Re: The Wing Kong Exchange
In the year 2047 a group of astronauts are sent to investigate and salvage the long lost starship "Event Horizon". The ship disappeared mysteriously 7 years before on its maiden voyage and with its return comes even more mystery as the crew of the "Lewis and Clark" discover the real truth behind its disappearance and something even more terrifying.
Event Horizon, released in 1997, is a film that I had not seen since that time. In fact, I clearly remember seeing it on the day of its release in the local theatre. Why do I remember it so clearly? Well folks, its because it was one of the scariest experiences of my life, and you tend to remember those. To make a long story short, some friends and I thought it would be a good idea to scarf down a bunch of mushrooms and check out this new sci-horror film that had just come out. Bad idea, as the combination of creepy visuals, jump scares and nasty audio effects proved to be way too much for our fragile little minds and nearly reduced all three of us to quivering piles of jelly. Luckily we escaped the theatre with our lives and vowed never to watch the film again, a vow I kept until this morning. I received a shipment of some other films that I’d ordered and this one somehow managed to make its way to me accidentally. So with great hesitation I tempted fate, popped it into the player….and realized drugs really do alter your perception of a film. It’s not that Event Horizon is bad, far from it, but it sure as hell wasn’t as scary as it was that fateful day in 1997. Actually, I’m glad I took the opportunity to check it out again, because there’s some creepy goodness going on in it for sure, and that’s something I know a lot of us can get behind.
â€Not exactly the first thing you want to see when boarding a ship.â€
Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (who had previously helmed the first Mortal Kombat film) and written by Phillip Eisner (who would go on to write The Mutant Chronicles), the film is more or less your standard sci-horror piece with the added element of a mystery story driving it forward. For the most part, Anderson’s direction is actually pretty good and though he’s certainly not opposed to indulging himself it never becomes a distraction. I’d say this is one of his better films but really, when you’ve direct such crapfests as AVP and Death Race that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Eisner’s script is pretty pedestrian, but the mystery elements he weaves into it work very well and had me guessing a couple of times. The fact that I really didn’t remember the film helped, and the script did enough to keep me engrossed as to what would happen next, so it did its job well. I’d complain about the usual cookie cutter characters that Eisner created, but thankfully the actors involved managed to rise above their stereotyped roles and bring forth a solid effort.
â€It doesn’t matter if you take the red pill or the blue pill this time.â€
Laurence Fishburne (don't call him Larry or he'll beat you like he beat Tina Turner) leads a very strong cast of distinct character actors here. While Fishburne was still a couple of years away from the role that would make him famous, he does a good job playing the reluctant leader of this rag-tag bunch of spacers that are tasked with "saving" the ship. Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) plays a slightly unhinged doctor, in fact the man who designed the ship in question, and does a great job with the role. He slowly descends into madness as the film progresses and by the end he is completely and totally over the top, though its in a good way. Support is lent from Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs, Jack Noseworthy, Sean Pertwee and Richard T. James, who has a chance to shine as ship handyman Cooper. In fact, James gets the lions share of comedic dialogue and does very well with it. I'd put him as my favourite character in the film, but the performance of Holley Chant as a vision of Neill's ex-wife (with no eyes) that he keeps seeing is easily the best character because of how creepy she is. Noseworthy in particular gets a chance to do some serious over-acting, but again its all good and seems to fit in perfectly with this film's style. The point here is that all the actors do good work with their rather bland characters, which really helps enhance the overall mood of the film. Considering the script is rather lacklustre, that's a very good thing indeed.
"If you're claustrophobic, stay the hell away from this film."
The ship itself is actually the true star of the film however, and easily manages to overshadow its human cast members throughout. First of all, the set design is impeccable and I can see a lot of love was put into creating this strangely beautiful yet completely insane looking machine. Anderson manages to use these sets to his advantage, creating a real claustrophobic atmosphere which really creeps out the viewer. On more than one occasion while watching I felt that there was something sneaking up behind me and no, it wasn't a flashback, the film's tone really does work that well. The idea that the ship is alive and is able to pick the greatest fears of its passengers to taunt them with is an interesting concept and while it doesn't always work I commend the efforts all the same. There's also an ongoing sub-plot involving a video that some of the passengers are trying to decode and let me just say that when they finally do there is some pretty gnarly stuff going on in it. Outside of that there's some cool scenes involving visuals aboard the ship (the core in particular is quite mesmerizing), a character decompressing in space and a ton of gore, definitely enough to please horror fiends everywhere. I also didn't mind the ending even if it was completely and totally predictable. Hey, sometimes endings like that work!
"Mushrooms + this = one hell of a trip."
Now that I've got through all the good I feel it only fair to warn you that there's also some bad here. I wasn't a huge fan of some of the sub-plot's involving the characters fears, in particular Fishburne's and Quinlan's. At the same time, I was also aggravated that not every cast member seemed to be effected by the ship. I mean really, would it have been that hard to add some fears onto the Cooper character? I guess the writer was so busy trying to figure out the next gruesome way to dispatch a crew member that he forgot the logic part of the equation. Bad plotting aside, there was a real over-emphasis on special effects from time to time, as is often the case with films like this. I think just a little more effort on the story and a little less on the effects would have done it wonders and would have resulted in a much better overall experience. That being said, its certainly not a horrible movie and as I said before, the acting manages to enhance it greatly. As a throwaway piece, its good for what it is, and I can certainly recommend it to anyone who likes sci-fi, horror or thrillers, as it does have a little bit of all those genres within. Plus the end credits roll out to "Funky Sh*t" by Prodigy, which is always a great tune to end a film on.
"I guess telling off the T-Rex wasn't such a good idea after all."
Event Horizon was shot on a budget of $50 million and only managed $26 million at the box office, which probably explains why there was never a sequel. Having to go up against films like Cop Land, Conspiracy Theory and Air Force One didn't help its chances of success, though that cannot fairly be used as an argument for why it didn't do well. I just think the sci-horror concept was a hard sell back in those days, unless of course you were selling to teenagers who wanted to drop mushrooms and trip out. Clearly there weren't enough of us around to propel it to greater financial profit, but at least I can sit here today and tell you that its definitely worth checking out if you're into hybrid film concepts, gore and the occasional boob shot. It's not going to blow you away and its not as scary as I once thought it was, but that doesn't mean its not a good distraction for 90 minutes. Take it that way and you'll probably enjoy it.
6/10
"Unfortunately DJ won't be joining us next time."