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Created Mar 07, 2009 01:37AM PST • Edited Mar 07, 2009 01:37AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   A guiltily enjoyable and disturbing horror sci-fi, Event Horizon provides gore and suspense as well as taking the viewer in a decidedly unexpected direction.

4. Acting

   OK 2.5

   Fishburne and Neill dominate proceedings, but Jones, Richardson, Pertwee and others are more than able in this Alien-like cast.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

   Laurence Fishburne is captain of another ship before the Nebuchadnezzar here – and Morpheus he is not. It’s hard to remember that he was such a good actor other than his performances in the Matrix trilogy, but his tussles with Neill are fun to watch. Sam Neill positively ruins any and all innocent perceptions of him after Jurassic Park with this character – Dr. Weir is haunted by his wife’s suicide, and eventually driven over the edge, Neill conveying this insane man rather convincingly.

6. Female Stars Barely OK 2.0

   Joely Richardson and Kathleen Quinlan play the two women on board – but they don’t really have anything to do, and as a result their effect is somewhat diminished. No Ripley on board this ship.

7. Female Costars Barely OK 2.0

   Adjusted accordingly.

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

   Richard T. Jones (Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles), Jason Isaacs and Sean Pertwee present the different aspects of the ship’s male crew, each with a certain archetype but each presenting their character as someone the audience can relate to.

10. Film

    Good 3.0

    Paul Anderson (he of Death Race and AVP ignominy) makes what I would consider to be his best film here – an original idea executed in a very intelligent way through his direction. All the other aspects help give this film its deserved cult status.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

    Anderson directs a cast of famous (and not so famous) actors in what they would probably have considered a ridiculous movie. Nevertheless, he does his best work here, and it’s a damn shame that he decided to go the way he did in Hollywood – this British director had excellent promise on watching this movie, and it’s a sign of the times that a new film from him is laughed at.

12. Play OK 2.5

    Much of this is hammy – but when the disturbances onboard begin to be understood, it picks up a little.

13. Music Good 3.0

    Techno-classical beats background the uncomfortable tension and horror ever-present in the movie, giving it a bizarre and at times rather disturbing soundtrack.

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5

    Space, as well as the spaceships themselves, is rendered beautifully for a ‘90s film – these effects are better than some of today’s, which says something about film-making. What is more significant though are the practical effects – the gore and presentations of torture are disgustingly done – again, the film appears to give more than you would expect from it.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Horrid 4.0

    This movie is far more edgy than at first glance actually – whilst much of the truly disturbing imagery is either hinted at or shown in jump cuts, it is by no means any less harsh. Language and sex follow suit.

17. Sex Lewd 4.5

18. Violence Savage 4.0

19. Rudeness Profane 3.4

21. Reality

    Fantasy 5.0

22. Circumstantial Fantasy 5.0

23. Biological Fantasy 5.0

24. Physical Fantasy 5.0