Day #1
Event Horizon
(1997)
It’s 2047 and a distress signal was just received from spaceship Event Horizon: an experimental craft that disappeared without a trace after its initial launch 7 years earlier. A crew is sent to investigate, but they soon learn that some mysteries are better left unsolved.
Fright Factor:
1.5 / 5 Hellraisers in Space
Gore Factor:
3 / 5 OSHA Violations
Should you watch it?
Imagine
someone in the late 90s trying to blatantly and simultaneously rip
off both Solaris and Hellraiser. Congratulations! You
just imagined Event Horizon.
Nothing
in this movie makes any sense. For instance why did NASA hire Clive
Barker to do their interior decoration? Why are there live explosives
lining the corridors of a spacecraft? And, while we’re at it, why do said
explosives have convenient touchscreens that allow anyone to grab one
and set it to detonate without so much as a clearance code? More
importantly, why does no one in this movie ever shut up?
In its defense there
are some creepy images and ideas running around (albeit erratically) the movie, but the filmmakers seemed to think that was all they
needed to generate good Horror. Almost no attention is paid to
developing solid characters, creating an atmosphere [insert space
joke here], or moving the plot forward in a sensible manner.
The
only possible reason you have to watch this movie is that Laurence
Fishburne is in it. And bless his heart, that man does all that he
can to strap this film to his back and carry it forward, but the dead
weight was just too much for him.
Although
if you’re looking for a counterpoint argument I would recommend Joey
Comeau’s wonderful post on the film: “Logorrhea in Space: Event Horison (1997).” Joey generally has a more positive opinion of the
film’s strong points than I and his jokes about the film’s dialogue
are pitch perfect.
“Oh. My. God. What happened to your eyes?”
“Where we’re going, we won’t need eyes to see.”
“What are you talking about?”
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