In one of the special features on this new release, infamous director Paul W.S. Anderson said that he hopes Event Horizon will someday be like The Shining in that its initial lackluster reception would later be overturned by a strong following of film aficionados.

Unfortunately, that day has yet to come. Event Horizon has become the ultimate hate it or like it movie – people either can’t stand it because of its lame effects or cheap scares or casually enjoy the campy atmosphere and homages to old-fashioned horror movies. Few have yet to classify it as a great movie, but there are those – myself included – who find it a fun watch. Regardless, Paramount has found enough of a fan base to double-dip the movie in this new special edition.

Event Horizon follows a rescue team led by Captain Miller (Laurence Fishbourne) trying to establish what happened to the Event Horizon, the most technologically advanced space ship ever created. According to the ship’s designer (Sam Neill), the Horizon is capable of traveling to any point in any dimension. Of course, as any high-tech piece of space junk is wont to do, the ship brought back something evil. As the rescue crew find the gory remains of the previous crew and slowly themselves fall into states of hallucination, Captain Miller must destroy the ship before it drives everyone on board to madness. Unfortunately, the ship’s dedicated designer might have other plans.

At its core, Event Horizon is more The Haunting than Alien. It’s a haunted-house film in space, and is subject to all the problems with the genre. The scares are also a bit easy. Doors open and slam regularly, quick shots of horrible events; the atmosphere of dread does more for the film’s horror than the kill and torture scenes popular in more modern horror movies.

It’s a fun horror movie, if a bit lightweight. It’s an old-fashioned spook fest in which the mystery of who’ll die next is more fun than how they die. Character development isn’t great, but the majority of the crew is expendable, and it’s sufficient to know what they fear and how the ship exploits those fears. At the same time, the horror effects were low-budget in 1998 and look even worse now. Cheap CGI and cheap green-screen effects sorely stick out and do take away from some of the movie’s mystery.

Score: 7 out of 10

Source: http://bluray.ign.com/articles/940/940217p1.html

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