Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14126 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-06-04
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL
• Original language: English, Latin
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 92 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Drawing from Andrei Tarkovsky's heady science fiction meditation Solaris by way of Alien and Hellraiser, this visually splendid but pulpy piece of science fiction schlock concerns a mission in the year 2047 to investigate the experimental American spaceship Event Horizon, which disappeared seven years previously and suddenly, out of nowhere, reappeared in the orbit of Neptune. Laurence Fishburne stars as mission commander Captain Miller and Sam Neill is Dr Weir, the scientist who designed the mystery ship. Miller's T-shirt-and army-green-clad crew of smart-talking pros finds a ship dead and deserted, but further investigations turn up blood, corpses, dismembered body parts, and a decidedly unearthly presence. It turns out that the ship is really a space-age haunted house where spooky (and obviously impossible) visions lure each of the crew members into situations they should know better than to enter. The ship is gorgeously designed, borrowing from the dark, organic look of Alien and adding the menacing touch of teeth sprouting from bulwark doors and clawlike spikes inexplicably shooting out of the engine room floor. Unfortunately the film is not nearly as inventive as the production design--it turns into a woefully inconsistent psychic monster movie that sacrifices mood for tepid shocks--but the special effects are topnotch, and ultimately the movie has a trashy B movie charm about it. --Sean Axmaker

Special Features
2.35 Anamorphic Wide Screen
DVD 9
Czech\German\Hungarian
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English German\Dolby Digital Surround Czech Hungarian
Dolby Digital 5.1
Dolby Digital Surround
Theatrical Trailer
Arabic\Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\German\Norwegian\Polish\Swedish\Turkish

Synopsis
In this eerie science-fiction ghost story, an astrophysicist (Sam Neill), haunted by the memory of his wife's suicide, joins a rescue mission to salvage his life's work: the Event Horizon, a prototype spacecraft capable of faster-than-light travel that has been missing for seven years. Their arrival triggers contact with something beyond human experience--and more dangerous than ever imaginable. Similar in plot to Andrei Tarkovsky's eponymous screen adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's science-fiction novel SOLARIS, EVENT HORIZON provides some truly potent moments in its often potent combination of horror and sci-fi.

Customer Reviews

An original and entertaining sci-fi horror
'Event Horizon' begins when a group of astronauts are sent into deep space to escort a legendary spacehip that has been missing for 7 years back to Earth. Once they get onto the ship they learn that the ship can travel from one point of the universe to another in an instant, breaking many rules of science and also unleashing a hellish evil onto the ship. One by one the group begin to go crazy with demons from the past taunting them to harm themselves and the others.

There are some great performances from Sam Neill and Lawrence Fishburn in this film with Neill portraying the insane scientist at the end, that is unlike anything I have seen him in before proving what a good actor he is. The special effects are top-notch for the time it was made (1997) and the space settings and ships are very detailed and believable. The story begins quite well but does go off the rails a little near to the end, but is still an exiting and entertaining sci-fi horror all the same. Although not the best of it's genre, with other great films like Sunshine and Alien about, this is still a worthwhile watch and is woth picking up if you can get it for a fiver.

Great idea, shame about the execution
A space ship that opens a portal to hell. Wow. What a fantastic idea for a film. You have so much you could be playing with there - the crew are all rational scientists, trapped billions of miles from home, and all this happens. I'd watch that. So I did.

But the film is pretty lousy. It's not scary (creepy at first, but that's it) and then it descends into pretty cheap schlock. Some of the design is a bit hooey - Laurence Fishburne looks like he has mobility difficulties while he's in that stupid hangy down chair - the dialogue clunks along and it's just all been seen before. Not in space, perhaps, but in the haunted house.

The idea remains fabulous, though, so I hope someone can work it up properly

A Sci-Fi Slasher
This movie offers such potential with a name as cool as "Event Horizon". It conjours thoughts of Black Holes, heavy-weight sci-fi and plausible impossibilities. The movie though focussed on the psyche and the strangeness of the mind. A previous reviewer has said a little of the Shining, but I'd say more of the Hellraiser. I feel that this movie is somewhat off message in Sci-Fi leaning far more to the slasher horror genre. Had the true nature of the movie been known prior to release I'm sure that the audiences would have comprised a different fan base, one more receptive to the offering.

If you like psychological slasher movies, you'll get a buzz from this, if you're looking for sci-fi you'll be disappointed. I'll give this movie three stars for Sci-Fi content and a resounding five chainsaws for gore.