Haunted house movie in space  has good bits and bad bits

Rating: Null/10 (6 July 2002)

When the space ship the Event Horizon returns, having gone missing, without it's crew a mission is sent to investigate. However the location of the ship is a mystery and strange things begin to happen on board. When more people begin to die and some begin to change character and hellish visions become rampant Captain Miller begins to suspect where the ship has been.
The debut of Paul Anderson as director in Shopping should have told everyone that here is a man who doesn't need a good plot  he only needs flashy visual style to cover the gaps. Mortal Kombat backed that up and Soldier showed that he can't always cover the gaps! Event Horizon falls somewhere in the middle. The plot and action is semi-lifted from various places. The space stuff seems like Alien, the haunted house stuff and horror is Hellraiser. That said it still has creepy bits and good bits.
The problem is that it doesn't all work and what you're left with is a very gory movie with lots of cool stuff happening visually but not much substance plot wise. The buildup is good but once it all starts going to hell (literally) in the second half and everyone stars dying, it just because style without bones.
The cast help. Neill is good but hams it up a it towards the end. Fishburne is great throughout and you can't help but like him  the rest of the film may be falling down towards the end but his parts are like stone  solid no matter what. The rest of the cast are OK but can't compare to either of the two lead men  especially Lawrence.
Overall this starts with some good atmosphere but later falls into gore without substance. However it does have it's good bits and Lawrence Fishburne makes the whole thing worth watching with a performance that holds the whole damn thing together.