Creepy to then N-th degree...

Rating: 5/10 (7 February 2002)

Not many people are fans of Sam Neill's work, I, on the hand enjoy his suspicious looks and pauses in dialogue. I enjoy the way he plays with the lines he is given rather than just blurting them out like some actors (Keanu Reeves, for instance). And his work in Event Horizon is right up there with some of his best films. In fact, the acting is pretty well in this movie overall, it is not Academy award material but not everything has to be. Laurence Fishbourne walks around with something stuck up his butt as his character seems to lack any human characteristics, but everyone else did a great job concidering what they were given.
The only lacking thing in the movie was the dialogue itself. The story was great, but the dialogue seemed forced and incoherent. A lot of useless talk to fill the time between the tense moments, and too much yelling when those moments come.
As I noted the story is really good, it offers a lot of bone chilling scares and understandable, yet unpredictable plot twists. For being in a far off time and place, and dealing with difficult ideas, every thing was clear, and better yet it seemed to run pretty smoothly, rather than choppy like some scary movies can get as they try to move from one tense moment to the next (Any one of the Jason movies, or Children Under the Stairs (Ack! I hate even saying that name!)).
The BEST part of the film seeing as it nearly knocked my socks off, was the technical aspects. Even many of the elements on the Event Horizon seemed to reappear in the Matrix ship, and everything seemed really realistic even though it was the future (unlike Impostor). The sound effects were really great, it is hard to find a movie these days where sound effects are used in a way to enhance the story, rather than just explain it. Like a good cinematography, sound effects can totally enhance the story if they are used correctly. In this movie they are spectacular! They bring the tenseness to a whole new level usually missed in horror movies. Definitely worth seeing if you want to try out that new surround sound system you just bought!
CONCLUSION: I would see it once, then again after a long while so you can forget the scary parts. Also, without a good surround sound system this film may seem a little lacking, but worth seeing once.