Satan in Space!

Rating: 2/10 (27 June 2007)

EVENT HORIZON is one of the few films I've regretted seeing at the movies. It was an awful, cringe-worthy movie-going experience and like TOTAL WRECKALL, one of the many science-fiction films released in the 1990s that slowly but surely killed the possibilities of seeing intelligent sci-fi on the big screen. This film is dumber than a box of moon rocks. It follows the by then familiar formula: in the not so distant future, a bunch of astronauts (as expected, they're all "types") on a rescue mission in deep space to find a derelict empty spaceship with something terrifying on board. I've seen this story hundreds of times before in such films as ALIEN, THE BLACK HOLE or even going as far back as 1975 with a TV episode from SPACE 1999 called "Dragon's Domain". Remarkably, that episode, which was originally shown on TV for everyone to see, is more thought provoking, intelligent and gruesome than this $60 million big budget opus. You'd think that something made 22 years later, with a bigger resources and a cast of capable actors would have resulted with some signs of the genre evolving, progressing but nope, it's the opposite. EVENT HORIZON is a perfect example of a dying genre regressing into a complete moronic state.
The beginning WAS promising but that first impression quickly dissipated once the characters started dying, characters we hardly knew or cared about (again, they're just "types"), all of them butchered in some typically spectacular way, in order to hide the fact that the writing was shallow and the film needed something to prompt the audience from falling asleep or walking away in disappointment. The deaths, as gruesome as they are, amount to nothing because we don't care about the unpleasant crew or their plight. After enduring what seemed an eternity, when we finally arrive at the climax, what little credibility the film had was suddenly blown away because of the dumbest plot point in any science fiction story: blame it all on Satan!
Huh, Satan?!?!
What does Satan have to do with science fiction? What does a black hole have to do with hell? I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe anyone would be dumb enough to combine these incongruous genre elements in such an unconvincing way. Suddenly, PIGS IN SPACE looks brilliant and groundbreaking next to this turkey. Why would anyone go through the trouble of writing this, producing this, filming this, editing this and releasing this and have it all based on something as hokey as Satan? I mean, I could go to New Jersey to find the devil, nevermind traveling through space and time. Satan, the devil or hell are all earth based concepts and superstitions. They can be effective in horror films which take place on earth but not in a science-fiction film, certainly not this one.
EVENT HORIZON reminded me of two things. First, it reminded me of a film called THE EVIL(1978), which is about a group of people (all types) who go to a haunted house and are killed one by one by some supernatural presence which plays with their fears and such. At the film's climax, not unlike EH, Satan himself (played by greasy actor Victor Buono) is revealed to be the one responsible for the killings. That film is unintentionally funny and having ultra camp Buono play Satan was a bad idea. When I saw Buono with little horns I laughed out loud. In EVENT HORIZON, I expected to see Victor Buono appear out of nowhere and start chewing the scenery. The ending in EH is as bad and as unconvincing as the one in THE EVIL.
The second thing EVENT HORIZON reminded me of was the brilliant novel CHILDHOOD'S END by Arthur C. Clark. The plot twist about aliens who look like the devil was a stroke of genius by Clark, who clearly understands the significance of imagery, symbolism and superstition. The novel, though completely different than this film, is a great example of the level of intelligence science fiction can reach even if it deals with hokey imagery like Satan. It's a pity none of this level of intelligence is in evidence throughout this awful film.