The Sci-Fi Horror Space Epic On Streaming Is A Violent Cult Classic

Event Horizon was directed by acclaimed filmmaker Paul W.S. Anderson, fresh off the major financial success of his 1995 film Mortal Kombat. After choosing not to direct the video game adaptation’s sequel effort, Anderson chose to helm a screenplay that had been floating around Hollywood for some time unsuccessfully, written by Philip Eisner. Eisner’s Event Horizon script seemed simple enough in nature, though it carried with it the herculean task of creating Lovecraftian horror visuals for the big screen.

The written works of H.P. Lovecraft are widely celebrated, but difficult to adapt in a visual medium. To do so requires the filmmaker to depict the incomprehensible nature of existential dread. Somehow, Anderson managed to pull off this tremendous feat with Event Horizon, resulting in what is essentially a mind-bending haunted house story in the backdrop of outer space. The film stars Laurence Fishburne, Richard T. Jones, Jack Noseworthy, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson, and Jurassic Park‘s Sam Neil.

The plot of Event Horizon centers on a titular starship that has disappeared into the void of space while embarking upon an intergalactic adventure in the year 2047. The ship utilizes an experimental new technology, which bends space-time itself around the vessel, in order to progress through the stars at hyper-speed. After engineers lost contact with the ship back on Earth, they received a horrifying distress signal, containing shrieks of suffering and voices of the crew begging for help.

A search and rescue mission is launched to locate the ship, with the Event Horizon’s original engineer and designer aboard, alongside Captain S.J. Miller. Along with a crew of capable astronauts, the pair board a ship called the Lewis and Clark, and brave the vacuum of deep space in order to locate and rescue any survivors. When members finally find and board the lost spaceship, they are greeted by a scene of a horrific massacre, with blood and viscera strewn throughout the interior.

After locating one barely living survivor on the ship, the crew learns that the Event Horizon’s warp drive opened up some kind of otherworldly gateway into a hellish dimension, causing both the crew and the ship’s artificial intelligence to descend into unmitigated madness. While dissecting the scene, the Lewis and Clark crew begin to experience disturbing hallucinations as well, causing them to crack up just like the original Event Horizon crew.

Event Horizon initially failed to impress critics upon release, though the film is now widely considered to be a classic sci-fi horror outing. The film grossed $42 million at the global box office against an estimated production budget of roughly $60 million, making it a major financial failure for the studio. Still, the cult following that Event Horizon enjoys has likely resulted in the key players making their money back in droves over time, as DVD and Blu-ray sales have continued to roll in for nearly 30 years.