Entertainment
29 Years Later, This Fan-Favorite Sam Neill Horror Film Is Streaming Free
After the monster success of 1995’s Mortal Kombat adaptation, British director Paul W.S. Anderson was looking to make something more mature. He went with a screenplay that had been floating around at Paramount for some time — Event Horizon. Anderson made changes that both streamlined the story and darkened the tone, transforming it into something more explicitly horror than sci-fi. The result was an inspired blend of Ridley Scott’s Alien and Clive Barker-influenced splatter horror — and a cult hit that traumatized a generation.
Aside from the film’s remarkable gothic production design and no-holds-barred approach to gore, its secret weapon proved to be the late Sam Neill. Fresh off his iconic role as Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, Neill went darker than most audiences had ever seen him go before (provided that they hadn’t seen Possession), and produced images that some audiences at the time found impossible to shake. Today, 29 years after its initial release, the cult horror hit is waiting to be discovered by a new generation of fans on Tubi.
What is ‘Event Horizon’ About?
To the uninitiated, Event Horizon begins very much like paint-by-numbers ’90s sci-fi, right down to the comically simple explanation of experimental wormhole space travel. The year is 2047, and the long missing spacecraft Event Horizon has reappeared on the interstellar map. A small crew is dispatched, along with scientist Dr. Weir (Neill), to recover it and determine where it has been for the past seven years.
The film’s inspired wrinkle is that, in the course of its space-time travels, the Event Horizon ended up going to hell itself — and it brought some Satanic energy back with it. The film’s largely negative reception and box office failure most likely came down to this big, bloody swing, as well as bait-and-switch marketing; today, the internet is flooded with stories of people who went to see what they expected to be a Star Trek-style adventure, only to be surprised by something more akin to Hellraiser in space.
Today, ‘Event Horizon’ Is Considered a Diabolical Cult Classic
Once the rescue crew (featuring solid performances by Laurence Fishburne, Joely Richardson, and Jason Isaacs) discovers the truth about where the Event Horizon has been, the film becomes a hellacious roller-coaster ride, featuring some of the nastiest gore any mainstream, MPAA-approved horror film had featured up to that point. One character’s gruesome experience with decompression is shown in vivid detail, while other crew members are vivisected and hung on hooks. And, in the film’s most infamous sequence, the fate of the ship’s prior crew is shown in a quickly edited video featuring eyeball plucking, rape, disembowelment, and more.
Famously, Anderson’s initial cut of the film ran closer to 130 minutes than its extant tight 96. Fans have clamored for years for the release of the uncut footage, which Anderson says was even more graphic; Isaacs even alluded to the presence of “porn stars and amputees” on set during the filming of the truncated hell orgy sequence. Unfortunately, the footage is now believed to have been destroyed or lost due to poor storage conditions, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Even in its 96-minute form, Event Horizon remains a frightening and incredibly rewatchable slice of horror. And a major factor in its power is Neill’s performance of Dr. Weir. Trading on audiences’ impression of him from Jurassic Park, Neill weaponizes his natural charm beautifully as he transforms from science nerd to demonic entity, becoming the film’s eyeless, grinning villain about halfway through. It’s one of the late actor’s most memorable performances, and the film itself has only in recent years received the praise it was due. New viewers or those looking to dive back into the “infinite terror” can stream Event Horizon free today on Tubi.
Event Horizon
- Release Date
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August 15, 1997
- Runtime
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95 minutes
- Director
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Paul W. S. Anderson
- Writers
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Andrew Kevin Walker, Philip Eisner
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