Event Horizon


3/4

Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Joely Richardson, Kathleen Quinlan, Jason Isaacs, Richard T. Jones, Jack Noseworthy, Sean Pertwee

Rated R for Strong Violence/Gore, Language and Some Nudity

"Event Horizon" is a bleak and seriously spooky haunted house of horrors in space.  Sure, it steals from other movies ("Alien" in particular), but the main plot points and details are vastly different, so that's not much of a detriment.  That's a good thing, because the storytelling is more than a little uncertain.

Seven years ago, a spaceship called the "Event Horizon" went on a top-secret mission in an attempt to go faster than the speed of light.  The mission was a disaster, and the ship was lost…until now.  Earth has just received a signal from the ill-fated ship, and the search-and-rescue ship, the "Lewis and Clark" has been sent in to investigate.  But there is something aboard this ship that wasn't there before…

This movie is a dark and downright creepy horror show.  You want to be really creeped out?  Watch this movie.  The atmosphere is thick and hellishly scary.  This isn't your slasher-type scare.  No, this is something deeper and more disturbing.  If you want to know what Hell is like, this is it.

The acting is perfunctory.  That's not necessarily a bad thing in a movie like this.  This is a horror movie, so the only thing that matters is that we identify with the characters.  The actors accomplish this (barely), although they are still paper thin.  Still, we care about them and aren't just waiting around for the next one to be picked off.

Unfortunately, the film is unevenly paced, and that's a crucial element of a horror movie.  It's not ruinous to the film (the film is involving enough for it not to be too noticeable), but the film doesn't develop as well as it should.  The special effects vary as well.  I get that this was made nearly 15 years ago, and most of the effects hold up well, but there are exceptions (particularly in the slo-mo shots).

All in all, "Event Horizon" is a very, very spooky horror show.

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