Event Horizon

Event Horizon (1997) is about a spacecraft returning years after it disappeared. The Event Horizon was designed to travel faster than light by folding space and opening a shortcut between two points. It vanished on the first attempt. Seven years later it is signalling from Neptune's orbit and a rescue crew is sent. There is nobody aboard, but the recordings found there show the crew's last moments, and that recording is the film's most discussed scene. The idea: the ship opened a shortcut, but where it opened was not another point in space. It went somewhere and brought something back. As the crew move through it, each of them starts seeing the worst thing in their own past. The visual language is gothic: the ship was designed like a cathedral, the corridors are pointed, and the core looks like an instrument of torture. Science fiction and horror are deliberately fused. Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne star. The first cut was much longer, around two hours, and far more graphic. Test screenings reacted badly and the studio shortened it. The removed material has been searched for over the years and never found; most of it is considered lost and no director's cut has ever appeared. Paul W. S. Anderson directed. It failed commercially and became a cult film later. It runs 96 minutes. Good for: horror in space, cult film, and atmosphere. Less good for: the violence is graphic, the last section is scattered, and the characters are thin.