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Event Horizon Movie Review

Event Horizon is a 1997 science fiction horror film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and starring Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill. It’s a very poor genre flick.

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“You know nothing. Hell is only a word.

The reality is much, much worse“

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Captain Miller and his team discover unbelievable secrets when they board the Event Horizon, a starship that had mysteriously disappeared during its maiden voyage, which puts their lives in danger. This movie was a box office bomb when it was released and it received mediocre reviews, but is now regarded as somewhat of a cult classic of the genre. I wholeheartedly disagree with the latter assessment as this is a giant mediocrity through and through.

When the movie started, it seemed to be going in the ‘Alien’ direction. It was a rip-off for sure, but as a huge fan of that particular franchise, I was looking forward to this pale imitation. But the second half veered into different direction, which made it more original, but much less satisfactory overall. It tried to be more a psychological horror than a monster one, but ‘Solaris’ this is not. It attempted to mimic that Tarkovsky classic, but failed miserably at it.

The movie has a solid cast, but they were all wasted on underdeveloped and boring characters. Laurence Fishburne was quite unlikable, but obviously solid as he always is. Sam Neill was very good, but his character was also dull. Others fared much worse as they were thoroughly forgettable. We never learn much about these people, making them disposable fodder.

Event Horizon looks and sounds great, there is no denying that. The effects were terrific for the time and the movie aged well and is still visually appealing. The production design is terrific, the ship looked great and the score was pretty solid. I just wished that we got more outdoors shots of Neptune and space itself.

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The movie in its second half devolved into a very boring psychological horror that conveniently for the budget refused to include any creatures, but just hallucinations. The result was a repetitious slog to sit through that lacked the sophistication to pull off those inner fears of its crew. Anderson has never been a good director.