EVENT HORIZON (61)

Directed by: Paul Anderson

Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan

The Pitch: In 2047, a rescue vessel is sent to look for survivors on the "Event Horizon", a spaceship that's resurfaced after having mysteriously disappeared seven years before.

Theo Sez: Tight and imaginative, an ALIEN clone with SOLARIS plotting : the malign forces at work here don't jump out at our heroes from dark corners (let alone emerge from their stomachs), but prey on their fears and guilty secrets, drawing them in through hallucinations of whatever means most to them - the child they miss, the woman they wish could forgive them. It fits in nicely with the theme, which is the danger of scientific hubris - the way Science draws us in with the dream of reaching ever further into the universe, refusing to accept that we can reach too far for our own good. That the penalty for those who follow blindly is referred to as "Hell" may be a serious warning against playing God or just, as in MIMIC, a quick way of getting some pre-millennial cachet ; but it's still an atmospheric horror movie, visually striking and claustrophobically tense. It's not above the occasional silly plot twist or howlingly ludicrous line of dialogue - "What happened to your eyes?" is perhaps not the first thing one would say when confronted by a man with his eyes torn out - but you can't have everything. Most offbeat detail : the crew's affectionate, quasi-erotic nicknames for each other ; meet boyish young Engineer Justin, known to all as "Baby Bear".