I agree about the story telling just a little too much. While I praised it for remaining ambiguous, having the one messed up character state that the ship went to hell and was possessed (though he might be lying or wrong), does explain perhaps too much. Perhaps that part could have been cut out.
Nicely written review. A shame you didn't like the movie as much as I did, but I scored your review up because you gave good reasons for your disagreement.
Well, the scoring mechanic was removed a long time ago, but I still think this is a good review, even if you disliked the movie while I liked it. You gave good reasons.
I loved the movie, but you're right about a lot of stuff. I found it scarier (but that's subjective). That said, you're right about giving too much away. The minute I heard "dimension of pure evil" I genuinely laughed. I think the evil could have stood fine on its own without Sam Neil spoiling it by saying so.
illegitematus non carborundum estLeave a Comment:
Shock Value, but falls short of genuine terror
I tracked down a copy of this movie after reading a synopsis and finding it rather similar to a story I had in mind. I'd say I, on the whole, enjoyed Event Horizon. The pacing was all right—there were no extended slow periods, nether did the action go so fast as to be hard to keep up with the plot. Also, I felt that the script did a good job of delivering just the right amount of technological background about how the ships worked—the expositions were pretty well worked into the plot, and the parts where the science was glossed over actually advanced the story.
However, I didn't get a genuinely creepy vibe out of this movie. Sure, it was gory and visually shocking at times, but I didn't come out of it with a truly unsettled feeling, as I did with movies like The Ring and The Cell.
If it were up to me, I think this film would have been genuinely creepy if the directors had made two changes. First, let the question of whether the Event Horizon crew is alive hang around unresolved a bit longer—the movie Sunshine, by comparison, got a lot of millage out of a similar question.
Second—I felt that there was a lot of drama and fear lost by establishing that the ship absolutely went to hell and was definitely possessed. How much more frightening would it have been if there was ambiguity there, if the film toyed with the idea that Miller and Weir and the others were simply hallucinating, and never resolved the questions about waht happened to the ship? That, if it was done well, would have been truly memorable to me.
And, purely on an artistic note, I would have liked to see more exterior views of the two ships. Neptune made a helluva pretty background.