Here in the Prime Screening Room, I highlight Amazon Prime Instant Videos that are not only free for Prime members to watch, but definitely worth the cost of the rental for everyone else as well. If you’re not already an Amazon Prime member but have been considering signing up, you can click here to try a free, 30-day trial subscription.
Today, my Prime Screening Room pick is the sci-fi / horror film Event Horizon (R, 3.5/5 stars, currently FREE for Prime members to watch, $2.99 to rent and $9.99 to buy for others). If you’re a Prime member and think you might enjoy this film, you’ll want to screen it soon, because it’s leaving the Prime Instant Video catalog at the end of this month (4/30/13 is the last day it will be in the Prime catalog).
IMDB describes Event Horizon like this:
The year is 2047 and a ship named the Event Horizon has re-appeared after disappearing 7 years prior, in experiments for faster than light travel. A rescue hastily speeds to the returned vessel after a transmission was picked up from the ship, garbled, but vaguely resembling a human voice. As the crew reach the ship, and spend longer on it, it appears that someone or something is toying with them, and more, the question is what has the Event Horizon become?
– Written by Russell Miles
Here’s The Original Movie Trailer:
Here’s My Take:
I am a sucker for archetypal good versus evil, Heaven and Hell stories, so even though I’m not the biggest fan of horror movies (most are too gory for me nowadays), I was drawn to this one immediately. I am also a great admirer of the actors Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne, so their presence was another draw for me.
The trailer hints at the notion that when the ship Event Horizon came back from wherever it was during the 7 years it was missing, it brought something back with it: an evil entity of some kind. This entity seems to be able to read the deepest thoughts and fears of the rescue crew, and control them to some extent.
The trailer touches on the notion that the Event Horizon accomplishes travel that’s faster than the speed of light by passing through an alternate dimension to get to a different location that’s light years away. In the movie, this idea is explored a little further and the Event Horizon’s designer (played by Sam Neill) eventually comes to suspect that the alternate dimension the Event Horizon passed through was Hell.
I originally saw Event Horizon in the theater, alone, at night. The “at night” part is pertinent here because seeing it at night meant driving home alone in the dark afterwards. I still recall how I repeatedly kept glancing into the backseat of my car throughout my drive home. Event Horizon is one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen, in large part because of how effectively it plays with not only the minds of the rescue crew, but the viewer as well.
It’s one of those stories where the characters have trouble distinguishing between what’s real and what’s hallucination, and it’s also one of those stories where there’s an alternate, dark and horrific reality lurking just beneath the surface of the ordinary world. This movie can really get inside your head in a way most horror films don’t. This isn’t just a story about a crazed madman hacking up naïve college kids, it’s about the nature of reality.
I rate Event Horizon 5/5 stars, and would recommend it very highly to fans of horror, sci fi, and supernatural thriller fans.