The Drinker Recommends... Event Horizon

Event Horizon Review

The Critical Drinker recommends Event Horizon, the 1997 sci-fi horror film that flopped in theaters but later developed a cult following.

Premise

A rescue crew is sent to investigate a ship that vanished seven years earlier while testing an experimental gravity drive. The ship, the Event Horizon, has now reappeared near Neptune.

The rescue team finds it apparently intact but empty. When the drive activates, it damages their own ship, stranding them aboard the eerie vessel. Soon, strange sounds and visions torment the crew with their worst memories and fears.

Dr. Weir, the Event Horizon’s designer, initially tries to rationalize what is happening. The others grow increasingly convinced that the drive took the ship somewhere beyond their understanding. The situation spirals into deaths and gore, leading to a desperate attempt to escape before the drive activates again.

What Works

The Drinker praises the film’s central horror idea: the ship itself feels like a malevolent presence, rather than a monster the crew can simply fight or escape.

He also celebrates the production design. The Event Horizon resembles a Gothic cathedral in space, with imposing corridors, arches, and shadows that make it feel like a haunted house. The cast, he says, plays the story straight and makes the crew sympathetic. Sean Pertwee gets a standout moment as the blunt voice of the audience, essentially declaring that things are very, very wrong.

Criticisms and Trivia

The Drinker raises a few plot and design questions, including why the emergency explosives must be armed one at a time and why the crew has no quicker way to cross the ship. He also jokes about the incongruous late-’90s techno over the credits and wonders how the director of the Resident Evil movies also made this film.

He notes that the movie was heavily cut after test audiences and executives found the original version too extreme. The missing footage reportedly included some of the film’s most disturbing material, but was later lost after being stored in a Transylvanian salt mine.

Despite its flaws and troubled production, he calls the released film a tight, atmospheric, gory, and highly enjoyable sci-fi horror movie.

Personalities Mentioned

The Critical Drinker; Laurence Fishburne; Sam Neill; Kathleen Quinlan; Sean Pertwee; Jason Isaacs; and Joely Richardson.