Event Horizon

A rather unbalanced picture with huge potential, a horror clone of Solaris. It starts out boringly, then becomes a great movie with a chilling atmosphere which rather curiously becomes a B-grade sci-fi full of plotholes, illogical behavior of characters etc. On the other hand, someday I would like to see the director’s cut, since Anderson subsequently distanced himself from this version. A shame that he has been stringing us along about how great it will be, but nothing has come from it (the question is whether a 45-minute longer version ever existed). For the time being, Event Horizon is an average movie that remains, however, the best thing that Paul has ever made. Which is sad. (21/03/2005)

It starts as a smart and atmospherically charged film, but it gradually becomes poorly staged horror without a hint of sense or logic. Laurence Fishburne is flawless as the captain, and the other crew members are also decent. The futuristic-looking sets will please every fan of dark sci-fi, but the closer the film gets to the end, the more you shake your head. There is literally no twist, blood pours like crazy – and completely unnecessarily – and all the carefully built atmosphere of mystery vanishes. Skip half an hour, replace it with a meaningful ending and maybe a bit of unpolopathically explained philosophy and it would be a very decent addition to the scifi genre. Like this, it's just a controversial bloodbath. (07/05/2005)

Great sci-fi horror and also a brutal spectacle for something form the late 90s. The atmosphere does let down by the end, but never to the point that would affect the overall impression. The premise (a spaceship returns after being lost in the cosmos, bringing something with it) is awesome and I don’t think it could have been developed better. Hands down, Paul Anderson’s best work, even if students of physics would not agree. (29/05/2008)

The stormy atmosphere of Neptune and a space ship spewed from the depths of hell didn’t give me a moment of rest for the whole 92 minutes. Anderson can do it if he wants (the faultless dizzy beginning) and if it weren’t for the slightly over the top ending I would easily give it 5*. But now I can only remember the perfect build up of atmosphere in the first two thirds, the superb acting performances of Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill, the very decent effects and the idea which, if it had been developed right could have satisfied my dark side. (08/12/2009)

Paul W. S. Anderson embarked on a path of action B movies and in some cases genuine oddities, such as "The Three Musketeers". However, with the film "Event Horizon" he created one of the best science-fiction horror films, where neither genre predominates and the film is a perfect combination of both. It is a sci-fi that is at least interesting for fans of this genre, but it is also a horror that will not disappoint any horror fan, because the atmosphere is simply there. (09/01/2015)