Review #258: Event Horizon (1997)

This review was originally written in October 2023.

Gabe's Horror Movie October Review #12 - Event Horizon (1997)

This sci-fi/horror film follows a spaceship crew sent to recover the Event Horizon, an experimental ship that used new technology to fold space and travel faster-than-light. On its maiden voyage, the Event Horizon disappeared without a trace, only to reappear derelict on the edge of the solar system seven years later. The protagonists go to retrieve the ship and investigate what went wrong, taking with them the creator of its experimental gravity engine, and what they find there causes them all to relive traumatic events of their past as they unravel the mystery of how the ship traveled (possibly literally) to hell and back.

Event Horizon is one of the greats, there's no other way to put it. The setting and atmosphere for this film are almost unmatched in the annals of horror history, the special effects (not counting the sparse CGI, which leaves something to be desired) are enough to make your skin crawl, and the pacing of this 90-minute film moves along at the perfect speed to keep you engaged until the very end. I remember hearing about the premise of this movie back when it came out, and even then it scared me; but the way the spookiness is introduced to the viewer gave me chills on this viewing. I don't want to spoil anything if I can help it, even stuff from early in the film, but I'll give this much in case anyone hasn't seen it: The protagonists have a recorded audio distress signal from the derelict Event Horizon. At first it sounds like just a bunch of noise, but it gets cleaned up and it's the sound of people screaming in pain, fear, and pleasure. And amidst all of the screams: a man's voice, speaking in latin. He seemingly says, "Save me."

Of course it should be noted that this movie has some incredibly disturbing imagery, though I do kind of feel like it's rather tame by today's standards. (I think stuff like Terrifier makes Event Horizon look like daytime TV, but not everyone might feel that way.) Allegedly there was a sequence of the film that had to be significantly cut down because there was no way it could make an R rating, but as far as I know there's never been a completely uncensored cut released. (Maybe it never will, that does kind of add to the allure of this film: "it was originally so perverse, some of the footage was deemed too intense to ever be shown to the public.") I think the version we got is fine, anything more gratuitous would be just that, gratuitous. As it is there's lots of disturbing imagery and violence, but it all serves the purpose of creating a truly dread-filled experience from beginning to end.

I think this is a fantastic film, marred only by some of the stereotypical tropes of big-budget action-adjacent movies. (There's a point near the beginning that bothered me: the scientist that invented the ship dismissively refuses to explain how it works to the soldiers accompanying him, saying it's too technical for them to understand. One of them says, "Why don't you try us," implying that they might be smart enough to understand it. Then when he does explain it, cue several characters making snide comments about "Uh, maybe try telling us in English this time." Why write your characters to show they might be smarter than you think, only to set up a joke about how dumb they are?) But apart from some minor examples, the characters are written VERY well, they all act believable given the situation, and there's some heroic and tragic moments scattered throughout. I will mention I noticed some surprising similarities with another movie I'm going to be watching later this month, but I'll go into detail when I get to that one.

If you haven't seen Event Horizon, go watch it now. Even if you think it might be too intense, I still recommend giving it a shot. It's informed and influenced countless horror films in the years since, and on top of that all, it's just a damn good movie.

Overall Rating: 10/10 Explosive Charges

Budget Trivia: Apparently, the rotational shot of the space station over Earth at the start of the film took nearly a third of the movie's visual effects budget!