Review of Event Horizon (1997) by Phillip D — 17 May 2016

Event Horizon is a bit of a mixed bag. Heavily reliant on horror cliches and its science fiction predecessors, the film is very clearly an Anderson piece of work, with his defining camera work, unique pace of action and trademark horror presentation.

Unlike the venerable Resident Evil series, where little is expected and pure entertainment is the only bar to reach, Event Horizon has a bit of philosophy wrapped up in it and therefore demands a higher standard.

Achieving the standard is the spotty part however. The cast delivers acceptable, mostly average performances that draw heavily on the behaviors of better casts in previous films. The writing is solid as well, although Anderson's influence is clear in the script as well, with a number of ultra-cliched lines that muck up what is otherwise a pretty decent screenplay.

The world building is pretty awful at times but is excellent for most of the film. The entire gravity generator aspect was an impressive design, as was the organic nature of the Event Horizon ship itself.

When the film veers off into more specific and detailed set pieces, such as the corridor when Weir first sees visions of his wife or the stasis rooms, these get pretty generically spaceship looking. The horror aspect, with the pretty tasteful gore and horrific premise is actually pretty refreshing, getting away from the overused space monster premise.

That being said, very little exposition is ever given for whatever came through the black hole and although we know it's bad and although I hate exposition, it would have been nice to detail some more background and lay a few ground rules.

I understand the extensively disastrous process this film went through after shooting however and with that in mind, some of these gaps make more sense. Likewise, the cinematography is up and down, with good shots and bad shots, again all very similar to what has been seen before.

Overall, Event Horizon is still really watchable and in the moment, it doesn't feel like an average film. While it is troubling just derivative the movie is, it's entertaining in that campy 90's manner and certainly worth a watch.