The ship's name held promise but the film fell short

Rating: 5/10 (3 September 2013)

I watched this after reading a Stephen Hawking book in which "event horizon" was described in terms of general relativity and black hole physics. But the hammering soundtrack in the opening credits warned me that this film probably wouldn't rise to the elegance of that concept. It had too many standard plot devices and was never really scary to me.
Here are some issues, starting with most annoying first:
1) You'd think that an advanced spaceship crew would be educated like today's astronauts, not blue collar types easily bored by the scientist's explanation of a "singularity" and other aspects of black hole travel. They'd send the best of the best on such a critical mission, not jive talkers and impatient drones. "Say it in plain English!" is ridiculously overused in movies and insults an intelligent audience. A real crew of that caliber would understand black holes well beyond his folded paper demo. I know it was done for the audience's sake, but still.
2) The steam-punk gravity drive and the general interior of the ship seemed deliberately designed to convey malice, not functionality. It's almost as if the ship was built as a haunted house. Why all the spikes in the doors that humans pass through? OSHA wouldn't allow such a ship to be built. The gravity drive seemed more like a medieval torture device than something modern engineering would come up with. I suppose all the spikes could be related to magnetism but it wasn't explained.
3) The blood in the ship's structure had no scientific context. It played like a ripoff of "The Shining." This movie was too big on "fi" and too small on "sci." They should have toned down the gore.
4) Technical aspects, like the guy in the airlock spewing that much blood and living, or the astronaut being propelled back toward the planet with his breathing pack seemed ludicrous. The electronics damage to the rescue ship seemed impossible to fix. It needed a lot more than skin patches. Why do so many movies show sparks flying from sophisticated instruments which are miraculously repaired in hours?
5) The premise that we'd already colonized the Moon by 2015 was ridiculously optimistic, even in 1997.
Still, it kept me entertained enough to see it through, so I gave it a neutral 5.
I'd recommend "Solaris" (2002) for a much better depiction of mentally conjured people, etc. The elements of that in "Event Horizon" were done in sledgehammer style, though the eyeless wife did give me a jolt.