After seven long years, the missing spaceship Event Horizon has sent a terrifying distress call filled with agonizing screams and what sounds like utter chaos. Amidst the horrifying sounds, the Latin words “liberate me” (or “save me”) are heard.
A search-and-rescue team led by Captain Miller (The Matrix’s Laurence Fishburne in one of his patented “no bullshit” performances) is assigned to find the Event Horizon and investigate its seven-year whereabouts and see if any crew have survived. Along for the ride is Dr. Weir (Jurassic Park’s Sam Neill in a suitably sinister role, who sadly just passed away a month ago), who designed the Event Horizon and knows its intricacies. The Event Horizon is no ordinary ship that just happened to get lost in 2040, it was an experiment. Theoretically, the Event Horizon had the capability to “fold” space to instantly transport it to any destination without the need for years of travel, or any sort of hyper-speed. By, in essence, bringing the destination to them through the fold, the trip from one side of the galaxy to the other could be a matter of seconds.
However, in what was recorded as the worst known space disaster of its time, the Event Horizon disappeared orbiting Neptune and was never heard from again until now. Where could it have gone that it was unable to return for nearly a decade? Once aboard the Event Horizon, Miller and his crew very quickly discover that they are unimaginably unprepared for what the ship holds. The carnage of a massacre is splattered everywhere, and a gruesome video log shows the entire crew engaging in horrific torture, rape, mutilation, and cannibalism, among other startling atrocities. It becomes apparent that interdimensional travel isn’t limited to just the galaxy – the Event Horizon managed to transport its crew to Hell itself. And whatever it came back with is still on board.
Event Horizon (1997)
⭐️⭐️⭐️
What begins as Alien quickly and gruesomely descends into Hellraiser territory in Mortal Kombat director Paul W.S. Anderson’s Event Horizon, thanks to first-time screenwriter Philip Eisner’s nasty, gripping script. Poor marketing displayed it as a run-of-the-mill space thriller, presenting what amounted to vague psychological horror. But psychological horror was merely the tip of Even Horizon’s iceberg. Demonic possession, trauma, hellish hallucinations, self-mutilation and the infamous (and heavily edited for the MPAA) aforementioned “video log” sequence was like someone tipping over a basket of snakes at a tea party.
Paramount had no idea how to market a film that was basically Hellraiser in Space and skirted all mention of the film’s gruesome Satanic plot, thus letting it languish at the box office, coming in way below its multi-million-dollar budget. But like most films of its type, home video was its saving grace. Gorehounds flocked to the rental stores, and word of mouth quickly allowed Event Horizon to become a cult hit – something star Kurt Russell allegedly predicted would happen while consoling Anderson during the shoot of Soldier when the dismal box office figures came in (and he’d know, as nearly every box office failure he’s starred in is now considered unmitigated classics, like The Thing or Big Trouble in Little China).
Though there’s stylistic flourishes indicative of Anderson’s work (particularly techno music), but Event Horizon remains his most focused, frightening, and well-executed work before he dedicated a good decade to the Resident Evil franchise. Event Horizon still lurks out there, near Neptune, filled with rendered flesh, carnage, and secrets that are best not revealed from its journey into Hell and back. Waiting patiently for new viewers to discover chaos that “you won’t need eyes to see”.
HOME VIDEO
In the early days of DVD collecting, Event Horizon was one of the earliest reasons to buy a Region-Free player to get unique and exciting bonus features and packaging. While stateside, the initial 1998 DVD for Event Horizon had only a theatrical trailer as its sole supplement, a 2-Disc Special Edition was released in 2006 that featured a wide array of bonus material. But if you wanted a little something extra, a couple of months later, Paramount’s German distributor had all of the new bonus material, but the DVDs were housed in a cool “Pod Packaging” case that was limited to 5,000 copies. Ahhh, the old days of collectable showmanship.
But while nothing quite that lavish has happened since, Event Horizon has still enjoyed a healthy life on home video, with various releases and SteelBooks to celebrate its cult status. As far as bonus material is concerned though, Scream Factory’s 2021 Collector’s Edition is arguably the best collection of supplements – however, for those wondering, no, the infamous “Director’s Cut” that featured nearly 40 minutes of excised (and at times, far more gruesome) footage. Sadly, director Anderson has gone on record as to say that the footage in question hit the cutting room floor and was swept away, possibly never to be seen again. Still…hope to see the grislier, ultimate edition remains. Nevertheless, what we have is worth a deep dive for fans:
- NEW 4K from the original camera negative.
- (Archival) Commentary with Director Paul W.S. Anderson and Producer Jeremy Bolt
- ALL NEW Interview with Director Paul W.S. Anderson
- ALL NEW Interview with Writer Philip Eisner
- ALL NEW Interview with Actress Kathleen Quinlan
- ALL NEW Interview with Actor Jack Noseworthy
- ALL NEW Interview with Actor Peter Marinker
- ALL NEW Interview with Production Designer Joseph Bennett
- ALL NEW Interview with Set Decorator Crispian Sallis
- ALL NEW Interview with Production Manager Dusty Symonds
- ALL NEW Interview with Second Unit Director Robin Vidgeon
- ALL NEW Interview with Location Manager Derek Harrington
- ALL NEW Interview with Sound Designer Campbell Askew
- (Archival) The Making of Event Horizon
- Into the Jaws of Darkness
- The Body of the Beast
- Liberate Tutume Ex Infernis
- The Scale of Hell
- The Womb of Fear
- (Archival) The Point of No Return: The Filming of Event Horizon
- The Revolving Corridor
- The Crew Gathers
- Shooting Wire Work
- The Dark Inside
- (Archival) Secrets
- Deleted Briefing Scene (w/ Optional Director’s Commentary)
- Extended Medical Bay Scene
- Extended Burning Man Confrontation
- (Archival) The Unseen Event Horizon
- The Un-filmed Rescue Scene
- Conceptual Art
- (Archival) Theatrical Trailer
- (Archival) Video Trailer
- ALL NEW Reversible cover insert featuring newly commissioned artwork by Joel Robinson on one side, and the original theatrical one-sheet on the other.
- ALL NEW Limited Edition Slipcover featuring newly commissioned artwork by Joel Robinson
Literally hours of fun stuff to mine through, so get to exploring!
BITS ‘N’ PIECES
Traum-A-Meter:
4 out of 4
Despite heavy edits to obtain an MPAA rating, Event Horizon remains a gory, disturbing trip through space that features a lot of self-mutilation, impalements, cannibalism, and lots of other gruesome images to convey just how far into the depths of Hell the ship traveled to.
Today’s Jam: “Fly” by Sugar Ray, featuring Super Cat was the popular song the weekend Event Horizon was released, but all things considered, maybe keeping your feet on the ground for this one is the better idea.