Horrors Everywhere In ‘Event Horizon’

If you’re looking for a horror movie in outer space, “Event Horizon” is just your bloodbath.

Event Horizon is the name of a prototype spaceship lost for seven years somewhere at the boundary of the solar system. It isn’t until members of a rescue mission team are on board that they discover the ship has been to hell and back - or, even worse, a place beyond hell, with terrors the human mind can scarcely imagine.

Space scientist William Weir (Sam Neill) plays a kind of Dr. Frankenstein, the designer of Event Horizon. Since he is the only one who knows its workings, he grudgingly is allowed to accompany the rescue mission by the disapproving skipper, Capt. Miller (Laurence Fishburne).

The rescue craft reaches the missing spacecraft in the vicinity of Neptune. Weir then discloses one of its secrets: Event Horizon has been designed to travel faster than light, a theory considered impossible but somehow accomplished.

The rescuers begin their hesitant exploration of the drifting ship. They discover no humans, only bits and pieces of them.

Everywhere the crew members turn, they encounter some new horror. And Weir has his own personal demon: His dead wife keeps returning to re-enact her bloody suicide in a bathtub.

Paul Anderson, who directed the surprise hit “Mortal Kombat,” seems to be a devotee of the Bloodbath and Big Bang school of direction. Periodically, he offers a huge sound effect, just to make sure he has your attention. The film has a higher decibel count than a heavy metal concert.

Climax follows climax until the weary viewer wants to cry, “Stop, already!”

Richard Yuricich’s visual effects are stunning, but are weakened by a feeling of deja vu. How many times can you be impressed by the “Star Wars” shot of an endless space vehicle passing over the camera? xxxx
“Event Horizon” Location: Newport, Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls, Spokane Valley 12 Running time: 1:45 Rating: R