Love it or hate it - Event Horizon - A better Doom movie?

[ChancellorKremlin]

Some creepy engine graphical glitches in FNV recently had me thinking about a movie called "Event Horizon" which came out in 1997 and was directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. It stared Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill, and is set in the near future at the edge of the solar system, when a rescue/salvage operation team are sent to find this highly experimental and classified FTL ship which disappeared a few years prior after her maiden voyage, and was presumed destroyed. Only, it has returned... but what we all want to know is, where has it been all this time?

 

So yeah, I was actually really quite surprised a lot of people (my GF included) didn't like this movie. I freakin' loved it! I thought it was amazing, I don't know if its because I'm a fan of Doom (the game) and the story behind it, but I thought the film was just brilliant! It had dark humour, a good plot, it was creepy (not scary) and it was good sci-fi! So I was really puzzled people didn't like it.

 

In fact, I think it makes a FAR BETTER Doom movie than "Doom" actually did, which Uwe Bohl basically destroyed because... well, because that's what Uwe Bohl does best, destroy film adaptations of game titles, but that's besides the point.

 

So, anyone else here have any thoughts about the movie? Anything they'd like to discuss? 

[Nonsense667]

I was just talking about this the other day! Yeah, loved the movie. Of course, it's been a WHILE since I've seen it. I can't remember when I first saw it, middle school or highschool, I just remember I was young enough to get freaked out. I remember most of all, being fascinated with the explanation of how the ship traveled. I can so very well remember the scene where he asks what the fastest way to get from A to B is. A straight line? Nope. And then he folds the paper and sticks the pencil through it. Make A and B be in the same place. Found that so damn cool. Watched it again... hmmm... a few years ago. At night with the lights off of course. I remember still thinking it was good, if I remember correctly. The film has the right atmosphere. The ship has a great design, the name is awesome, etc. 

[Myst42]

The curious thing is I was just replaying Doom 3 this last week.

My thoughts are that the story in that game was so immersive and creepy

The hole idea of an ancient lost civilization on mars with mystic technology that managed to develop teletransportation technology and ended up discovering a portal to hell is just perfect for Doom

Then the movie came up and i got to say the one and only part i really liked about it was when the main hero was killing some creatures in first person.

The movie had no mystic, no ancient civilization, no portal to hell, no hell, no soulcube, no fire shooting imps, no hellknights, no ciberdemon no nothing even remotely close to the original story of Doom

(Yes im familiar with the first Doom games too, but the story wasnt so immersive, it was cool because you get to shoot things...)

A major disappointment

 

Event horizon on the other hand, is by no means directly related to Doom, but it is a helluva lot more immersive and Doom-like than the official Doom movie

And it also has this creepy "terror in space" feeling that remembers movies like Alien when it said "in space no one can hear your screams" or something like it

Its a feeling of loneliness and abandon in a very dark place that makes it even creepier

 

Great movie

That how Doom movie should have been

 

 

[Astaroth-Lite]

Everyone knows that movie is a Warhammer 40k prequel involving humanity's first encounter with the warp.

[gregathit]

I think Doom the movies problem was that they tried to make it far less dark than the game.  They also removed much of the occult association (perhaps fearing that would offend folks like Event Horizon and other movies have) and were left with a very shallow background and a weak story.  Cool special effects and the 1st person camera were not enough to save the movie.  It was a shame as the potential with the actors and special effects was certainly there.

 

I personally enjoyed both movies, but I would have to agree with the OP that Event Horizon was indeed more "Doom like" than the Doom movie itself.

A Doom movie after the style of Event Horizon would have been EPIC!

 

 

[ChancellorKremlin]

I was just talking about this the other day! Yeah, loved the movie. Of course, it's been a WHILE since I've seen it. I can't remember when I first saw it, middle school or highschool, I just remember I was young enough to get freaked out. I remember most of all, being fascinated with the explanation of how the ship traveled. I can so very well remember the scene where he asks what the fastest way to get from A to B is. A straight line? Nope. And then he folds the paper and sticks the pencil through it. Make A and B be in the same place. Found that so damn cool. Watched it again... hmmm... a few years ago. At night with the lights off of course. I remember still thinking it was good, if I remember correctly. The film has the right atmosphere. The ship has a great design, the name is awesome, etc. 

 

I know, I think I watched it at a similar age. That part also stuck with me, It think that is some of Sam Neil's acting at his best in that film, especially when he loses it towards the end... "I am home..." ooh, tingly. 

 

The curious thing is I was just replaying Doom 3 this last week.

My thoughts are that the story in that game was so immersive and creepy

The hole idea of an ancient lost civilization on mars with mystic technology that managed to develop teletransportation technology and ended up discovering a portal to hell is just perfect for Doom

Then the movie came up and i got to say the one and only part i really liked about it was when the main hero was killing some creatures in first person.

The movie had no mystic, no ancient civilization, no portal to hell, no hell, no soulcube, no fire shooting imps, no hellknights, no ciberdemon no nothing even remotely close to the original story of Doom

(Yes im familiar with the first Doom games too, but the story wasnt so immersive, it was cool because you get to shoot things...)

A major disappointment

 

Event horizon on the other hand, is by no means directly related to Doom, but it is a helluva lot more immersive and Doom-like than the official Doom movie

And it also has this creepy "terror in space" feeling that remembers movies like Alien when it said "in space no one can hear your screams" or something like it

Its a feeling of loneliness and abandon in a very dark place that makes it even creepier

 

Great movie

That how Doom movie should have been

 

Well actually, if you had the manuals for Doom and the other episodes, the story is remarkably similar. Phobos and Deimos are engaged in teleportation experiments, except everyone to go through them goes insane or comes back extremely violent only to eventually explode. Turns out to teleport they go through hell, and one day Deimos just vanishes entirely (the whole satellite ends up teleported and EP II is basically Deimos hovering over hell) and Phobos becomes host to a hellish invasion.

 

I mean... that's about as Event Horizony as you can get lol! But yes, Doom will forever be remembered for its amazing gameplay and violence, all of which I loved.

 

Everyone knows that movie is a Warhammer 40k prequel involving humanity's first encounter with the warp.

 

I only I was into my Warhammer, if only just to get that reference lol.

 

I think Doom the movies problem was that they tried to make it far less dark than the game.  They also removed much of the occult association (perhaps fearing that would offend folks like Event Horizon and other movies have) and were left with a very shallow background and a weak story.  Cool special effects and the 1st person camera were not enough to save the movie.  It was a shame as the potential with the actors and special effects was certainly there.

 

I personally enjoyed both movies, but I would have to agree with the OP that Event Horizon was indeed more "Doom like" than the Doom movie itself.

A Doom movie after the style of Event Horizon would have been EPIC!

 

Totally agree. I don't know, they just totally dumbed it down - everything was made silly, the fact it was just a gene which made you "good" or "evil", there was no real terror or horror to it. 

 

What I liked most about Event Horizon is that there is no real true enemy or demons or monsters per se, it is just them going crazy and eventually losing it. That, and the ship itself is fucking creepy as... the whole thing works, in my opinion. It really surprises me it only got 27% on RottenTomatoes... generally, I think they get it right, but boy, when they get it wrong, THEY GET IT WRONG! lol

[The DarkSlayer]

The movie reminded me more of Dead Space, in fact I thought it was a movie adaptation of the game when I first watched it and then my bro told me it was released in 1997 lol .

Love Dead Space so naturally I love the film as well

 

 

[Astaroth-Lite]

I only I was into my Warhammer, if only just to get that reference lol.

 

Sadness.

[Emily]

Event horizon isn't that some old horror space movie?

 

it's quite hellish back when emily was young and she was terrified.

[ToJKa]

I only saw it as an adult, so i didn't find it that creepy. Though have you ever watched the flashes on slow motion? Some pretty terrible images there Still, a very good horror movie, right there along with The Thing. (Speaking of, The Thingequel released few years ago totally missed to point of the original, they just made extra-gross monster effects. Though i do appreciate the effort of them trying to remain true to the circumstances of the '82 movie.)

 

The Doom movie... well, let's just say i want the time i spent watching it back

[medic975]

Loved that movie. Sam Neil is awesome in that and, "In the Mouth of Madness". Which if that movie wasn't about Cthulu then I'm the damn pope and you heathens better start referring to me as your eminence.

[Queen Bee]

You guys make me feel old. I saw that movie when I was already a high school grad. I liked it for its Lovecraftian feel mingled with a sci-fi setting. It was like a classic haunted house movie, except instead of a house it's a spaceship. Plus, yanno, Sam Neill and Lawrence Fishburne. Mmmm, put me in the middle of that sandwich any day.

[Emily]

Yes, Then It became pretty much what inspire the Warhammer daemon race.

[AdrianWhite]

I think you have a right time and the right topic i was just looking this trailer Event Horizon..

Its all time good movie..love this...

[cretin]

Loved it.  Most critics hated it, but the atmosphere in that flick was nailed.  The decompression scene is terrifying.  But the last bit where Sam Neill goes all Freddy Krueger is just plain bad-- it should not have gone so campy like it did.  Didn't kill the first 3/4 of the movie though.

 

If you want flashbacks, watch the movie "Sunshine".  It struck me as having just too many unaccredited parallels to Event Horizon.  Damn thing's almost a remake.