It’s Thursday. It’s dark outside and the kiddos are in bed. You’re feeling like a bit of a scare but aren’t sure just what to watch. Fortunately for you I’m under your bed with a long list of great ideas to help you with this problem.
One of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen, easily on my top 5, is Event Horizon (1997) starring Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne.
A strong early warning: this movie is very creepy and very gory. It is not suitable for children, small dogs, and at least one wife. Consider yourselves warned.
Here’s the quick plot synopsis:
Dr. William Weir (Neill) designed and built a special gravity drive that would create an artificial black hole in space. Theoretically ships could pass through this hole and bridge great distances instantaneously. The Event Horizon is the ship built to test the drive. On its maiden voyage it simply disappeared after the drive was activated. Seven years later it reappears in orbit around Neptune.
Captain Miller (Fishburne) and his crew escort Dr. Weir to the derelict craft in an attempt to discover what happened to the Event Horizon and her crew. Long story short, the ship went to Hell and brought some of it back with her.
As you can probably tell, I’m a big fan of scary movies. I’ve seen quite a few of them, in fact. Most are “scary” in that they aren’t (intentionally) funny or sad. Some are supposed to be scary but end up anything but; instead being more funny or stupid. Some are just plain dumb.
Event Horizon is none of these. While the idea isn’t exactly original, the story is properly scary and the shlockier parts of it are made less so by solid acting from Fishburne and Neill. Neill’s Dr. Weir will haunt your dreams afterward, and if he doesn’t, his poor dead wife will. There are no good feelings at the end of this film either. Without giving away the ending, Hell sort of wins. It forces you to think about it after the credits roll, and to me that’s a good thing.
This move is suspenseful and frightening. It is also pretty gory. There is at least one vivisection going on here. If you like scary movies, you will love Event Horizon.
Scarydad review: **** Four stars
And at least 1 wife…