The Horror Movie that could have been so much more

Rating: 2/10 (5 September 2001)

Event horizon is best described as the horror movie that could
have been so much more. With its cast, director of photography
and even art department.
The films story is basically deep space rescue of a lost
experimental ship. The script is excellent with great comments
and psychological impacting rhetoric. But the film looses in its
passing and similarity with many other films of the genre and other
horror movies.
The main similarities I see with this film is the Shinning. A living
ship that just enjoys twisting it inhabitants for the pleasure of it.
The idea of a living entity that resides in an inanimate object is
often seen but when visuals are clearly similar, it is a shame: the
visions of the little child running around, the whispers in the dark
and even the elevator with gallons of blood. Sam Neill's character,
a protagonist, even descends into insanity and becomes the
antagonist like Jack Nicholson by seeing twisted imagery and
flashbacks.
Another problem are its camera shots. Most of them remind you of
AlienÂ…Why you ask. Adrian Biddle a great cinematographer and one of my personal
favorites. But the director seems to ask him to place the camera in
the same positions as James Cameron had asked him for Aliens.
Even the `Gigeresque' ship make the movie look too much like it
belongs to the Alien SAGA.
Paul Anderson, the director of Mortal Kombat I and II, Soldier and
the upcoming Resident Evil, seemed more preoccupied with
shocking rather than shocking and scaring at the same time. He
uses extreme gore to try and scare the audience but instead it just
makes it look silly or disgusting rather than stylish. The script was
strong enough to scare without the gore. David Fincher proves with
Se7en that awful gore can be off screen and psychologically
disturb you more than actually seeing the atrocities.
I believe I read the best critique of the film in Toronto's Now
magazine, during the films run at the theatre. `The actors like
Fishburne, Quinlan and Neill all signed to make a different movie
that what was made.' I do not remember the critic's name but I
agree completely.