed how well he played his character in this film.

Event Horizon, was a box office disaster for Paramount Pictures, falling far short of it's production budget. Not only was it a box office flop, but it was almost universally hated by the critics. The film however saw a lot of success in the rental and home video market, and has become a true cult classic. My friends who I've talked to about this film seem to love it as much as I do, but if you look on sites like Rotten Tomatoes this film has a very low score. This is an examples of where the film critics and I strongly disagree. I don't know why this film failed do well in the cinema, because it is a well crafted film, with a great story, and honestly looks really good, without being weighed down by cheap CGI effects like so many sci-fi films seem to suffer from. This film is as good now as when I first saw it years ago. This is a film that only suffers from not having more gore, and those deleted scenes restored. The director Paul W.S. Anderson gave us the Mortal Combat film before this, and afterwards would go on to film movies in the Resident Evil series. With this film he wanted to create an R Rated sci-fi horror film, and honestly that is what he accomplished. I honestly can't say much negative about this film, I have always loved it, it is what I want in a sci-fi horror film.

The deleted scenes sadly were not properly stored and were lost forever, and the director said that a directors cut would not be possible. There is rumour that there is an original VHS tape out there that has the original scenes in their entirety, but there is no proof that they are there, nor that they are usable. This is unfortunate, but after the box office failure of the film, there was no reason that anyone could see to preserve the deleted scenes, and well they were poorly stored and lost forever. Maybe this rumoured VHS tape will actually reveal the missing scenes, but we may never know for sure. I will say this based on what is left in the film, the deleted scenes offer the possibility of being some of the most disturbing scenes in a big budget horror film.

Would I recommend this film? Yes, however it is definitely not something that is suitable for all ages, and some kids should probably watch it with their parents, because I am not kidding when I say that this film might give you nightmares. But this is a great sci-fi horror film, and has become a great cult classic. I definitely recommend checking out this amazing film, don't let the critics convince you that this is a bad film, because it is one of my favourite sci-fi horror films, and I highly recommend it. Also interestingly enough, theoretically the science is valid in the concepts of the black hole ship drive, and the inter-dimensional travel. According to some theories, this actually holds up. So if you find a copy of this film, I recommend checking out, but maybe keep the lights on for this one, and if you are squeamish you might have to look away in parts.