Event Horizon
The Plot
The beautiful love-child of Alien and Hellraiser, Event Horizon showcases classic sci-fi tropes with a horror twist. After the crew of the rescue spaceship the Lewis and Clark are dispatched to respond to an emergency beacon from the long-missing experimental spaceship Event Horizon, no one—not even William Weir, the Event Horizon’s creator—is wholly certain what to expect. Weir reveals that the Event Horizon was the first ship to test a “gravity drive”, which creates a stabilized black hole to tear through space and time and create a wormhole for the ship to travel through. After its first test, the ship vanished; and no one knows where it went. The only clues the rescuers have is the distress signal; which is mostly unintelligible screaming. When they arrive at the ship itself, they find nothing but more mysteries; and a danger that not even Weird could anticipate.
The Breakdown
Event Horizon’s tagline was “infinite space, infinite terror” which seems important to mention here. I mean, most horror movie taglines are pretty atrocious; but in this case, the gleeful corniness showcases the movie’s vibe perfectly. It’s a movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously, yet goes all-out all the same; it’s here to have a good time and freak you the hell out. It perfectly straddles the line between camp and quality, so even as you’re laughing you’re still on the edge of your seat. It’s a great combination of sci-fi elements with haunted house themes, gruesome effects and glorious camp.
The Scare Factor
Though the more squeamish may well find Event Horizon to be a challenge, the fact that its rather dated means veteran horror fans likely won’t be frightened by it; but that doesn’t mean you won’t intensely enjoy it (and cringe at some of the gorier scenes all the same).