The Making of 'Event Horizon'

This appears to be for Disc 2 of the 2006 Event Horizion Special Collector's Edition DVDs, which one of the bonus features contains 5 Documentaries entitled The Making of Event Horizon.

They are:

Into The Jaws Of Darkness, The Body Of The Beast, Liberate Tuteme Ex Inernis, The Scale To Hell, The Womb Of Fear.

Though delayed a while from the movies original release date and DVD, it is still an insightful look into some of the background and history to this wonderful Science Fiction horror movie. Any true fan will already have bought themselves a copy, which also comes with the original "enhanced" version of the movie on Disc 1 with a commentary track by Paul W.S. Anderson and Jeremy Bell, as well as some more bonus features on Disc 2. Included on Disc 2 will be some missing scenes, unfilmed scenes, conceptual art, the filming of, trailers and more interesting stuff.

It is however not a Directors Cut, nor just the original theatrical version, nor a Sci-Fi Channel or HBO special of the Making of EH.

Before I review this let me just make something abundantly clear. I'm biased towards this movie. I've been spellbound from it ever since it played in the theaters back in 1997. I've seen it well over 100 times and am an avid collector of everything Event Horizon.

Whew! OK, now onto the review. The title of this feature can be misleading. It has the exact same title as an HBO special that aired in 1997. However this is not that feature. The 1997 HBO special was about 25 minutes long with interviews with cast and crew and some clips not seen anywhere else, including this new feature.

But this new one, found on the Event Horizon special collector's edition is a real joy. As zamise outlined it previously it's made of a number of chapters, each with dizzying amounts of trivia and behind the scenes fun. Even die hards like me learned things from it.

While Paul W.S. Anderson continues to be hounded by dimwits, this is a great look into his greatest achievement and even those Anderson bashers are bound to find themselves entranced by this new DVD.

I loved the film. So I was excited that a special edition was being released. I got that really cool Spaceship case.

The biggest problem with this doc is that not many people are interviewed. It would've been nice to see Sam Neil, Fishburne and the other cast, but all we get is Mr Isaacs.

They used archive footage for Richard Yurcich's interview. Why not get archive interviews with the cast?

They do have a lot to say about the cast, Jason called Fishburne "Florence" and the make FX team said they enjoyed working on Sam Neil's prosthetics. Whilst they were putting the make up on him, they had The Jungle Book on and were singing away. And that Sam was really naked in those scenes and it was freezing.

Another problem with this doc is that there is no music, so it does feel quite boring at parts. Why not use the score of the film like most "Making of" docs? Also, there's not enough behind the scenes footage.

I had to roll my eyes at Anderson talking about Ridley Scott AGAIN! I swear he loves Ridley more than Milla!

I thought it was funny that everyone was interviewed in a pub. I think that the makers of this doc wanted to get everyone tipsy, so that they can reveal juicer secrets.

I did learn a lot of good things about this doc. Such as The Event Horizon's look was based on the Notre Dame cathedral. The role of Stark was originally a man (I bet Anderson was lying cos he LOVES Ridley Scott so much!), originally the characters were meant to floating in zero gravity throughout the whole film. How it was Jason's idea to have a scar on DJ's chest from an operation he had as a kid. (Which was never explained in the movie) The religion references, a huge mirror was used to make the corridor look longer and the film's troubled test screenings.

By the way, was it necessary to have a MASSIVE close up on Paul's face at the end of the doc. I don't want to count how zits he has, thank you! It's like watching Son Of The Mask where EVERY shot is a close up on someone! Maybe they did that on purpose because Paul does an awful lot of close ups in his movies. They were probably like "See how YOU like it!"

Overall, a great doc and worth watching if you love the movie.