Event Horizon: a retrospective

Okay, i just saw the film again after the last time when it first came out i actually thought it wasn't too bad at all. For a 90s horror movie in space i thought it fit the era perfectly, good acting from a stellar cast, nice visuals, and an interesting storyline as well. Whilst not perfect by any means i did like the amount of effort put in by Mr Anderson himself to give us something different- wait, did i really say that? Yep, i have to admit, doing some research on the movie just now i realised that ol' Paulie isn't as useless as i thought. Like Mortal Kombat, Anderson also added some cool ideas into Event Horizon too, making it original and unique in some aspects. I was pleasantly surprised at how effective this film was and how much Anderson can bring to it once he sets his mind to it. Whilst i didn't think it was particularly great when i first saw it 10 years ago, watching it now was a different story entirely and i really got to admire it as a sort of classic of the era, and in the late 90s was something quite original. I'm glad i got to came back to the movie after so long and appreiciate it for what it is and what it tried to be, it's happened a lot where i re-watch movies after ages and understand what the director was trying to do- i kind of felt EH was blasted and dissmissed as just another loud horror movie when it came out but looking back it's quite a gem.

First there's the great cast (which in my view would be perfect for an Alien movie; Jason Isaacs, Sean Pertwee, Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neil and Joely Richardson would have been perfect had an Alien film happened in the 1990s instead of AR) along with the epic visuals which reminded me of Alien even more, especially the gravity dome chamber thingy. When i saw that i thought that maybe Anderson could have done a better job of AvP had the film been made in the 10 years ago with this kind of cast. The directing was fast-paced which made it entertaining for a movie like this which would typically be slow, making it a different kind of sci-fi space horror movie- one for the Sony PlayStation-cool mid-90s.

Then there's the music, i love techno music and Orbital is one of my favourite bands, and it was Anderson's idea to have them on the soundtrack but Paramount was against this so he was forced to use composer Micheal Kamen instead combined with Orbital, who only got a few tunes to mix. Whilst this is interesting i feel Orbital would have been better if they had the majority of the music here. The movie starts off some kick-ass music and ends with The Prodigy's excellent "Funky Sh!t", and the vibe that produces with the film works brilliantly it's a shame it wasn't like that all the way through. So i admire Anderson for having the idea of initially putting techno music in the movie as it would have produced a unique effect with he film.

-According to IMDB: The original script by Philip Eisner depicted the Event Horizon as more of a science lab for an unknown alien race, part of the reason why it disappeared for seven years. Anderson immediately discarded that idea, going for a "Haunted House in Outer Space" plot line.

Now i think that Anderson's haunted house plot line is way more effective than an unknown alien race, it makes EH seem more like Hellraiser in space which i love the idea of and it worked great (even more so than Hellraiser 4: Bloodline which actually IS Hellraiser in space!) so again i must admire Anderson for taking EH into the horror direction as it works well.

-According to IMDB the movie had to have 20 minutes of violent scenes cut, including a longer and more graphic "Visions of Hell" sequence as well as the film having more blood. This makes me a little pissed off as this is primarily a horror movie so it should have the scenes in there of the gore- and what i saw of it in the movie it looks awesome. Again Anderson made it really horrific but was forced to have it cut out, which makes me wonder how interesting his AVP would have been if he was allowed to do what he wanted. MK was considerable violent for a 15 movie and EH did as much as it could for an 18, AVP really should have been an 18 as well and then i would have been happy for Anderson to give us something along those lines considering he did well on EH.

Anyway i had to bring this to light that although i'm one of the first to bash Anderson because of how much i hated AVP (and i honestly HATED it), though from what i saw of EH (as well as MK which i love) shows me that the man is capable of doing things right as long as he has the freedom to do it- he didn't write EH but he directed it well, which again proves that it's his directing and input of ideas which can help make a better movie. He's not a lost cause after all.

As much as i hate Anderson i'm not going to refute a movie which has merit in it, and MK and EH both show me that he is capable of giving us some truly entertaining films if he doesn't get bitchslapped around by ignorant and arrogant studios. But's he doesn't stand up to them. It's odd- AVP and RE should have been great after MK and EH, but i just don't know what happened to him. He's got some talent that's for sure- it seems the studios are to blame here for hampering his vision and ingenuity, of which we have clearly seen that he does have.

So i gave Event Horizon 6.5/10, but it would have been more had the film been Anderson's full uncut vision.