Movie Night! 'Event Horizon' (1997)



So Facebook has been throwing me links to various sites telling me that we're a step closer to seeing the full director's cut of 'Event Horizon'. I'm firmly in the 'I'll believe it when I see it but I don't think we'll ever see it' camp, it's been years now and surely if the footage is there then we would have seen it by now... or would we? I think we would have done and as much as I'd love to see 'Event Horizon' as it was meant to be seen (because I'm a total gorehound so of course I want to see a starship crew tear itself to pieces) I don't think it's going to happen.
What all these links did give me though was the perfect excuse to sit down, last night, and watch 'Event Horizon' again. Yesterday was one of those days (in a good way but it threw me mentally and I couldn't get anything done afterwards) so I knew that the only way to round it off was to watch a favourite film of mine. There, I said it. 'Event Horizon' is a favourite of mine (so don't expect me to be impartial, although I will try) so lets get on with things and have a little chat about it...

In 2040, the starship 'Event Horizon' disappeared as it was about to test its gravity drive on a maiden voyage to Proxima Centauri. Seven years later and the 'Event Horizon' is broadcasting an SOS signal, having reappeared (as mysteriously as it disappeared) in the orbit of Neptune.
The crew of the rescue ship 'Lewis and Clark', along with Dr. Weir, are dispatched to investigate the 'Event Horizon' and rescue any survivors. What they will find instead is a ship that brought something back with it, something that is looking for a new crew for its next voyage into the dark...

I saw 'Event Horizon' at the cinema way back in 1997, I snuck my fifteen year old youngest brother into the viewing and we were both blown away at how intense the film was and how it just didn't hold back at all. Twenty three years on and I feel exactly the same. I can't remember how many times I've seen this film but there are still moments (even now) where I can't look at the screen, even though I know what is going to happen. I'm looking at you 'scene where Dr Weir crawls through the maintenance tunnels and encounters his dead wife'...

'Event Horizon' is a genuinely unsettling and scary film, even in it's heavily edited form (yeah, I really wish I could see the full version). Not only is the tension drawn out to almost breaking point, you never know if you're going to be hit with a massive jump scare or something extremely bloody. You can see the cracks, where a little more time for editing wouldn't have gone amiss, but 'Event Horizon' remains incredibly watchable not only for the promise of mayhem but the way in which it is delivered, really ramping up the terror.

The set is just superb; think 'dark and brooding spaceship orbitting a dark and brooding planet' and you're there, its' just right for this film. The inside of the 'Event Horizon' feels appropriately claustrophobic and the cast play off this brilliantly. It's all about Sam Neill and his portrayal of a man falling into madness and finding something there waiting for him... Neill has all the best lines ('where we're going, we won't need eyes to see...') and turns on the evil like you wouldn't believe. Laurence Fishburne's 'Captain Miller' is a little too stoic, for his character to really shine, but when the action heats up (no pun intended, unless you thought it was funny, then...) he really comes into his own. Joely Richardson's 'Lieutenant Starck' is notable as the only character who manages to keep it together while everything is going to hell (literally at one point). You can't blame her for freaking out right at the end (I would have done exactly the same).

If you're after some horror and you haven't already watched 'Event Horizon' then I thoroughly recommend you give it a go. It's a good mixture of chilling horror with some nice action set pieces that break up the relentless horror at just the right times. You go and watch it, I'll be over here waiting for further news of a reworked re-release (look, I'm allowed to dream...)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

‘The Long and Hungry Road’ – Adrian Tchaikovsky (Black Library)

Image
After not finishing ‘Witchbringer’ (not the book’s fault, I still think it could be worth your time), I thought I’d change pace a little and go for a short, sharp burst of something instead. Something that would blow a few cobwebs away and wake me up a bit :o) Now in my experience, there’s nothing shorter and sharper than a Warhammer short story so that was the direction of my reading taken care of. And as far as the focus went… I’ve read a few Warhammer tales, in my time, but I’ve never read a tale that looks at the events of the 41st Millennium through the eyes of the rapacious Tyranids. So when I saw ‘The Long and Hungry Road’ on Amazon, it pretty much chose itself. To face a Tyranid invasion is a waking nightmare. The skies darken with spores, your mind echoes with alien screeches, and countless weapon-organisms descend upon you with razor teeth and claws. How much greater would your horror be, to realise that the hive ship above thinks nothing of your fate – that it crushes you
Read more

'Mad God' (2021)

Image
It's that time again where Youtube throws me a 'Shudder' advert and I think to myself, 'I'm paying five quid a month for this, I really should watch something, lets give it a go...'   This time round, 'It' was the film 'Mad God' and the trailer was this mad batshit crazy shot of stop-motion horror that was over before I'd had a chance to get my head round it; leaving me pretty unsettled but with no clear idea just why that was... That's all I need sometimes, I was in... It's almost an hour later and, damn, that was grim, bleak and... What the hell just happened? A corroded diving bell descends amidst a ruined city and the Assassin emerges from it to explore a labyrinth of bizarre landscapes inhabited by freakish denizens. That is about all I can tell you about 'Mad God' and that's only because I had a quick look on IMDB and that was all IMDB could tell me... 'Mad God' is any number of things but it's not
Read more

‘Worms of the Earth’ – Robert E. Howard.

Image
Page Count: 27 Pages I have a copy of this on my shelf and the plan was to pick it up for a read on the way into work this morning. Well, that was the plan but I was half asleep, leaving the house, and totally forgot… No matter though, that’s what the Kindle app is for (although if I’d been a little more awake, I’d have read it off Project Gutenberg instead, you can find ‘Worms of the Earth’ Here ). 99p later and my ‘commute reading’ was secured 😉 I always seem to fall into the trap of just reading ‘Conan’ stuff whenever I fancy reading a little Howard. Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just that there’s a lot of his other stories out there that are more than worth your time when you come across them. ‘Worms of the Earth’ is very much one of those tales but you knew that already, didn’t you? You didn’t? You should do something about that, take it from me… After witnessing one of his subjects die at the hands of Roman governor Titus Sulla, Bran Mak Morn vows vengeance on Sulla but at w
Read more