It's the year 2047, and the Lewis & Clark rescue ship, commanded by Miller - Laurence Fishburne - is sent to make contact with Event Horizon, a faster-than-light spacecraft which disappeared in outer space seven years earlier. On board the Lewis & Clark, in addition to the usual cross-section of crew members, is the Australian designer of the missing ship, Weir - Sam Neill. Contact is duly made, but the crew of Event Horizon have evidently suffered a very nasty fate, a fate that seems also to be in store for the new arrivals...
The shadow of the original Alien hovers over Event Horizon; like Ridley Scott's fine film, this is essentially a variation on the old haunted house movie - there's something unseen but nasty killing off the characters one by one; but Event Horizon falls far short of its prototype. Apart from the interesting character of Weir, the crew members are a pretty dull lot whose fates are predictable, and British director Paul Anderson, who made Mortal Kombat and Shopping, has little feeling for suspense - instead he lays on the violence and gore with a trowel and diminishing returns are the result. The sets and effects are pretty good, but, for this kind of space thriller, Event Horizon is surprisingly dull... BUT I was pleased to note, from the uniform Sam Neill wears, that, by 2047, the Aboriginal flag will have replaced the Union Jack on the Australian flag. A welcome detail in an otherwise disappointing film.
