Set in 2047, it follows a crew of astronauts sent on a rescue mission after a missing spaceship, the Event Horizon, spontaneously appears in orbit around Neptune, only to discover that a sinister force has come back with it.
However, it began to sell well on home video; its initial DVD release sold so well that Paramount contacted Anderson to begin working on a restoration of the deleted footage, but it had been either lost or destroyed.
In 2047, a distress signal is received from the Event Horizon, a starship that disappeared during its maiden voyage to Proxima Centauri seven years earlier.
As they search for survivors, the ship's gravity drive activates and briefly pulls Justin into a portal while also causing a shock wave that damages the Lewis and Clark.
The log ends with a shot of the Event Horizon's captain, holding his own eyes gouged from their sockets and speaking the Latin phrase from the earlier distress call.
[5] Weir explains that the ship's drive opened a gateway to a hellish dimension outside the known universe (implied to be Hell), and that the Event Horizon has attained sentience.
Weir, who has gouged out his own eyes and is possessed by the evil presence, uses an explosive device to destroy the Lewis and Clark which kills Smith and blasts Cooper into space.
[7] Paramount Pictures sent him Philip Eisner's original script for Event Horizon, which they had been trying to develop with producers Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin.
Producer and longtime collaborator Jeremy Bolt felt it was a "terrific concept" but was "very dense" in terms of length and the storyline was "a bit lost".
[8] Anderson did not want to direct a mimicry of Alien, so he gave the script a major rewrite, picturing a "classic haunted house movie".
He incorporated significant influences of moderately successful horror films such as Robert Wise's The Haunting (1963) and Kubrick's The Shining (1980), because they created suspense from the unknown—the evil presence was hidden from the viewer—and their endings induced ambiguities of perception in the audience.
Effects supervisors Richard Yuricich and Neil Corbould kept most visuals in-camera, and moving sets were constructed for the gyrosphere gravity drive and the revolving tunnel.
Because the majority of scenes were filmed in a studio on gothic-inspired sets, Anderson felt the cast experienced a kind of "cabin fever" that better served their performances.
He noted that at two hours and 10 minutes, it was overly long, with weak direction and acting that could have used another editing pass; unfinished special effects; and a poor sound mix.
Anderson agreed that while his first cut was too long, Paramount forced him to make one that was instead too short, and that the film would benefit by the restoration of around 10 minutes of footage, including some of the deleted gore.
When the initial DVD release became a surprise hit, the studio and Anderson became interested in assembling a director's cut, but found that the excised footage had not been carefully stored and much of it had gone missing.
's vivisected body with his intestines on the table; and a longer version of the "Visions From Hell" scene during Miller's final fight with Weir, with more shots of Event Horizon's crew being tortured.
[24] The second ending had Miller fighting with the burned man from his visions at the core instead of with Weir, but this was changed due to the negative test screening.
[29] Event Horizon was released on August 15, 1997, and was a box office failure,[30] grossing only $26,616,590 against a $60 million production budget in the United States.
Its consensus reads, "Despite a strong opening that promises sci-fi thrills, Event Horizon quickly devolves into an exercise of style over substance whose flashy effects and gratuitous gore fail to mask its overreliance on horror clichés.
[34] Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars, commending its atmosphere and noting the opening portion as particularly well crafted; however, he felt it never managed to become the intense, thought-provoking experience it wanted to be.
[35] The Washington Post critic Stephen Hunter called the film "pointlessly loud", with more devotion to style than scares and a satisfying explanation of its supernatural experiences.
[36] In a lukewarm review, Empire magazine wrote: "That the film never fulfils its promise is down to its over reliance on horror vagaries in a precision-built sci-fi milieu, ultimately leaving too many unanswered queries.
"[39] Owen Gleiberman gave it a B−, stating, "Just when you've written off this deep-space nightmare as a late-summer melange of Alien, Fantastic Voyage, The Shining, and a dozen more forgettable otherworldly thrillers, it unleashes some of the most unsettling horror imagery in years",[40] whereas Time Out magazine mentioned that "despite its shortcomings, this is never dull.
[13][30][28] In 2022 retrospectives for the 25th anniversary of its release, IGN noted its impact on other media such as the Dead Space video game series,[42] and Rotten Tomatoes wrote that "its unforgettable imagery, standout cast, and escalating thrills have made it a celebrated cult classic for horror aficionados".
[49] In December 2011, Paul W. S. Anderson and Jeremy Bolt stated that there have been ongoing discussions to explore additional movies that would expand the Event Horizon story, in the form of a prequel and a sequel.