Event Horizon (4k Review)

25 years after its release, reviewing Event Horizon, a movie the majority of people buying this release will have already seen, seems a touch redundant.  

Before Paul W.S. Anderson buried himself in too many Resident Evil movies, he made something that was actually relatively decent. An entry level horror with some solid scares. Taking the form of a sort of Shirley Jackson style haunted house movie in space, we see our crew get dragged into hell by a ship that was designed to create black holes, but unfortunately those pesky scientists underestimated just how tricky physics can be. Especially when it's fictional.  

One thing that is done really well here is the casting. Despite some hammy-ness on all sides. Sam Neill is as always brilliant. Laurence Fishburne and Jason Isaacs too chew through their lines with full awareness of what film they're making. Sean Pertwee and Joely Richardson round out the main cast alongside Kathleen Quinlan as the overly emotional medic. All mirroring characters from Alien/s in one way or another.  

Borrowing from earlier classic horror and sci-fi, there are the echoes of Alien and Aliens all over this, Event Horizon is a pleasing but frustrating horror that ultimately feels a little undercooked. There's a mix of CGI and practical effects, which while it worked well in Jurassic Park 4 years earlier, here there is a stark difference between the two. The practical stuff is brilliantly rendered in 4k though and worth seeing. 

Fans have spent many years calling out for a longer cut, developing the ideas touched upon here and you can see why. There is everything that suggests this could be excellent if it were perhaps 20 minutes longer, but it just doesn't quite get there. Unfortunately, Anderson has confirmed that most of the additional material that existed at one point has been lost since, so there is no hope for this to finally materialise.  

And so, we get this 4k release. There's the standard steelbook edition, a standard cased edition and if you're feeling flush, a limited-edition box set that has art cards, a pin, a patch and a poster. The steelbook itself has a plastic sleeve on the outside with some zombie hands on one side and the Lewis and Clark on the other. The great thing about this is it complements the actual steelbook, creating a layered effect that makes unwrapping the discs a bit more fun. There is a small internal box that contains the patch and pin, unfortunately this box is completely open at the top, affecting its integrity and meaning that it is going to be very prone to creasing in transit unless very well packaged. Many collectors will be understandably unhappy about this. The patch and pin are a nice touch, with the patch being a copy of the one worn by the crew in the film.  

Those who usually purchase from boutique labels may be unhappy with this release, as it doesn't offer any additional bonus features to the ones present on the previous Blu-ray. However, if you're a fan of the film already, then the addition of 4k, and the nice steelbook design may make it worth it.  

Event Horizon is available on 4K Ultra HD™ from August 8