Event Horizon on PAL Laserdisc

• Cat.no: PLFEB 37371
• Cert: 18
• Running time: 92 minutes
• Sides: 2 (CLV)
• Year: 1997
• Pressing: 1998
• Chapters: 18 (9/8+1)
• Sound: Dolby Surround
• Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
• Price: £24.99
• Extras : Theatrical trailers for “Primal Fear” and “Virtuosity”
  

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  Director:

  Paul Anderson

  (Mortal Kombat, Shopping)

Producers:

Screenplay:

Music:

Cast:

Miller: Laurence Fishburne (Boyz N The Hood, Deep Cover, Fled, Higher Learning, Just Cause, What’s Love Got To Do With It)
Weir: Sam Neill (Dead Calm, Death In Brunswick, Enigma, The Hunt For Red October, In The Mouth Of Madness, The Jungle Book (live action), Jurassic Park, Memoirs Of An Invisible Man, Omen III, The Piano, Sirens, Until The End Of TheWorld)
Peters: Kathleen Quinlan (Airport ’77, The Doors, Sunset)
Starck: Joely Richardson (Shining Through)
Cooper: Richard T. Jones
Justin: Jack Noseworthy (Barb Wire)
D.J.: Jason Isaacs (Armageddon, Dangerous Lady)
Smith: Sean Pertwee (Blue Juice, I.D., Shopping, TV: “Cadfael”, “A Touch Of Frost”)
Burning Man: Noah Huntley (TV: “Emmerdale”)

Event Horizonstarts where the above prologue ends. A signal from theaforementioned craft has been detected and the United States Aerospace Commandresponds. Hurtling toward the signal’s source are a fearless captain(Laurence Fishburne), his elite crew and the lost ship’s designer(Sam Neill).

Their mission: find and salvage the state-of-the-art spacecraft. Beforereaching the ship, Sam Neill tells the crew of the rescue ship, Lewis & Clark,about the Event Horizon’s most important feature – a gravity drive, whichenables the ship to pass from one point of time and space to anotherinstantaneously by briefly joining these two points up for long enough to passthrough. Naturally this is met with scorn, but as events begin to turn the shapeof pear everything gets as bizarre as is possibly imaginable…and then some.

The film has been dubbed ‘“The Shining” in space’, which gives you a fairdescription of some of the problems the crew are due to face, although itborrows elements from a number of films including that one, Alien,Hellraiser, Poltergeist and many other sci-fi or supernatural thrillers.There are, however, a few plot-holes and silly moments throughout the film,such as the crew’s periodical hallucinations all of which serve to create thestrange spectacle on display.

All of the cast are not the sort of people you’d normally associate withsci-fi nonsense, but they do well to carry the material from start to finisheven if it isn’t designed to make perfect sense.

The stand-out cast members are Sam Neill and to say his character has a hidden agenda is an understatement; plus British actors JoelyRichardson – who provides what babe quotient there is – and SeanPertwee, who thinks everything can be carried out with a cocky attitude.

Also in the cast are Jason Isaacs who features in the summer 1998 hitArmageddon as one of those boffins who knows ‘everything abouteverything’ in a five-minute potted version of his role here, while TV soapopera Emmerdale‘s Noah Huntley has a cameeo as “Burning Man” (!)

The picture quality of the disc is excellent. Sharp detail and vivid coloursbring the special effects, be they models or CGI, to life and the widescreenframing of 2.35:1 replicates the original theatrical ratio. Quite how anyoneis able to make sense of such a weird film in fullscreen format is beyondbelief.

The sound is also perfect. Explosions aplenty, dramatic ambience, MichaelKamen’s score, plus The Prodigy’s “Funky Shit” all blend together to providean aural assault on the senses. At first I didn’t think that The Prodigy orthe fast-paced opening music fitted in well with the film, but then followingShopping and Mortal Kombat, director Paul Anderson wasnever known for his subtlety.

The disc needs more chapters with only 17 spread throughout the film itself.In keeping with many a Pioneer title from either the Paramount or Universalstable, there are trailers in the final chapter, but not for the film you’vejust been watching. The trailers are for Virtuosity and PrimalFear – a couple of odd choices since these were released, respectively, inMay and June 1997.

Overall, not only is this a very entertaining film, but also an audio-visualtreat and one which provides good demo material to show to your friends. In theopinion of this reviewer, it’s a must-buy.FILM : ****PICTURE QUALITY: *****SOUND QUALITY: *****EXTRAS: *——————————-OVERALL: ***½

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.