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EVENT HORIZON is one of my favorite sci-fi horror movies. I saw it on a very cloudy August day at a 5 pm bargain matinee on
opening day. EVENT HORIZON starts off as a realistic sci-fi film before launching into a haunted house in space story. ALIEN
used the same approach of setting some the sci-fi before turning into a full throttle horror flick. Director Paul W.S. Anderson
was given free rein to cast and crew EVENT HORIZON. EVENT HORIZON features one of the best casts since ALIEN: Laurence Fishburne,
Sam Neill, Sean Pertwee, Jason Isaacs, Joely Richardson, and Kathleen Quinlan. Fishburne is Captain Miller who leads the crew
of the Coast Guard ship, Lewis and Clark, to travel out to Neptune on a mission to find out where the long missing Event Horizon
has been and rescue any survivors. Coming along with them is the designer of the ship, Dr. Weir (Sam Neill). The Event Horizon
was the first ship that could create black holes to travel to any point in the universe and Weir wants to know what went wrong
with her maiden voyage. Soon Miller's crew and Weir discover the ship went to Hell and didn't come back alone.
EVENT HORIZON is a fast movie that is over before you know it. It was finished in 10 months from green light to theaters.
I read of a longer cut that the studio wanted cut down due to a bad test screening. Hearing that Anderson wanted to put together
a longer cut of the film, I waited and hoped it would appear on DVD. Unfortunately most of the audio elements to the cut scenes
were missing and a few other scenes couldn't be found. Whether EVENT HORIZON one day has a new cut put together, it is Anderson's
best film as a director and the big thing that no one disagrees about (whether they hate or love the movie) is the fantastic
production design.
THE TRANSFER- The 4K transfer in an improvement over the blu-ray, but sometimes it is soft in the scenes where special
effects are in use. The bad news is the 4K transfer is only on the 4K UHD disc and it wasn't used to make a new blu-ray
transfer for the blu-ray like what was used for the Scream Factory Collector's Edition. However the old Paramount transfer
does have more bitrate than the Scream Factory blu-ray (take what you want from that info) and the Paramount blu-ray has subtitle
options for the extras where Scream Factory's edition does not.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
EXTRAS (carried over form the original blu-ray from Paramount)-
The audio commentary for the film with Director Paul W.S. Anderson and Producer Jeremy Bolt. This is the first time they
have seen the film in years and sometimes they don't say anything. They talk about the design of the sets, the production
of the film, and how they like the more extreme cut from the first test screening better (and how they wished they had more
time to edit EVENT HORIZON
THE MAKING OF EVENT HORIZON is a five part documentary (103 minutes):
Into The Jaws Of Darkness- How Paul Anderson and Jeremy Bolt got involved in Event Horizon, the pre-production process
of the film
The Body of the Beast- stories about the cast of EVENT HORIZON
Liberate Tutme Ex Infernis- covers principal photography and the prosthetic effects/ animatronic effects
The Scale To Hell- the digital effects work (400 digital effects shots)
The Womb of Fear- The first cut of EVENT HORIZON (130 minutes long) was put together in 4 weeks (he had agreed to deliver
a first cut in six weeks and he was doing second unit for the first two before starting) and was a disaster. The second test
was a week later. Incomplete deleted scenes are featured. Paul and Jeremy feel they could have put together a stronger cut
than the theatrical cut if they had more time. Paul, Jeremy, Jason Isaacs, and other crew members reflect on why the movie
is popular today.
Three deleted scenes (10 minutes) are found on the disc under the SECRETS section. Only the briefing room scene has an
audio track. All three scenes (including an incomplete alternate version of the ending) feature audio commentary with Paul
Anderson (it's optional for the briefing room scene). Paul would have shortened the briefing room scene if he left it in the
film and many of the elements for the film were found stored in a salt mine in Transylvania.
THE UNSEEN EVENT HORIZON has two sections (both with audio commentary by Paul Anderson): storyboards for the unfilmed
rescue scene that would have been the start of the film and it was cut for budget reasons (and many elements were incorporated
into other parts of the film) and early conceptual art before Production designer Joseph Bennett was hired.
THE POINT OF NO RETURN is a section of 4 featurettes that look into the filming of EVENT HORIZON with Paul's commentary
(from the rotating tunnel to wire work to Paul's talk about a cut scene with Weir's wife he couldn't find).
Theatrical trailer and home video trailer.
FINAL ANALYSIS: The only downside of the 4K release it doesn't include the previous Scream Factory extras, but the presentation
and covert art are fantastic (the art for this standard release is better than last year's 4K steelbook release in my opinion).
This review is (c)2-24-2023 David Blackwell and incorporates parts of an old review from 2006 and 2021. This review
cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com
EVENT HORIZON has no escape.
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