I Finally Watched Event Horizon (and also wish I could unsee some things...)
We've lost too many good people recently. Dolly, Tim, and not that long ago, Sam Neill.
A recent rewatch of Possession in his honor got me thinking how I'd never gotten around to seeing one of his other bizarre, horrific outings; Event Horizon. As somebody who loves a good "we're in space and we're f*cked" kind of movie, I swiftly rectified this.
Firstly, let's address if Event Horizon is a 'good' movie or not. I'd say it both is and it isn't. On the one hand, it's absolute 90s schlock, very goofy and over-the-top (think lots of explosions and people being thrown around in slow-mo, backed by Looney Tunes-esque sound effects), on the other, it's an incredibly neat and frankly refreshing concept with even cooler set design.
Warning for
SPOILERS ahead...
Event Horizon isn't just an alien rip-off. What Paul W.S. Anderson (director of the 90s Mortal Kombat, another guilty pleasure of mine), brings to the table is the tale of a crew inevitably getting stranded on an inevitable distress-signal-pursuing rescue mission, but rather than getting picked off by an extraterrestrial beast, they are instead manipulated and corrupted by the ship itself, which is hell-bent on taking them to...well...hell.
Literally, hell. Which, as you can imagine, is where the more disturbing elements come in. Apparently there was an original cut that was significantly more graphic than what we got, but honestly, what we got is pretty gnarly. Blood orgies, blood eagles, blood, blood, blood.
Plenty of stuff around the eyes too. Hell, even the titular ship's architecture has some ocular theming, when it isn't giving evil Notre Dame-in-space vibes.
While it's rough around the edges at times, and I feel could have had a better climax (that final battle kinda had me cracking up), there are so many things I like about this film. The cinematography and interiors are genuinely very impressive at times, as said, the concept is cool as hell (har har) and freaky as f*ck.
However, if there's one thing I truly love about this movie, it's that I get an excuse to ogle Jason Isaacs (who plays D.J., the ship's doctor), and that's always a plus.
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