As Above, So Below: ‘Event Horizon’ and Finding Hell at the Edge of the Universe
The combination of science fiction and horror has often yielded tremendous results, from the early Universal Monsters days of Frankenstein and The Invisible Man to Godzilla, The Fly, The Thing, The Blob, and too many others to count. Horror that is actually set in deep space, however, has always been harder to pull off. Alien has pretty much claimed that crown. Like Jaws with shark movies, anything that ventures into similar territory is always going to be unfairly compared as a cheap imitation. Part of the issue is also that space horror can’t be as successfully pulled off as it could have been in the days of Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires. With spaceships, intricate sets, and an abundance of creature effects, inevitably come bloated budgets.
Big-budget horror was by no means unheard of in the 1990s. It was not a rarity, but it was always a risk. The film also features a stacked cast, although much of that is in hindsight. While Sam Neill was coming off of Jurassic Park, Laurence Fishburne had featured in Boyz N The Hood, King of New York and Othello, and Jason Isaacs had just appeared in Dragonheart, all were seen as character actors at the time. The biggest star at the time might even have been director Paul W.S. Anderson, who had just found massive commercial success directing the video game adaptation Mortal Kombat. A movie which, for the record, may still hold the title for best video game movie ever made.
Event Horizon did not achieve the same commercial success, unfortunately. It was considered a dud at the time and slowly but surely earned its reputation as the years went on. Its reception upon release didn’t keep Anderson from a monumentally successful career directing big budget blockbusters, although it lamentably did seem to keep him from ever making a film this original or ambitious ever again.
After Mortal Kombat had been an immediate, proven success and Event Horizon had not, Anderson only directed major franchise IP movies for the rest of his career. Having said that, Event Horizon pulls clear inspiration from many sources, from The Haunting to Jacob’s Ladder and, especially, Hellraiser, but those visual inspirations contrasted with this setting are a major part of the appeal of the film as a whole.
Alien is without a doubt a cosmic gothic horror film, but people frequently refer to it as a “haunted house movie in space.” While that does a good enough job of conveying its overall vibe and tone, Event Horizon is literally a haunted house movie in space. It is a nightmare, and often operates on a nightmare’s logic. This film also simply has one of the greatest premises I’ve ever heard.
A ship sent to charter the boundaries of the known universe disappeared without a trace. Years later, it suddenly pops back up exactly where it was last seen. Calls are made to the ship, none are returned. It’s just sitting there. Another ship is sent to investigate, to try and determine what happened to the crew and where it’s been, and once they get there, they discover that where it’s been is Hell. It even brought a taste of Hell back with it. And Hell has spat it out in hopes of luring back another meal.
The genius thing about this is that we always think of Hell in terms of “above” and “below.” One exists in the sky, one is deep in the ground below our feet. That’s the way we think of it as children, but it extends to all of pop culture. Most generic depictions of Heaven depict it in the clouds, most depictions of Hell are cavernous, subterranean. They never take into account, in even their basic Biblical-but-palatable depictions, the idea that God created the universe itself. This is even better, though, because it goes so far beyond religion. This Hell is a living, feeding thing. We don’t know if this Hell has anything to do with God, if the forces on the other side, whatever may be, even know that name. They very likely don’t.
We don’t really know anything about it, and that’s what is truly scary. All we know is that this is a force, semi-contained, that wants to break free, that it can see into a person’s memories. It knows what they are most afraid of, and what they are most ashamed of, and all it wants is to exploit those things, for seemingly no other reason than because it can. It is Hell because we can’t comprehend it. It is purely unknowable. And all we do know, all we can understand about it, is that it is positively horrific.
There’s another thing about space horror, and I don’t even know where it necessarily came from because Alien is fairly gruesome at times, where people expect it to be relatively tame. That is absolutely not the case here. Event Horizon is not afraid to show you anything, sometimes even if it’s just for a nanosecond, but that’s even scarier. Looking at a flash of something ghastly and not even knowing for sure exactly what you saw, that’s the kind of scare that can get under your skin and stay there for days. That’s the kind of scare Event Horizon excels at. Anderson had to have been influenced by the boundary pushing imagery of music videos at the time, as hard rock was just teetering on mainstream notoriety at that moment, as well as the body modification culture that had inspired Hellraiser a decade before and had only grown since.
The lingering success of Hellraiser is another obvious influence, even though a Hellraiser film (partially) set in space had been released just the previous year, and the box office results had been such that no Hellraiser would ever be released in theaters ever again. Event Horizon follows the expected plot mechanics of a space movie. It still honors that. There’s a problem with the ship, we need to repair it, the clock is ticking, etc. But it works because once we’re there, once the characters are subjected to the horror and their entire hold on reality and perception begins to slip, we can completely forget we’re in space. At that point, we forget about the genre, because — not to sound too cliche, here — it simply becomes a very scary movie that happens to be set in space.
Event Horizon was once seen as Anderson’s least successful movie even though it is literally the best film he ever made. In fact, he demonstrated such a talent for horror here that it’s a shame he never really went back to it. Even in the Resident Evil movies, the action far outweighed the horror and the zombies and creatures simply became waves of enemies to fight in cool, slow-motion ways.
There’s nothing wrong with that, either, but Event Horizon could so easily have been some kind of demon-fighting space/action hybrid and it is so, so much better for leaning into horror instead. Over time, I’m happy to say that it has truly found its audience and has become something of a cult classic. It deserves it. Even if it took nearly thirty years, I’m glad that people finally found the eyes to see its value.
