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(Pleatherface) EVENT HORIZON: The Beautifully Imperfect Trip to Hell That Hollywood Almost Ruined

 By. Pleatherface

 

As I mentioned when talking about Jaws, some directors have unique styles, signatures that make their films identifiable as part of a body of work. Some expand that to include genre, while others explore various genres with their unique or personal style. Paul (not the other one) Anderson is a curious case of this. While he has dabbled in different (or slightly different if we are being picky) genres, his films tend to have a particular visual flair – a sleek production design shown-off by lively camera-work showing off vibrant set-pieces – that make them identifiable. He is best known for his work on some of the most successful video game movie adaptations such as Resident Evil and Mortal Kombat (their artistic value can be argued undoubtably, but it is patently clear he worked with good writers to make something of bare-bones narratives to the point his own Resident Evil cinematic version went in a very different direction than that of the videogames). While his oeuvre is extensive, a number of them revolve around existing IP (Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Alien vs Predator, Monster Hunter) which may seem to put him right into the type of director of whom I am not a fan but he injects his own vision into the stories he writes (for better or worse).

But was all his work smack in that IPfication realm I have some ambivalent feelings over? Not entirely, and to be fair his best film (even if it is a flawed one in some ways) was a hugely influential space horror original (sort off to be honest) called Event Horizon. The film stars a superb cast of both well-known and well-regarded stars and character actors including names like Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Joely Richardson, Sean Pertwee, Kathleen Quinlan, Jason Issacs, Richard Jones, and Jack Noseworthy (interesting note both Richardson and Pertwee were the children of well-known actors Vanessa Redgrave and Jon Pertwee). I have chosen to look into this film for two reasons: first, the recent passing of the esteemed Sam Neill. Neill was known for his incredible body of varied performances, that in my opinion were highlighted by his unique mix of charm, wit, good-looks, and mischief. He was as adept at playing a parental figure like Alan Grant or Richard Martin to complex characters like John Trent or William Weir. These last two characters were from two of his performances in the horror films In the Mouth of Madness and Event Horizon and arguably show two distinct performances of men losing their sanity as they descend into differing versions of hell. While Neill’s father figure persona Grant could be both forceful and tender, showing the thespian’s range, his horror performances use that same skill to underplay the danger in which his character’s find themselves. That self-assurance makes the fall that much more satisfactory and can, such as in Weir’s case, make for an incredibly terrifying performance that relies on restraint over bombast. So with that sad aside and raison-d’etre for delving into this movie, let’s talk about the one-time box-office bomb turned cult classic, Event Horizon.

Grant's legacy as the genre's most reluctant dinosaur wrangler is still being felt this year…check out our review of THE END OF OAK STREET, owes an enormous, if unspoken, debt to the wonder Neill brought to that first Brachiosaurus reveal in 1993.

Event Horizon is a space horror film and premiered in 1994. Hot of his successful Hollywood debut in Mortal Kombat, Paul W.S. Anderson worked with writer Phillip Eisner in creating a “haunted house in space,” inspired by films like the Soviet movie Solaris and Stanley Kubrik’s The Shining. The story takes place in an ‘empty’ space vessel of the same name as the movie. Our two main characters are William Weir and S. J. Miller, played by Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne respectively. The first is a scientist who invented a mysterious engine that can bend space to simulate faster than light travel, while the second is the captain of a rescue ship tasked with the returned ship’s retrieval and rescue of any crew still remaining. Long story short, the vessel went into a hellish dimension and came back with something. That something torments the crew of the rescue vessel and takes over Weir with the intent of taking the remaining would-be rescuers back to its dimension of origin.

The film’s story is solid, but the pressure of limited production time shows. The story feels rushed in various spots which makes for a lot of unanswered questions. There are elements that seemingly point to a richer background being developed in the writing process, but the production issues and short run time (a little over 90 minutes) make it difficult for a viewer to really sink into the world. And that is a real shame, as the design of the films spaceships is stunning and clever in so many ways. The use of greenish, purplish, and greyish lighting creates a sinister color palette that is off-putting, in conjunction with the aesthetics of the rescue vessel continue the trend started by Alien of depicting a grimy, un-idyllic space in the future. The gothic-cathedral inspired Event Horizon really could have become a character unto itself, especially with its engine room that is more reminiscent of a torture chamber than a technological marvel of an engine. The film to its credit has become the inspiration for other popular culture artefacts such as video games like Dead Space. It reminded me of the House on Haunted Hill remake, and even in its imperfect final cut it is clearly a superior piece of cinema to House. Why do I say this? Because while the story was a mess, it managed to handle tension in an effective way (less reliant on jump scares, thought it does not lack those) and marries it to beautiful visuals that are just dark enough to unsettle viewers without having to squint too much. Anderson is great at moving his camera around the set, a skill that is well used to show off the design of the Event Horizon; and even this early on in his career, he shows off his skill putting together set-pieces (the scene where Baby Bear tries to use the airlock and how he is saved is dynamic in pacing and visual angles). Conclusion? I feel I get sucked into the action and the visuals but I cannot find myself easily connecting to the world, and that is a shame. I leave the film with so many unanswered questions, which might be the point of a good horror film. Maybe leaving me with doubt and uncertainty is the mark of a truly engrossing experience.

Another interesting connection I found while looking at information available online also connected Event Horizon to Jaws in another way. I mentioned Jaws was the genesis for the Summer Blockbuster, following its success movie studios started the practice of pre-planning release schedules around a major centerpiece release in the summer. In 1997, the planned centerpiece was supposed to be Titanic by James Cameron; but that filmed faced delays in production and was moved to Christmas that year. Anderson agreed to have his film ready for to take that place – online sources say he thought it demonstrated the studio’s belief in his work – which cut into his production time and was cited by the director himself as one of the reasons for the hasty editing that produced less than stellar plot cohesion. Here is once again where we see the intersection of commercial concerns and the production of cultural artefacts. While we cannot say for certain that additional time would have resulted in a better product, it is undeniable that economic considerations outside of the production elements (costs, labor, etc.) took precedence over artistic considerations. An excellent example of this in other mediums came with the release of Margaret Atwood’s long-awaited sequel to The Handmaiden’s Tale, which was released to coincide with both the ending of the Hulu adaptation of the original and allow it to be considered for that year’s Booker Prize. The Testaments ended up splitting the Booker with Girl, Woman, Other in one of the most controversial prize splits in the award’s history.

The film’s reception at the time of release was not good to say the least. Critics like Roger Ebert were moderately supportive, he praised the production design but felt the story was lacking in depth. It has been re-evaluated starting in the 2010’s, and most agree is still probably one of Anderson’s best efforts. And sadly, that re-evaluation led to learning of another sad by-product of capitalism: nostalgia consumption. Audience interest in a product induces increased production, but audience apathy engenders the opposite. There is a third avenue a product can take and that is paved around nostalgia. As time passes, perspectives change and audiences can change the way they remember products viewed in the past. That patina of time intertwines the memories of the past and creates an association between product and a different, better time. Unfortunately, this can then be used by those who produce consumable products to use these feelings in the audience to induce consumption of their products. For better or worse, this is not something that happened to Event Horizon. When the film began to gain traction with audiences after its unsuccessful box office time, attempts to create a director’s cut with salvaged material to give Anderson the opportunity to better present his vision were cut short by the realization that most of the unused material had been either discarded or lost. The next best thing the studio could do was produce a DVD set that included some extended scenes and a single deleted scene; nothing that really re-made the final product that had been available in theaters. Maybe this is just me being a curmudgeon, but maybe this is for the best. We as audiences are left with a beautifully imperfect film that encapsulates the emerging skills of a young filmmaker and the issues of the movie-making industry in a brisk 90-minute horror romp.

If the intersection of horror and consumer capitalism is your thing too, don't miss Pleatherface's Fresh Meat column on Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which digs into a different franchise entry that also got swallowed by the industry's commercial machinery.