Hell In Space
Event Horizon Unevenly Combines Horror and Science Fiction

The opening shot of Event Horizon -- like much of the movie -- is a feast for the senses. A spaceship looms over Neptune, the roaring (in space?) of its engines playing hell with the bass end of the theater's sound system. It is an amazing shot and immediately raised my expectations for the movie.

Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is not nearly as impressive. While the story starts out interestingly enough, and while there are a couple of exceptional performances, the movie fails to be little more than a Hollywood gore-fest set in outer space.

Event Horizon tries to be "hard" science fiction. That is, they try to explain in very realistic terms how and why this story could really be taking place. There are no transporters, sub-space communication, or medical magic in this world. In addition, they also dispell a couple of highly accepted myths about the effects of outer space on the human body. Yet, in this very real setting the audience is expected to accept as scientific fact the existance of a faster-than-light "gravity drive" harnessing the power of a black hole. Of course, some of the movie's characters have a hard time understanding it, too -- adding to the realism.

The movie begins with a list of milestones in humanity's future exploration of space. In the year 2040, a space vessel called the Event Horizon disappeared near Neptune. All hands lost. One of the greatest disasters in space exploration. The story then jumps forward seven years as the crew of the search and rescue vessel Lewis & Clark are called in for a top secret mission. The veteran crew, led by the straight-arrow Captain Miller (played superbly by Lawrence Fishburne), is a rag-tag collection of science fiction clichés ranging from the overconfident pilot Smith to the young (soon to be toast) engineer Justin. Only a stranger onboard, Dr. Weir (Sam Neil), knows the purpose of the ship's mission: to answer a beacon eminating from Neptune. A message from the Event Horizon.

Of course, none of the crew believes Dr. Weir because they (like all people) had believed the official story that the ship had blown up. Little did they know the Event Horizon had been on a top secret mission of its own: to test Dr. Weir's new gravity drive and travel to the distant stars. Once they find the Event Horizon, the crew of the Lewis & Clark must attempt to find out what happened to the crew and why it had taken seven years to return (a question they never really answer).

Let me pause here for a minute and say that if you -- or any of your family -- should encounter a black hole (recognizable for its black, featureless, spherical surface) DO NOT under any circumstances attempt to touch it. That would be a really stupid thing to do.

Evidently our young crewman Justin knows less science than an eight year-old after watching Bill Nye, the Science Guy. Confronted with an engine room he knows nothing about, he walks right up to the activated drive which turns into a small singularity (a black hole, in layman's terms). Once he touches the heart of the gravity drive he gets sucked in. A ripple effect pours through the hatchway knocking everything around and damaging the Lewis & Clark which is docked to the Event Horizon. When Justin is pulled out, he is catatonic and expected to stay that way.

Soon all manner of weird things begin to happen on the ship. The venerable Dr. Weir insists that nothing on the ship could be causing these strange hallucinations, but Captain Miller is unconvinced. He wants to get out, and get out fast. Of course, the Lewis & Clark needs to be repaired first. From then on, the majority of the movie involves scary music, loud noises, unexpected surprises, and lightning effects. No, there's no lightning in space; the ship is stuck in a low planetary orbit over Neptune.

By the end of the movie, the story has degraded to the freakish horror seen in the Hellraiser series, but with less visuals. In addition, the explanations for these events are as hollow as the heart of the movie itself. Using only vague references to other dimensions, chaos, and Hell, the script leaves the audience to fill in most of the gaps.

Aside from Hellrasier, this movie also borrows heavily from such films as Aliens, Forbidden Planet, and 2010: The Year We Make Contact. It fails, however, to provide anything new. This film will best be remembered as an amusing little science/horror flick which should probably have been made for HBO. At the very worst, it would have been a cool episode of "The Outer Limits."

MY RATING: 3 out of 10.

RATED: R
RUN TIME: 97 min.