Event Horizon by Kenneth Holm Dorkgasm Senior Staff Writer “No, I haven't seen anything and I don't need to see anything sir but I can tell you... this ship is fucked.” – Smitty (Sean Pertwee)
            Oh, Paul W.S. Anderson. The man has given us almost nothing but pure, unadulterated crap for most of his career. Yet, even the director of Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat, and Soldier has to get something right once in a while, right? Well, with 1997’s Event Horizon, Anderson may have made the best movie he could hope to be involved in.             Event Horizon is, at its roots, a ghost story. If you changed the characters and setting around, it is quite like a story you may have told at summer camp around a fire. Let me set the story for you, if you please. A government salvage team led by Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne) has been given orders to retrieve a derelict ship from the outer reaches of the galaxy. This ship is the Event Horizon, and it has been missing for seven years and has now mysteriously reappeared. The salvage crew is not alone, though. The scientist responsible for its groundbreaking method of travel, Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill), is also along for the ride in order to try to figure out what went wrong.             When they finally happen upon the ship, they find it is completely empty and devoid of life. Well… almost. The ship’s propulsion is based on a doohickey called the Gravity Drive, which creates a portable black hole that effectually bends time and space. When the Gravity Drive was first activated, it took a wrong turn somewhere and has brought something back with it. Something that is not happy with intruders.             Anderson’s movie is one of my personal favorite scary films of all time. There is a true sense of brooding throughout the picture, with the ship itself being one of the main characters. One by one, the salvage crew is taken down in gruesome, disturbing ways, leaving only a few left to tell the tale. One of the places the film really succeeds is creating an environment that is both fantastic and rooted in reality at the same time. While the early CGI can be a bit distracting at times, the performances more than make up for it in the long run. Sean Pertwee shines as the co-pilot and resident skeptic Smitty, while Sam Neill brings a great balance between brilliance and insanity to Weir. The odd thing about this movie is that Laurence Fishburne gives one of the worst performances. Once you hear him mangle the Latin language, you will understand.             In 2006, a two disc special edition was finally released. During the course of the commentary track, both Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt come off as having a lot of passion for this particular project. They spin tales of studio interference and budgetary compromises that make me wonder about the movie that could have been. Also included are a making of documentary and several deleted scenes, many of which are in bad shape. This is explained, however. It appears that a lot of the scenes were either damaged or thrown away during editing. Anderson and Bolt originally wanted to put together a director’s cut of this movie, but were unable to do so. One could only hope that Paul W.S. Anderson could someday make another movie that he was this passionate about. Until then, though, I’ll always have Event Horizon.

Liberate tutemet ex inferis