Event Horizon

 Year of Release:  1997

Director:  Paul W. S. Anderson

Screenplay:  Philip Eisner

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

Running Time:  92 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction, horror

In the year 2047, the rescue vessel Lois and Clark is on a mission to retrieve the experimental spacecraft Event Horizon which vanished on it's maiden voyage seven years previously and has suddenly reappeared above Neptune.  Upon investigation it turns out that the Event Horizon is intact, but the crew have been brutally massacred.  It soon becomes apparent that the Event Horizon's revolutionary new gravity drive which allows the ship to travel vast distances by using a sort of artificial black hole to bridge two points in space.  However, the ship has travelled further than was ever planned and has brought something back with it.

This gruesome blend of science-fiction with supernatural horror is an enjoyable slice of "B"-grade hokum.  very heavily influenced by Alien (1979), The Shining (1980) and Hellraiser (1987), as well as Don't Look Now (1973) and Solaris (1972).  The plentiful special effects haven't aged well, the storyline is very derivative and the dialogue is pretty cheesy, however it does have some impressive production design and strong performances from a solid cast.  The film had a difficult production history, was heavily cut by it's studio, and was a critical and commercial flop when it was first released in August 1997, however it has had something of a reappraisal since and is now a major cult film.  It's a consistently entertaining film, which moves quickly and never gets dull.  For some gory late night escapism, this really does the job.  

     Event Horizon