An excellent science fiction film that suffered badly during the transition from the big screen to video.

Rating: 8/10 (28 August 2000)

When I saw Event Horizon in the theater I was terrified, and I loved it! However, when I first saw it in video, the larger than life quality that it once had was largely lost, and problems with the plot and the acting began to come through. I didn't notice (or care) before I saw it on video that there was no effort to describe what "the dark" was or where the ship had gone during the years it had been missing (the main goal of the expedition) or where Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill) wanted to take it at the end.

Jack Noseworthy, who I particularly liked in Breakdown, delivered a terrible performance, and Lawrence Fishburne was also pretty bad, but I have never really been a fan of his. There were also horrible discrepancies in the plot. What, for example, made the film's writers think that the audience would believe that a human being can float around in Neptune's atmosphere for a few seconds wearing nothing but a pair of pajamas and still survive. In ANY condition. I have found myself defending this movie to a lot of people, but there is no excuse in the world for that scene.

Despite all of the numerous problems that are present in Event Horizon, I still maintain that it is an entertaining science fiction movie and it provides several good thrills. However, in order to do it as much justice as possible, if you watch it on video, turn the volume up really really loud, turn off all of the lights, and the bigger the screen, the better.