When I went to see Event Horizon at my local theater in 1997, I had to convince a friend to give it a chance. He wanted nothing to do with the film and thought it would be a hack sci-fi film that would bore him to tears. I had seen a preview a week before and was intrigued with the premise of the plot.

As I watched this Paul W.S. Anderson directed film, I was impressed with the cinematography, set designs and casting. The imagery was absolutely beautiful. An ominous tension was built from the opening scene throughout the end. This is by far one of the most underrated horror films ever made.

The synopsis of Event Horizon is this; in 2047 a search and rescue team is sent to recover a ship, which has been missing for the past seven years. The ship, which is called the Event Horizon, was designed by Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill) to fold the universe by creating a black hole to move from one part of the galaxy to another instantly. Once the black hole was created, the ship disappeared. After seven years, the ship is located by it’s beacon and a search and rescue team, headed by Laurence Fishburne’s character “Captain Miller”, was deployed to search the ship, find out where the ship has been for the past seven years, and bring it back to Earth.

Upon arriving at the Event horizon, the crew encounters a terrifying presence that continually evolves from person to person leaving a trail of death and gore. The ship has a way of knowing the crew’s inner demons and bringing their fears and nightmares to life.

The scene that resonates with me is when the crew, which had been working on recovering the video from the captain’s log throughout the film, finally sees what has happened to the crew. Watching this scene sent chills down my spine creating the ultimate mood of the film, which was inevitable horror. This film is filled with brutal violence, gore and innovative kill scenes, which will grab the attention of gorehound’s, and psychological thriller fans alike.

In my opinion, one thing that makes a great horror film is character development, and although we do get good character development from Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neil’s Character, the rest of the cast are less developed. The saving grace for the film in regards to the characters is, we really don’t need to know that much about the crew.

This is more than a haunted house in space, it’s more than a ghost ship…this is what you get when you cross The Exorcist, Amityville Horror and The Shining together to come up with an instant masterpiece.

I have been watching horror films all my life, starting out as a young boy watching Friday the 13th at age 5 (which probably explains why I am so f’d up) and there are few films that actually haunt my thoughts and keep me thinking long after I have finished watching the film. This is one film that I put myself in the shoes of the search and rescue team and shutter to think what I would do.

When I left the move with my friend back in 1997, my friend wanted to go do something to get his mind off the film because he said it “scared the shit out of him.”