Starring Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richadson, Richard T. Jones, Jack Noseworthy, Jason Isaacs, Sean Pertwee, Peter Marinker, Holley Chant, Barclay Wright, Noah Huntley and Robert Jezek

Written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson

Seven years ago, the Event Horizon was lost with all hands. Today, it’s back, and the crew of the Lewis and Clark have been sent to rescue any survivors. Accompanying them is Doctor William Weir (Sam Neill), the creator of the Event Horizon’s controversial drive system. Accompanying him are his ghosts…

Event Horizon, despite a troubled production involving some last-minute budgets cuts, remains a high water mark of ’90s SF pulp. The cast are flat out brilliant, with Sam Neill flexing his horror muscles after an extended absence as the haunted Weir. Neill is one of the most likable performers working today and the movie weaponizes that, making us trust him and empathise with him even as he’s broken down and turned into a weapon by the terrible thing his ship has become.

But it’s the Search and Rescue team you love, even as they’re torn apart. Laurence Fishburne’s Captain Miller is driven, focused and haunted in his own way. Joely Richardson’s Starck is relentlessly competent and a point of stillness in an increasingly frantic story while Kathleen Quinlan’s kind-hearted Peters and Jack Noseworthy’s Justin are the heart of the weird little family. But Sean Pertwee, Jason Isaacs and Richard T. Jones are the standouts. Pertwee’s Smith is a delightfully venomous little weasel of a man, and his hyperactivity is a perfect foil for Isaacs’ monosyllabic, deadly serious medic DJ. Jones meanwhile steals the show as Coop, the ship Rescue Technician. Coop’s job is to rescue the rescuers and he gets a pretty serious workout and is happy about none of it. Jones’ comic timing is impeccable and lands at the exact right time, making the final moments of the movie just bright enough to cope with.

It’s needed too because this is a horror movie with gallons of other people’s blood in its mouth. Anderson famously filmed the original crew tearing themselves apart, and the flashes you get of that here are more than enough. An explosive decompression sequence is memorably horrible too, both for the effects and the malicious run up to it as the victim is shown what’s happening to him by the thing inside the Event Horizon. There’s malice to the ship, and the movie gets its best moments from the Event Horizon playing with its food.

Verdict: If you wanted to be snarky, you could. Starck and Peters are pretty off the shelf WOMAN IN SPACE characters, and the movie is never less than pulpy. But it’s also never less than working flat out to entertain you and it usually succeeds. Even after all those years out in the dark… 9/10

Alasdair Stuart