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    Event Horizon

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

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    "Event Horizon" begins well but during the last third it becomes a bit of a mess. This movie should be so much better than it is considering the potential it had.

    The setup is a good one: The Event Horizon, a space ship with an experimental warp drive that has suddenly resurfaced after falling completely off the map for years. A crew of explorers (which includes Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs and more) is sent out to investigate. When they arrive on the ship they discover that the crew has been not only murdered but also mutilated beyond recognition. The vessel itself and its experimental warp drive appear to be in perfect condition.

    The movie does a good job setting up its science fiction premise, showing the evolution of technology to the point of this experimental warp drive and it also explains how the Event Horizon works in a way that's both plausible and easy to understand. The sets are very well done and completely convincing as well. A big part of the film deals with the crew exploring the newly found vessel and trying to figure out exactly what happened during the years while the ship was gone. There's a creepy atmosphere that's built using strange imagery, erratic behaviour from the crewmembers and the design of the ship itself. The warp core looks like a weird, almost demonic globe, with strange patterns all over it, rings spinning around the sphere and all around the core there are scary-looking spikes. The hallways are shaped like coffins or giant eyes and it's a great example of a set that was expertly put together to help enhance the atmosphere the story is projecting onto the audience. The special effects are also very well done. Although there are a few shots of items floating in zero gravity that are dated, the pyrotechnics, makeup, shots of computer generated space ships interacting with each other and the sequences set in outer space are all convincing.

    “Event Horizon” falls apart is during the third act. While in the beginning, it keeps its cards close to its chest, revealing little about what exactly happened on the ship. There’s nothing vague about the conclusion. As promising as the beginning was, it falls into the same trap that many psychological thriller/horror films fall into: so many forget that showing the audience something is far less frightening or disturbing than what they have put together in their minds. At the beginning there are several shots that are brief and flash by quickly, giving you that jolting effect and leaving you wondering what exactly you just saw. Later, the movie basically leaves no questions. I found myself saying “Oh, that’s it? That’s what you’re going with? ” It gives up the mystery aspect and then goes way out of its genre completely by setting up an action climax that is truly baffling. Once the movie is over you just sit there scratching your head wondering if those "clues" you thought you spotted along the way actually were put there intentionally or if you were just looking for something that was never there in the first place. There are actually a lot of moments that work in the movie, with some good lines that are genuinely creepy and some of the detective work that's done throughout reveals some really disturbing events. The setup has little payoff however and in the end the story is a disappointment.

    "Event Horizon" isn’t awful, but it's a letdown. You feel like it could have gone much further than it did if it played more with the psychological horror stuff and just had the confidence to go all the way with its ideas instead of taking the easy way out. (On DVD, April 29, 2013)

    5
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    adamwatchesmovies@  27.3.2016 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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