Event Horizon (1997)

Starring Sam Neill, Lawrence Fishburne

Directed by Paul WS Anderson

Science Fiction / Horror

Rated R: Violence, Gore, Language, Brief Nudity

Ugh. I'm not even going to bother putting a synopsis in this review because this whole movie is a numbing experience. It starts out trying to be an edgy sci-fi/horror film in the vein of "Alien" or "The Black Hole" with flickering lights and jump scares that surprise no one. The characters have no dimension to them at all. In fact when a character wasn't onscreen I forgot about them almost entirely because they were so bland, even with Sam Neill's character. When your lead is so monotone that you forget all about him the minute he's not on screen, something has gone horribly wrong. This makes the systematic deaths of the crew by the evil spaceship utterly pointless, as they are just picked off, their demise complete devoid of meaning. Oh, and the spaceship is possessed by Satan, did I mention that?

Ultimately its a movie that just goes through the motions. The film tries to be edgy by giving the film a supernatural adversary, but without characters to react and gauge the severity of the situation it feels hollow. You don’t care who lives and who dies because there is no connection. The fake out ending is supposed to be shocking, but is really just eye rolling. When “The End” appears before the closing credits, I had to wonder if it didn’t originally say “You can leave now”, when it was shown in theaters. In fact I’m surprised this was shown in theaters because it really looks and feels like a SciFi Channel TV movie. Actually, that might have been a medium were I could get more involved, with the commercial break cliffhangers creating some sort of tension. Even with brief flashes of extreme gore, its just so dull that nothing affects you. Its like being stuck in a river of crap, if you go with the flow it'll be over sooner than if you try and struggle with it.

Final Score:

One Half out of Five. Horrible, avoid at all costs.