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Nostalgiaween begins with a cult classic that no one understands why it’s a cult classic. The Nostalgia Critic reviews 1997’s movie Event Horizon.
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Tagged with: 1997 channel awesome doug walker event horizon halloween movies nostalgia critic
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OH YES.
WE DONT NEED EYES TO SEE WHERE WE ARE GOING…. X_X
Great way to start off Nostalgiaween, Doug. I somewhat suspected that Hell was always in your ass.
I personally love this movie. I’m not a huge horror buff and still love this movie because it does have a good mystery to it and even if someone tells you spoilers, you want to see how it plays out.
This movie was more of a word of mouth/see it at your friend’s thing which is why it’s more of a cult movie. I’m absolutely dying to see the long cut version.
Can you please tell me how to work screenwave or send me a link to a site besides channel awesome that has it?
Hey Midnight, this episode seemed to lag a bit more than usual, but it still played fine on my phone.
To be absolutely honest I always consider this movie as underestimated. Lets put that straight: It isn’t good movie but it also isn’t bad movie as for time it was made (what wasn’t good for cinema overall). I personally love in it how it hit you with f*k up imaginary after you bored you for 3/4. Yes, it could be made better but what I hate in most horrors is that they rush “scary” stuff when here we have decent build up, mystery and pay off. To be honest I’m not sure that gory version really would work, all depend when and how it would be executed.
And one more thing. This movie is about that warp drive (yes, quite lame explained) basically f*k up human minds. People commonly forget that most of those stuff in fact didn’t happened (outside insane people do insane stuff) and that is why they couldn’t find much after original crew diapered, most likely dumped in space by one of them.
But NC,if Paul W.S. Anderson didn’t rip off alien,we’d be forced to watch HIS IDEAS.
If Resident Evil on Playstation was more well known,this guy would be thought of on the level of Michael Bay or Joel Schumacher for what he did to that franchise
Great points
Rezro. No matter how many times I’ve seen this movie, I still don’t find it boring since I think it does a good job building up the mystery with a satisfying payoff.
I do agree that some horror movies rush the scares too fast without giving you some time to breathe wanting more.
Um… if the interpretation that this was all insanity and hallucination, it sure escaped me – but no, what this movie is “about”, is the ship actually crossing through a hellish dimension.
And no, it’s not “warp”.
Love this movie, one of the best horror movies ever made.
Okay, I respect you liked it, but one of the best horror movies? Really? What about Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Frankenstein/Bride of Frankenstein, Psycho (1960), The Shining, Halloween, Night of the Living Dead? They’re in the same league as those movies?
One of the best horror movies from when I was alive (80-90s)
You were only alive in the 80s-90s? That’s very sad. 🙁
So…you’re dead now?
You do realize that The Shining and John Carpenter’s The Thing are also from that same 80’s-90’s timeframe you mention and are infinitely better and scarier movies, right?
He said just “one of best”, not the best. So what is with you people?
Also I forget to mention before: Shining was also underestimated in time of its release, just people catch faster that it is good horror. Though in opposition to Event Horizon it is also good movie, not just horror.
The Shining has nice imagery, but isn’t very scary if you rewatch it. Same for The Thing – once you know its basically a slasher movie with an alien, you are in comfortable territory.
I like horror movies which not only have scary scenes, but also a scary *premise*, like:
– science can actually open a portal to a place of eternal suffering (Event Horizon)
– humanity makes real that which it believes (In the Mouth of Madness)
– ambition and desire are gateways to pretty scary things (Hellraiser & Lord of Illusions)
– even if the occult is just bullshit, there are enough people believing it to *make* it real (Angel Heart & The Serpent and the Rainbow)
Those are movies which have a great rewatch value, because they use ideas which are inherently scary, even if you spoil them. You don’t need to care about the protagonists fate for the horror to work, because what is happening is bigger than them.
If you don’t care about the Torrance family, The Shining isn’t very scary. If you don’t care about the crew of the Lewis & Clark, Event Horizon still is scary as fuck.
I don’t know. Like most of the movies you listed, upping the ante from “_____ causes death” to “_____ causes ETERNAL SUFFERING HELL ON EARTH DOUBLE SATAN MEAT GRINDER” doesn’t always make the premise scarier, for some reason. Most of the time, that kind of scale-based overcompensation can make things harder to take seriously.
OH FUCK IT’S A GHOST
AN INTERNET GHOST
OH GOD
I AM SO SPOOKED RIGHT NOW
the Shining is a bad movie. I’m not even trolling here. decent cinematography and a couple innovative ways to be spoopy doesn’t change the fact that it was all a completely pointless ghost flick with its fascinating original plot dumbed down to “haunted hotel kills a bunch of dudes.” also, Nicholson was just plain goofy as hell in a Clown Tim Curry way.
Preach it, brother.
I’m with Stephen King on this one: his book was complex and subtle and truly frightening, but also very personal to him; Jack’s character arc was something that mattered a lot to King, and the film screwed it up completely. The author of the book hates the movie, and so do I. It doesn’t capture the novel’s awesomeness in the sllightest.
And what is it with the NC and King? The adaptations from King’s novels might suck for the most part (although there are great ones such as The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Apt Pupil, and Stand By Me – three of them novellas from the same collection, actually), but a good chunk of his books rocks. King is a master of the word. Just read The Stand, The Shining, The Green Mile, Insomnia, Doctor Sleep (sequel to The Shining), or The Dark Tower series. Those are unrivalled masterpieces.
Yes, I am a fan. Doesn’t mean everything he writes is perfect, but a lot of it is damn brilliant. I guess I just don’t think it’s funny when a few shitty adaptations get mixed with a body of literary work that has captured the imaginations of millions of people over decades. I can even safely say that The Dark Tower changed me. Those aren’t just books, they’re an experience.
Of course I haven’t seen it, but given what Doug said about (even if I did expect it to better than that), it’s no way in the league of those movies.
Can you tell me how to work screenwave
Have you tried clicking on the HD button in the bottom right corner and lowering the resolution there? This fixed the problem for me, hope it helps you as well.
And please stop asking that question over and over. If this simple trick doesn’t work, google is your best bet, it’s unlikely that someone here knows a simple fix for it that works with your device and browser.
To be honest I think he is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY to critical of it you should go check it out.
The nostalgia critic was ultra nitpicky and this is a bad review of this movie overall
its much better than he made it look
I really enjoy this movie. Its not good, but I have a really fun time watching it. And no I’m not one of those jocks that wanted to be into hardcore scary movies. I just like dumb shit.
6:25-7:40 And this is why exposition in the use of dialogue can hurt your movie/video game/TV show. When you establish your characters one way, it makes it look ridiculous that they don’t know this kind of information. They might as well turn to the audience and say “How about we explain to you guys what is going on for the next 10-15 minutes so you don’t get lost, okay?”
Except NC totally misrepresents what the characters are asking and confused about. That entire conversation, was about how the warp drive. A classified top secret project that no one but Sam Neil knows about.
The characters are completely knowledged and competent about normal space travel. The warp drive is not normal space travel.
Loved the video, a ton of work went into it. Great job Critic.
Yes, a pre 2000 movie!!!
yeah, for like the first time in MONTHS, right?
LOVED that intro!!!!!!!
So yeah this movie was a yawn, but next time THE KING HAS RETURNED!
Hilarious Intro, hopefully he goes over old Goosebumps and Are You Afraid Of The Dark episodes like JonTron did
Where did you get that jacket?
Nooooooo! They killed Alfred!
But at least they also killed Lucius Malfoy.
That bummed me out. He’s cute. Don’t kill off the cute ones! XD
Love the new opening. Really enjoyed it. I kinda wanted to see an opening similar to American Horror Story’s openings
I’m guessing the next video will be Dreamcatcher!
The novel is awesome. The movie sucked – except for Damian Lewis, who was also awesome.
I think the main reason there is a cult following for the movie is the fact that it borrows from 2 of the more successful horror names/serieses, those being Alien and Hellraiser, it actually does remind me a lot of the scenarios for hellraiser (specifically hellraiser 3) and as you mentioned in your video, the set design was pretty much identical to that of Alien, the combination of the 2 leads to something that could make a fairly good movie if done correctly
Basically what people forget is that “cult” movie isn’t this same as “good movie”. Yes, Event Horizon isn’t particularly good movie, but what should work in it work. That is why it have followers even if it isn’t as good as it should. Until recently I even though that people forget about it like about “Sphere”, but it seem it get recognition.
I want the jacket NC’s wearing!
Does anyone know if this video is on any other websites or if Doug can create his own website for it cause I’ve been loading it all day and it’s been failing? I think I’m about to cry if it doesn’t work. I can’t even pick an option if I could downgrade it!!!! Someone PLZ help and quick?!!!!!
The episodes are usually uploaded to youtube after a few days. Beyond that, I’m not sure what to tell you to do.
Tomorrow at 6 PM Eastern. Channel Awesome’s YouTube
Good video Doug and it really interest me what could have happened if that other movie was made and the studio didn’t make to much cuts. Just think about it it would have been really interesting then what we got maybe he could of did a whole section where that happened and they were just getting tortured but ope cause it’s all about what the studio wants. Let’s hope they release it on bluray in a special edition for it and hey with that goosebumps style opening I feel that your going to do a goosebumps clip less review for the last movie this month!!!!!
There is also allot off fans of the Warhammer 40k franchise that like this movie. The overall sorie seams to show what would happen to a ship if it would went through the warp with it’s warp shields down. Also all the spikes and designs look like something the forces of chaos would make.
Indeed! Possibly the best movie set in Warhammer 40,000 universe (sadly).
Still waiting for three Eisehorn movies to come out.. (a guy can dream, y’know!)
does that mean W40K fans also like the earlier Hellraiser movies because its depiction of Hell is basically Slaanesh’s turf of the Warp?
And Starship Troopers because it’s Imperial Guard: the Movie
And Dredd because it’s Arbites: the Movie (doubly so since GeeDubya ripped arbites and half the setting straight from 2000 AD comics)
and Pathfinder because it’s WHFB Chaos Marauders: the Movie
and Ultramarines because- wait, no one likes the Ultramarines movie.
Dredd yay!
Starship Troopers.. meh. IG doesn’t just run around with rifles (ok, lasguns) all the time like a bunch of dumbassess. They’ve got Leman Russes, Sentinels, Chimaeras, etc. In short – IG is a proper army, unlike Starship Troopers.
Pathfinder? Haven’t seen that, gotta go google!
Its.. Ok? a good popcorn one, but at times you just roll your eyes. Carl urban does a good job, but as my housemate watched it after watching Dredd, he kept announcing “IAMDALAWWW!!”
Fans of Warhammer 40,000 tend to like this movie. The way hell/FTL travel work in Event Horizon is close enough to the Warp in 40k that we tend to get a good laugh. The usual joke is that this is an early Warp travel test, and mankind just needs to invent the Geller field to avoid all the nasty side effects.
Is it the unabridged version of ‘The Stand’?
Thanks for that. Now I can’t get the mental image of a book the width of a baseball bat being lodged in someone’s ass out of my head.
Was the whole thing with hell being the Critic’s ass a reference to the South Park episode, “Cancelled”?
Hi there!
Yeah, I don’t get it, either. I saw this movie on one of the first nights that it was out in theaters, and it absolutely terrified me. Seriously! And I am a veteran of horror flicks! Then everybody I told: “You HAVE to see this movie!!” came back to me and said something along the lines of: “That craptacular snooze-fest you told me to go see? I’ll never get those two hours of my life back!”.
I don’t get it. I saw a movie that was terrifying. Maybe I saw one of the cuts with all of the violent scenes thrown in or something?
I also disagree that it would be up there with The Shining, Psycho, Halloween, et al., but I don’t think it would be THAT far below them. Certainly above The Blair Witch Project or Signs, though. [shrug]
You know, I remember some of those most grotesque scenes, It may be possible that somewhat a less cut version has come to light?
The review format changed. It’s been three years. It’s not going anywhere. Get over it. His old style gave him psychological burn-out. And you really wish he’d just grin and bear it? How fucking selfish could you get?
If you’re really, this resistant to change to the point where you’re still whining, then it’s a goddamn mystery that you didn’t kill yourself the moment you hit puberty if change is really so hard for you.
Goddamn it, replied to the wrong comment.
Blair Witch Project is way scarier than Psycho.
Because it is terrifying and uncut version never surfaced if I recall? And yes, it is basically mix between Hellreaser (in Space) and Allien (without alien), but what work in this movie is that hell stuff don’t come until end of movie and that is why it work better then full exposure. Though it get old pretty fast and that is why people complain about bad CGI, what could be climate killer for some people.
my family owned a DVD of it, and I remember this movie scarring me for life when I watched it
but I also remember it being much more gory than people claim it to be (hell, watching good bad flicks video on it I noticed one of the scenes I most distinctly remember from the movie was amongst the ones mentioned as having been cut or toned down…)
so maybe there ARE two versions of this movie floating around, a neutered version and an actually good one.
I personally think that this movie has a place in the genre that actually doesn’t have that many movies to complete with. Sure, we’ve got Alien, but what else, especially at that time? We don’t, that’s what.
Yeah, but being one of the only members of a specific subgenre doesn’t inherently make something good. And which subgenre are you aiming at? Because there was a hell of a lot better sci-fi horror films such as The Fly, The Thing, Reanimator, etc. Or specifically horror in space? Which I’d then point to a movie that came out like only a year later and is far superior IMO, Pitch Black.
But no one said that it is “best horror ever made”, just that it is better movie then people commonly though in past and it could seriously terrify people, what we can’t say about most horrors anyway.
yeah, it’s not the greatest movie out there and some of the elements are derivative, but it does offer an overall unique experience. the fact this movie is so well known is more a demonstration that the horror genre isn’t varied enough.
Besides the crappy cgi I have to say it’s at least a good looking Alien copy.
And I have nothing against a good cause obviously and wish them the best, but the name of the charity combined with that music almost makes it look like a spoof 😛
I enjoyed this movie. As admittedly bad as it is in it’s execution, I like the concept behind it.
Exactly! And that is why it is a “cult movie”.
A tunnel with walls made of circuit boards? A space station where the living modules aren’t connected to anything but support structure? And the captain’s crazy chair? You can tell a LOT of people were on drugs when they were thinking up the design work for this movie.
Yeah, they stole a ton from the Alien movies, mostly from the first, third and fourth. This movie may have inspired a few others too, or maybe the structure was around long before and I never noticed it before this one came out. ‘Ghost Ship’ and ‘Virus’ have similar plot elements.
And let me ask you all this: Aside from the lack of guns and monsters – would this or would this not have made a better premise for a ‘DOOM’ movie than the one we got with Karl Urban and Dwayne Johnson? In this movie there actually is dimensional travel (sort of) and elements from a hell-like dimension. All they had to do was make the ship three to four times bigger, have it crash-land on Mars and then bring in the U.A.C. to research the ship and start their own experiments. BOOM, instant opening to DOOM!
Instead, we have ‘Event Horizon’. Interesting for its time, surprisingly UNinteresting for today.
Well sort of, just those mentioned are “creature feature” when Event Horizon isn’t and that is what people like about it.
It stole from Alien: Resurrection, you say? Yes, I’m sure a movie released in August 1997 stole from a movie released in November 1997…
Although unlikely, given that they were produced by different studios, they had overlapping production times so technically it is possible.
I’ll agree with you on this one though. They probably just “borrowed heavily” from the first and third and any similarity with the fourth is just coincidental.
I can’t really blame anyone for wanting to imitate the near-masterpiece that is Alien, but to be honest, Alien itself borrowed heavily from at least two previous sources, a fact which people tend to forget. Not sure why anyone would want to borrow from the third film, though.
I thought the prison looked dirty and disused which made it feel desolate. I could feel that the place had history from its filth, wear and darkness. With no technology to track the alien or effective weapons to fight it with you knew the place would be a killing ground and the prison’s bloody history would only grow.
I won’t defend the film as it is my least favorite of the Sigourney Weaver series but it’s not just a worthless cashgrab. It’s not a bad movie, it just isn’t as good as it could have been. It wasn’t the movie the fans wanted.
There are a few glaring problems with this review.
1) Why does Doug have to present his videos in the form of an argument? This causes Doug to make really dumb sweeping generalizations (such as “everyone thinks Mad Max is a masterpiece except for me!”). I guarantee the amount of people that would consider Event Horizon to be any sort
2) Why all the filler? Do we really need sketches to illustrate every single tiny point? That completely eliminates the point of a witty remark – and instead just blatantly looks like stretched out filler. And at that point it just seems like harsh bashing rather than actual comedy. Nobody comes here for deep movie analysis Doug – we really just want to laugh.
3) Where’s the fun? This is so overly written and analytical compared to say…the Arnold Schwarzenegger reviews in the past. Give us dumb jokes – or something funny. These onslaught of skits AREN’T FUNNY. Most of the time they usually do a great job at cancelling out any attempt at humor by spending ridiculous amounts of effort on bashing ridiculously small details in the movie.
Thanks for the review, but the tone in these reviews really kind of suck. It’s as if you really can’t find a way to have fun with these reviews anymore other by dicking around in your studio space with your eccentric sketch buddies (which I suspect is a lot more fun for you than us).
Didn’t finish off my 1st point: I guarantee the amount of people that would consider Event Horizon to be any sort of cult classic are in the minority.
To answer no. 2: Because he HAD to use filler. The amount of pointless gore scenes takes up over half the running time, he wouldn’t have had a whole lot to show, or even comment on. Doug always tries to make his videos about 20-30 minutes long, and it’s pretty obvious this would have been really short because of how little there was to work with. Before I even clicked this and just saw the link I thought “what the fuck is there to even talk about? Like nothing interesting happened in that POS.”
“The amount of pointless gore scenes takes up over half the running time”? Try actually watching the movie, rofl.
Eccentric sketch buddies? I resent that :p
to…..check out a disturbance
doesnt that line seem off to anyone, like it was added post production
Wow… So that’s where the 3 bears ended up for eating Goldy Locks. Pretty fucked up.
I remember this fucking film because the ads for it were everywhere, and never made it really obvious it was a horror film. I went to go see this with my cousin and we both about shit ourselves (we were like 15, and both of us have an aversion to gore).
Yeah, I went to see it thinking it was more of a straight SF flick than a SF horror movie. Based on the trailers and the title, I went in expecting something along the lines of a better version of The Black Hole. Instead I got sort of an inferior version of Hellraiser IN SPACE. Having said that, the gore itself didn’t bother me, it was more the “inferior” part. Plus the misleading advertising, of course.
Having said that, this movie does have a lot in common with The Black Hole in that both have a lot of interesting ideas but they aren’t executed well. This isn’t as good as The Black Hole, because the pace is too slow. As it stands, it certainly is boring.
Little known fact, this movie’s gore inspired the creation of the Woodland Critters’ blood orgy from South Park. Oh, and Matt and Trey thought this was an awful movie too.
I miss the Woodland Critters. They would have been a great boss fight in the Stick if Truth game.
i was just gonna type. nice to see another south park fan.