Personally I’m not a fan of horror films, and I especially dislike sci-fi horror films (Pandorum I’m looking at you, although that movie did have at least one very cool moment) but I’ve always had a soft-spot for Event Horizon, while I recognise its flaws and its rather rough around the edges special-effects wise these days its one of the very few movies to genuinely creep me out and leave a lasting impact.
At least unlike a certain recent movie which I won’t mention but is called Prometheus the crew were sympathetic and mostly likable and I at least genuinely cared what happened to them, whereas after a while I was pretty much watching Prometheus to see what new and interesting ways the crew of unlikable jerks could kill themselves off.
Anyway, I recently watched it again after not having viewed it in years and while it doesn’t have nearly the same effect as the first viewing I still liked it. I checked a few old threads re it on the straightdope and it seems to be a real love it or hate it movie, however a lot of people commented that they thought it had a great premise it never really fulfilled that potential.
So I’m genuinely wondering that starting from the movies basic premise (research vessel uses an experimental drive that inadvertantly opens a passage through Hell itself) what would you have done with it?
Several people mentioned that the events leading up to the movie Event Horizon itself would have made a better movie, while they have a point I’m not sure how a movie that would be basically entirely build-up to the main event with little afterwards but people back on Earth scratching their heads and wondering what went wrong would really work, although I can certainly see the potential.
The last third of the film sucks huge wet rocks. The iconic shot is the exploration ship nosing up to the “lost” ship, and the pullback showing how immense the latter is. That, and the gravity going back on and smashing things.
Extend the beginning by a half hour to show the start of the big ship’s mission, have a WTF/smash to black moment, pick up on the search mission and extend it, then turn the “portal to hell” part to a fifteen minute segment less full of schlocky BS.
Having Sam Neil NOT turn into an obvious knock-off of Doug Bradley’s Pinhead character from the Hellraiser movies would go a long way toward improving this film for me. That was the point where I went from somewhat disappointed by the way the movie was going to seriously irked.
IMO this movie is on the list for worst movies evah. But then again, I thought they were doing just fine without the freaking portal to hell. Yeah, just cut the last third and try again.
My blood pressure is rising just thinking about it. I want those minutes back! :smack:
Remove the supernatural elements. Make it so that people who travel using the experimental drive come back insane, not possessed. Maybe even some lingering radiation on the ship that makes people hallucinate. Skip the whole PUUUUUUUUUURE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL bit.
And lest anyone think I dislike this movie, I am as intimately horrified by it (warts and all) as almost anyone else on the planet. Here’s my personal experience with this film:
[QUOTE=me, years ago]
Dude, when Event Horizon came out, my roommate and best friend was manager of a local theater, and when new movies came out, he would get the reels and have to watch them a day or two before the actual theatrical release, just to make sure there were no physical defects in the film, etc. So he would have a mini-showing for employees and friends after the theater closed. When he got the reels for Event Horizon, we watched it at about 1:15AM on some random night when the last showing of Batman and Robin or some bullshit let out. There were like 9 of us in this huge theater built for 350 people, and all the lights were out in the lobby and hallways, and we spread out; nobody sitting within ten seats of anyone else. Now keep in mind that the previews and trailers had pitched Event Horizon as a pretty straightforward sci-fi flick, when in fact it was horrifying as fuck: Alien meets Hellraiser.
It scared me so bad that my balls retreated into my body cavity and didn’t re-emerge for three months. We went home and watched The Nutty Professor and Austin Powers back to back on DVD just because we were afraid to go to bed.
[/QUOTE]
I started a thread a few months ago about movies with bad reviews on rotten tomatoes that you genuinely like, and I can’t believe that I forgot Event Horizon. Love this goddamn movie despite it’s 24% on Rotten Tomatoes.
That was on TV about a year or so ago. I started watching it because it had Sam Neill, Jason Isaacs, and Sean Pertwee in it. Not too long after they got on the ship, though, I got a very “horror film” feeling from it, looked it up on the Web, and decided it wasn’t my cup of tea.
This definitely was a good movie gone awry. It started out creepy and evil and scary as hell, then the guy from Jurassic Park gouged his own eyes out and attacked Cowboy Curtis.
The only thing I would change is Laurence Fishburne’s personality. He had no emotions when he found out he was about to go to hell. Most people would be terrified.
Yeah, I don’t really understand the hate this movie receives, I don’t think it deserves it at all.
As for Fishburnes character, I think that at the very end he had resigned himself to what was about to happen and took a lot of satisfaction at the giant ‘fuck you’ of saving what remained of his crew. He looked pretty horrified after being shown the ‘visions of hell’ by Sam Neill’s character.
In addition there’s a rather telling early scene where he freaks out as he’s exploring the ship and a glove lands on him, I think that shows that while he’s playing the part of the taciturn and in control leader inside he’s just as spooked as everyone else. You can see his disgust and annoyance with himself afterwards at his slip, I imagine he made a vow to himself that it wouldn’t happen again, after all if the Captain is losing it what chance do the rest of the crew have?
That brings me to another point, I think the movie has at least a couple of moments of well done and very dark humour, for example Fishburnes completely expressionless look as he watches the horrific results of the gravity drive test, there’s a beat then, “We’re leaving”, also later, “What makes you think I’ll miss?”
I’ve also heard people say that the final scene (where the second-in-command Lieutenant Stark (?)) has a vision of Sam Neill’s character (who’s final form she never actually saw) shows that they didn’t escape at all, I don’t think this is quite right, I believe that Captain Miller really did save them and that they’re out of immediate danger as the rear of the ship and gravity drive is gone (the special effect used of it dropping away through the Gate is infinitely creepier and more impressive than the explosion effect used on initial cuts of the movie btw) but the front of the ship is still haunted by whatever has possessed it. The ship can still screw with them and they need to get off pronto but its a much weakened version of what they faced before.
If you showed the Event Horizon’s earlier mission you’d lose the impact of the first shot you mentioned though surely? I think it’s kind of like Aliens, in the director’s cut they showed the colony as a living thriving society but the effect was that much of the mystery and tension was actually drained, it was much more interesting to have the marines exploring the wrecked colony and they and the viewer wondering what happened to it.
I do think that an Event Horizon prequel showing the initial mission could be interesting if done correctly but as I mentioned in my O/P I’m not sure how they could approach that to make a functioning movie.
I’ve always held everything in the extended edition of Aliens (alright, you can have the extended sentry gun in action scene), is superfluous to the film and was right to be cut.
Sam Neil’s character acting with almost glee at the horror took me out of it somewhat.
It should have psychological drama rather than blood and guts horror. Likable characters being haunted by past sins but not able to wrap their heads around the fact that Hell is as close as it is. (ya know, scientists and all). If they showed them remembering the past sins, that would have helped. Like if we had a scene about Fishburne’s secret.
Oh, the old days.