To hell and back

Rating: 6/10 (27 February 2006)

Event Horizon follows the crew of the rescue ship, "Lewis and Clark", as they embark on a mission to respond to a distress signal emitted by a ship that disappeared seven years ago, the Event Horizon. At the time it disappeared, the Event Horizon was testing out a new drive allowing it to create a wormhole for instantaneous travel. However, something went terrible wrong.
This is a rather good written film. All the elements to make a successful horror film is there and so are the characters. No, the story is not all too great, in fact if you think about it it is rather stupid and the characters could've been better, but all in all it could have been a lot worse. The only good thing about this story is that it's set on a space ship, in a locked environment. It is really not the story that is scary about this movie. Towards the end when the solution comes and there are a lot of story going on it actually starts to look more like an action movie. What makes this movie scary is the mood and the atmosphere.
The acting is OK. The characters are not great so you don't get this connection too them and the actors does a decent job in bringing them to life. Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill are too good leads and the others does a decent job as well.
When it comes to cinematography there are nothing special that stands out. It's all over good with some occasional cool shots, but you've seen them all before. There are nothing too great and original about them, but they are good and along with very good lightning they are an essential part of what creates the atmosphere witch makes this movie scary.
Something that needs to be given a lot of credit for this movie being as scary as it is, is the production design. The interior of the Event Horizon and also the "Clark" for that matter is excellent. It is creepy and good looking.
The third element besides cinematography and production design that creates the atmosphere and mood and makes this movie creepy is the music/sound design. The music is good and moody, but they also make the absence of music a powerful tool.
As for special effects they are good. The CGI is nothing groundbreaking. It's simply good looking, not too obvious and it does it's job.
What we have here is not a movie with a scary movie. It has a good amount of gore, but like The Thing it's the excellent atmosphere and mood that makes it scary. Don't pay too much attention to the story, it's not worth it. I'd recommend this one if you like a good horror film. I think you'll be in for a decent scare.