Event Horizon - re:View

We need a remake directed by Panos Cosmatos, where the crew slowly descends into a bad acid trip the longer they're on the Event Horizon. I come back to this movie every few years and I'm always disappointed by the missed opportunities.

Micah Hintz

I would love to see them do a Re-View on the Director's Cut of Lord of Illusions. I'm pretty sure Mike will like that more than Event Horizon.

Chris L.

I’ve never seen the movie but this reView was awesome.

Stan Jonathan Keller

The coolest thing about this movie was that Sam Neill got them to change the Australian flag on his uniform from a Union Jack in the corner to the Australian Aboriginal flag. Maybe one day our country will be progressive enough to do something like that. I hope so.

Ben-K

Space and demons don't mix??? Heresy!

Meg Sumner

Exactly... it's almost like you watched the movie and understood what was happening... :P

Manuel Johnen

Guys, you're usually so on point with these reviews but was surprised by one thing: Sam Neill's character didn't intend for the Event Horizon to reach into hell. He designed it to cut through the A to B path line and fold space, without an idea of where it could reach. He was never a Satanist. His character development to joining the occult of the ship was that he built it, it's his baby, and the guilt from his wife killing herself while he was busy developing the ship, added to him being a vessel for the ship to continue on its journey to bring hell to Earth.

Heather Sejnow

Cool.

Rhea

Interesting. I watched this movie in theaters and my opinion was the same as Mike’s. It had everything I would love in science fiction. It was so promising in the beginning but I left the theater disappointed. The part when Cooper was in the ship’s debris really did seem odd and out of place. For me it shifted the mood of the film. I agree with Jay, the film makers seem to have given up at that point. I have a different take on the workplace banter between Cooper and Starck. I’ve been a blue collar worker for all my adult life. I’ve worked with mostly men and at times I was the only female. Back in the 90s and early 2000s men were open with me and would engage in a lot of s**t talk. Sure the humor can be raunchy and offensive but I loved it. We would say the most outrageous and craziest things to each other. Of course there is always that one guy who pushes it too far (like Cooper). I didn’t mind. They were my friends, buddies and bros. Nowadays men are afraid to interact with us women and tend to walk on eggshells around us. They have retreated from us and only interact with other men when it is not work related. All because people (mostly outsiders) complain about what men say to women in the workplace. I miss the camaraderie. So now I hang out with my Spanish speaking comrades to get my daily dose of raunchy, sexist humor.

When I was younger I rented Event Horizon. Like Jay, I like the concept; technology somehow proving the existence of some kind of evil lurking just beyond the veil of our normal world. But at the time I was disappointed, and after I saw this posted I rewatched out of curiosity and was not happy I spent 90 minutes on it. I'd like to see it done better, I'm with Jay on this one.

Mike and Jay shit on Mortal Kombat, but Mike explains why he likes Rawhide Rex later in the show, thus explaining why so many people enjoy the original Mortal Kombat.

Animal5000

Is this a thing in America...? Watching movies amidst an ocean of rats...?

Manuel Johnen

Well, I still don't get it. There's not much stupid shit in it... :/

Manuel Johnen

This is a re:View I was pretty excited about because I too remembered really liking this movie, because of the production design and crazy visuals etc BUT I completely forgot about the really stupid shit in it. I guess I blocked out Jet Pack Guy from my memory. Agree with Jay in that it could use a reboot/remake. Totally disagree with Jay about Mortal Kombat though. That's a god-damn classic!

Steven

I can vouch for that, I rewatched it a couple of days ago when it was shown on TV... it's still fine. The score helps a lot, though...

Manuel Johnen

What have you guys got against Mortal Kombat? It was about the only 'game' movie back then that actually got into the spirit of the games. Who cares about cheesy special effects and bad acting? It was awesome back then, and even now it is still an enjoyable romp of costumes, one liners and over the top super moves, that leaves most 'modern' (dim, dank and dour) movies in the dust, gaming related or otherwise.

Ferawyn

"That's my French accent." To which I immediately said, "THAT'S French? I thought it was Italian." 😄

Jessie Zimmer

I don't know why, but it reminded me of the chairs in the Matrix. I assume it's because grungy spaceship + chair + Laurence Fishburne.

Jessie Zimmer

I can't believe you guys talked about this movie and didn't spend any time discussing Lawrence Fishburne's hilarious chair which hangs from the ceiling. It's one of the worst designed and concepted movie props of all time, and every second he's on screen sitting in that stupid chair it elicits howls of laughter. "So my chair hangs from the ceiling? What if I want to turn and look at someone while sitting in it?" "Well there's a very handy joystick you can use which will very slowly rotate you to look at them." That chair is like a Dr. Evil gag or something.

Stranger2Reality

I feel like "the first half was genuinely excellent and then it went off the rails" describes a lot of Paul WS Anderson's films. Or if not "genuinely excellent" then at least "pretty good." A lot of his movies have a good set up, but then where it goes with that set up is always pedestrian and trite.

Stranger2Reality

If you want to know more about the movie, check out Good Bad Flicks. A short but informative documentary.

Silentphil9

I thought, in both, that you enter another dimension where space is compressed or twisted in some way.

Silentphil9

I need the out takes of Mike talking about how the faster than light travel works in Star Trek and Star Wars!

trebel

To offer some insight: I was 10 when this movie hit theaters and there was buzz among people my age for it being taboo because of all the Hell-type imagery, which circles of horror fans I'm part of still like to praise to this day. I've seen this movie twice as an adult and barely remember any of it.

Michael Federico

I needed this video cause I thought I was going crazy. Mike echoed my sentiments exactly. On paper it has all the things I love in a movie but for some reason it doesn’t work almost at all.

AJ Garner

But what could have been done better...?

Manuel Johnen

But why tinker with perfection...?

Manuel Johnen

It does hold up.

Manuel Johnen

Even with that teeny tiny icon, I said to myself, "is that Electro?" And then I clicked on the icon and it was Electro! And I was happy. Greatest villain entrance in film history.

Neil Peart, Lord of Drums

The best part of watching this movie is realizing what could have been done better. It's such a huge missed opportunity.

Rick Drake

I was 16 years old, snuck into the movie and thought it was scary. Went 3 times. Took my stuck-up step-mom, who still refuses to watch horror movies to this day because of the nightmares this film gave her. At the time, I loved the horror and comedy. I knew it wasn't a masterpiece but it was fun for a 90's teenager who was just discovering horror. Would I watch it today? No. I know it wouldn't hold up.

Jeremy Heynen

The shark movie is "Deep Blue Sea".

Manuel Johnen

I was talking with a friend this morning about Event Horizon, and it turns out that I have combined in my head this movie, Sphere, some shark movie with a lady scientist who dives into the ocean to her death at the end, and what I’m nearly certain is a totally different movie that had underwater Navy bases in it. Still not sure which plot lines belong to which film. I think that says it all about the state of early 90s cinema.

Katy

Totally respect mike's opinion but this movie just works for me. You look at the LHC and it almost looks comically designed in some areas because of the need for spherical reception. The idea that we might think we've figured out jumping in space to end up somewhere we didn't know existed seems fine. You know what you know, you know what you don't know, but there's an endless depth of things you don't know that you don't know.

Tony James Morris

"Sphere" is still one of the worst things I've ever seen in a cinema... :D

Manuel Johnen

That movie and Sphere I remember loving as a kid but they were both awfull movies. They're basically the same type of movie that came out around the same time.

Myself and my sister watched it in our teens way back in day on video, same day we watched starship troopers.. we still love em both... I've always tied them together. Both so different in tone, but great and weird

Tomas

It is Paul W.S. Anderson's best movie. But I hate all his movies. I did like the first half. I dug the rescue ship going out to Neptune and the initial contact/recovery effort. Good ships. Good crew. I hated the starship goes to Hell element.

Michael Puttré

Definitely an experience-type movie. I watched in early college years with two close friends, we were a little intoxicated and had no idea what the movie was about when we went. I never needed a smoke as bad when we left the theater. We'd get together now and then to re-watch it but never lived up to the time in the cinema. It's trash, but sometimes trash is just what you need?

JTruts

Season 4, Episode 10: "Random Thoughts"

QB

I probably have a less common experience because I watched Event Horizon for the first time in 2018 I think, and had been told it was an awful movie by several friends. Then I saw it and thought the first half was genuinely excellent, and when it went off the rails, I was ok with it and just along for the ride. And "we're leaving" became one of my favorite movie lines ever.

Mike hits the nail on the head for the film's nostalgia with a specific audience (I'd say falling into the 30-35 range) that saw it at a younger, less discriminating age and had the spooky concept of space-hell-torture and the disturbing imagery stick with them. I may not fall into that camp, but oh boy, did my buddies in college ever. BEGGING me to watch it, so much to the point that it ruined any redeeming qualities that the movie might have had.

Charlie

I always found "Mortal Kombat" to be an quite faithful adaption of the video game, probably done as well as anyone could have 25 years ago... At least it is endlessly better than that godawful "Street Fighter" flick starring Van Damme... :/

Manuel Johnen

Dammit Jay you have no right to tell me why I like Mortal Kombat! I mean just because I played the arcade game with my friends every day when we were 12 doesn't mean it's just nostalgia for me. No but seriously, I think all the schlocky Paul WS Anderson stuff that Jay thought didn't really fit well into this supposedly serious horror movie, well it fits quite a bit better in a silly mystical martial-arts movie that takes place in an evil alternate dimension. That plus I actually DO like the characters in that movie, specifically Robin Shou and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa's performances. Every second Tagawa's Shang Tsung is on screen is a hammy delight. Also I think I tend to grade MK95 on the live-action-video-game-movie-curve, which affords it quite a more generous outlook. That grading curve basically says, "is the movie physically painful to watch all the way through?" If not, it gets a passing grade. I think MK95 is the only one so far that has passed.

Chris L

And lastly, I'm halfway through the "ultimate" Twin Peaks explanation by Twin Perfect. To make his theory (which is 'David Lynch uses Twin Peaks to bring balance to TVs consumable violence') seem valid, he associates wildly, and sometimes goes so far to make insane statements, which are on par with some of Space Cadet's interpretations. For example, he says that Cooper represents the audience, he feels and intuits like we do, and the way he phrases that, it really sounds like he means that the audience and Cooper are of one mind, as if Twin Peaks was a virtual reality live event, where audience and actors are connected to be one. So, according to Twin Perfect, it is perfectly possible that Event Horizon magically ignited Notre Dame. But perhaps I don't get what Twin Perfect is arguing, and I don't want to strawman him, so if you want to check for yourself, go to the 2:30:21 mark of his video "Twin Peaks actually explained (No, really)."

Marvin Falz

"Also gotta agree that seeing Sam Neill's character in the recovered crew log would've been a great thing to have." That would have been idiotic, because the crew of the Event Horizon didn't make it out of hell, so how should he managed to have come back, travel back to earth, wait for the ship to reappear and THEN go back with the rescue mission JUST TO GO BACK TO HELL...?!? :/

Manuel Johnen

Mike hits something pretty good here, the characters are not very likeable. None of them really. That said this is a 20 year old movie that a lot of people love or hate and still have internet debates about, so that in itself is something. Also gotta agree that seeing Sam Neill's character in the recovered crew log would've been a great thing to have. I interpreted the Baby Bear scene in the airlock as him killing himself to save the others, the evil inside him realizes that it's going to get sucked into space and leaves his body, possibly returning to Sam Neill's character.... somehow....

JTruts

By chance I found the French publishing and distribution company RE:VOIR. They offer DVDs of classic and contemporary experimental cinema. I was wondering if the similarity of the names re:View and RE:VOIR are coincidental. Besides that, as I looked through their catalogue, I found Maya Deren, who made short silent films in the early 1940s. On further investigation it turned out that Maya Deren movies and David Lynch movies (Fire Walk With Me, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive) share a similar cinematography. Worth checking them out, they're on YouTube.

Marvin Falz

I've never seen Event Horizon, but the production design looks interesting, and the Lovecraftian aspect is intriguing.

Marvin Falz

I know exactly what Jay's talking about. I always remember liking this movie when I was younger. But when I watch it now, I see all the flaws. If there ever is a remake by a better filmmaker, I'll definitely watch it though.

GirouxFan

growing up in a town which had one cinema with one screen meant you kinda got what you were given. So I went to this, film started, I thought ok a space movie. I’ve never quite recovered from what happened to my expectations that evening. But I think we can say they were subverted. It still creeps me out. Even if it is hokey as all hell in a lot of places.

Ali B

I love everyone’s peek into why this movie has impacted them I’m some way. I also watched it when I was younger about 8 or 10 and watched it with my family because we always watched movies together. I just fell in love with it and watched it many times over the years, I still watch it about once a year because it’s a movie I enjoy nostalgically. But I do recognize all of its flaws and love it still the same. Besides it’s better than the resident evil 2,3,4,5,6 that he did and made...and I still watch this trash films every few years.

Insert a small scene where Sam’s character admits to designing the ship in order to open a gate to hell expressly to see his wife (not my opinion) since she’s there due to suicide. The movie ends when Sam turns into a cenobite. Everyone dies. Rename movie “Hellraiser: Event Horizon.”

I think if you could send someone back in time to erase this movie from history there would be less science fiction for jocks today. But I wouldn't want to erase this movie from history.

Juan Calvo

I'm just here to give Jay my applause. It was slow & echoed through my lonely room. Good job Jay!

If we have five more years of the pandemic to go through, you guys will have to do a re:View of Mortal Kombat by the end.

Neil Peart, Lord of Drums

I wonder if RLM will do the new MK movie, I almost never watch trailers but it doesn't seem awful.

Santino

I'm going to check this out when I get home, but I'm really really hoping that Mike talks about Star Trek Voyager, since some of the images from Tuvok's mind and the horrors therein are taken from the hell visions in Event Horizon.

The Constable

Please do more accents Mike. Maybe a whole video devoted to accents! :D

I'd have liked to see Red Planet Re:viewed. An underrated/overlooked sci-fi flick from the same era with more grounded but still questionable plot elements. I even rather liked the rogue martial-arts robot helper-dog...

Clancy Murphy

I'm going to tell you my Event Horizon story. I was a kid working in a movie theatre when Event Horizon was released. Back in the days before everything was digital, movies had to be screened by theatre staff before opening day, so we could be sure the projectionist had spliced the reels together properly and there weren't any major fuck-ups. So I sat down for a free Thursday midnight showing after my shift with a few of my coworkers, and the film spun up. Well, the movie theatre was in an old, decrepit, concrete box of a building in central Florida. It's since been torn down. In its twilight years though, the building became infested with rats. All us kids knew they were there, but they kept to themselves when the building was packed with customers. You'd see a drowned one sometimes in a toilet stall, or little tails wriggling just at the periphery of the usher's flash light, but mostly us kids didn't think about them much. But then we screened Event Horizon. After the building had mostly emptied for the day and the lights were out and the soda fountains were scrubbed, the furry army emerged from their nests in the AC ducts and wall insulation. As the movie played you could hear their tiny feet thudding up and down the theatre aisles in time with the bass, like a new evolution of surround sound. They chittered and squeaked and chewed on old candy bar wrappers congealed into technicolour tumors in the far corners of the room. Eventually they turned into the rows and started darting over our feet seeking popcorn and Reeses, nibbling at purse straps and shoe laces. Even if you pulled your feet up you could feel their bulk somehow on the underside of your seat, pulling at it, scratching at the plastic frame. Anyway, it was years before I was able to see how Event Horizon ended.

Ashley

"My question is, why is the demon from an alternate dimension speaking latin...?" It's not a demon, it's the captain of the Event Horizon who had a latin thing going on, that's why...

Manuel Johnen

Damn Mike didn't have to stab me in the heart like that.

Rhea

Oh the memories, the terrifying, horrible memories. I was 12 when this came out, and somehow saw it in the theater. I recall as clear as if it were yesterday not being able to sleep that night and being scared out of my mind. Of course that night there was a thunderstorm, and I spent the entire time looking from my bed out the window at the lightning flashes in the distance. At some point in the middle of the night I couldn't stand the fear any longer and had my dad come into my bed. In spite of this, or maybe because of this, Event Horizon has always had a soft spot with me and I hold it in a very high, if somewhat twisted, regard. Cannot wait to hear Mike and Jay's take!

The first 40 minutes is pretty interesting. Then, it turns into one bad cliche and stupid character decision after another, and I get angry.

Manuel Johnen

Take it easy, no need to be so hostile

Jojo Evans

The first 40 minutes is pretty interesting. Then, it turns into one bad cliche and stupid character decision after another, and I get angry. OK, now it's time to watch 'SUNSHINE' again!

AshesBoomstick

Thanks RLM for always giving me something to look forward to after a long day

Michael

Say what you want about the movie but it helped inspired the critically-acclaimed award-winning Dead Space video game franchise

Ricardo Rodriguez

B aby Bear vs. The Showbiz Pizza Bear; it took Lewis and Clark to discover a battle this disturbing!

Well, the copious amounts of alcohol and the terrible, terrible schlock he's consumed finally seem to have taken a toll on Mike's brain... :) I remember "Event Horizon" being a pretty amazing experience when I saw it back in '98 on VHS and it held up wonderfully for me over the years. As I said, this is "Alien", "The Shining", "Hellraiser" and "Solaris" thrown into a blender, but it's better than three of those four movies. There is very little in it that doesn't work for me, except maybe the requisite shock ending and the strange techno music during the credits... So much for "Event Horizon", now you can go back to pieces of crap like "The Mist" and "The Blob"... :)

Manuel Johnen

HELL yeah

Peter Varga

I seem to recall this weird movie...

Glenn Ponka

This definitely made my morning keep up the good work

Ricardo Rodriguez