Movies
Event Horizon
“The third act is where EVENT HORIZON goes completely off the rails, much in the same way SUNSHINE did. It had this great, moody premise going for it and, instead of doing something interesting, writer Philip Eisner decided to be lazy and turn the whole affair into a by-the-numbers slasher. The gore is plentiful but it feels tacked on and used for lack of a better idea.”
Blu-ray Review
I first watched EVENT HORIZON back in 1998, right after its VHS debut. Sick with the flu, I rented a handful of films and sat myself down on the couch for a day of coughing, hacking, and, hopefully, entertainment. EVENT HORIZON was the first cassette I popped into my trusty VCR that morning and, as a 12-year-old, I felt traumatized when it was over. My experience with horror, at that point, was limited to a handful of Vincent Price films and a few episodes of MonsterVision, so I had never really seen anything with gore before. It was a shock to my system that caused me to hide under my blanket for the rest of the day, only to recant my harrowing experience to everyone at school the following week. 10 years and 2 home video formats later, I’ve just experienced EVENT HORIZON for the second time, on Blu-ray no less, and the only thing I have to say is, “This thing has a cult following? Really?”
In the year 2047, the EVENT HORIZON, one of the most technologically advanced spaceships ever built, has mysteriously reappeared after going missing for the last 7 years. The Lewis and Clark, helmed by Captain Miller (Lawrence Fishbourne), has been deployed to recover the vessel and discover where it went and what exactly happened. Along for the ride is his elite crew and the ship’s often pretentious designer, Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill). Once aboard the spacecraft, the crew members begin to have strange hallucinations and eventually come to the realization that when the EVENT HORIZON disappeared, it definitely didn’t go anywhere in our solar system.
Surprisingly, hack director Paul W.S. Anderson delivers a fairly solid first hour, with a creepy atmosphere in tow, even if it does seem a bit familiar and unoriginal. Anderson shows his love for Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror classic ALIEN by modeling the EVENT HORIZON after the Nostromo. Being the “haunted house” of the film, the ship becomes the most interesting character, by way of well-done set designs and its ability to exploit the fears of the Lewis and Clark’s crew. The leads are adequate when they aren’t chewing the scenery to pieces; however, the secondary cast is obviously nothing but cannon fodder from the get-go, so it’s hard to invest anything in them.
The third act is where EVENT HORIZON goes completely off the rails, much in the same way SUNSHINE did. It had this great, moody premise going for it and, instead of doing something interesting, writer Philip Eisner (who also wrote the legendary FIRESTARTER 2 and THE MUTANT CHRONICLES) decided to be lazy and turn the whole affair into a by-the-numbers slasher. The gore is plentiful but it feels tacked on and used for lack of a better idea.
Paramount’s Blu-ray boasts a 1080p transfer that is adequate at best. Colors are richer and details are crisper but there is a lot of grain throughout, especially during the dark, hazy scenes in the EVENT HORIZON. On top of that, there are also a few instances where artefacts become distracting. I can’t say this isn’t the best the film has ever looked but there could have been a lot more done to make it up to par with the rest of Paramount’s high-definition catalogue. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track follows in the transfer’s footsteps, being the best out there but not exactly great. There are, at least, two sequences where a significant decrease in the dialogue’s volume occurs, causing the character’s discussion to be somewhat inaudible. The ship’s sound effects seem distant from everything in the forefront of the scene, never really giving you the sense that you’re on the ship and in the middle of the action (which is what a lossless audio track is suppose to do). What’s most frustrating about this disc is that Paramount, who is usually great about mastering their bonus materials in 1080p, only provides a trailer in HD. Granted, they did port over all the extras from the 2-disc release (Paramount rarely gives any of their films a 2-disc release), but there are no HD exclusives, nor does the overall treatment of the disc ever feel like anything but a quick cash-in.
Special Features
Commentary – Although Anderson and Bolt do mention a few things they don’t like about the film, the pair pat themselves on the back far more than they should have. Anderson gives a lot of insight into the production of EVENT HORIZON, going as far as to point out some of the changes made to the film after the first test screening, while Bolt comes off as childish, cracking jokes and reacting to the jump scares on-screen. For fans, it’s a perfectly acceptable track, even if its content overlaps quite a bit with the other supplementals on the disc.
The Making of Event Horizon (01:43:01) – Split into five parts (Into the Jaws of Darkness, The Body of the Beast, Liberate Tutume Ex Infernis, The Scale to Hell, and The Womb of Fear) and longer than the actual film, this making-of is basically an expanded version of the commentary that gets really in-depth about casting, the use of special effects and the cuts made to the film. Some of the cut scenes sound soul-crushingly gory, which makes me curious and slightly glad they didn’t make it into the final film at the same time. There is a lack of behind-the-scenes footage and most of the documentary is talking heads explaining things without giving any sort of visual representation of the topic at hand.
The Point of No Return: The Filming of Event Horizon (08:13) – All the behind-the-scenes footage was crammed in here, with Anderson narrating. It acts as a crash course in filmmaking, with the infamous director talking about the creative process behind several scenes.
Secrets (10:03) – Three deleted/extended scenes, with optional commentary by Anderson. The footage is of a lower quality of resolution, but it gives us a clue as to what EVENT HORIZON was like before the first round of cuts were made.
The Unseen Event Horizon (6:49) – A series of sketches and various pieces of concept art, a lot of it never making its way into any version of the film.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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