27 Years Later, Wildest Sci-Fi Thriller of the 90s is Now on Prime

Summary

• One of the best movies in the sci-fi horror genre is now available on Prime.
• It's a movie about astronauts sent to recover the crew of a ship that disappeared under mysterious circumstances 7 years ago.
• A TV adaptation is also in development by Paramount and Amazon.

The evolution of space horror movies paralleled the evolution of science fiction in cinema in general. First, the idea of something alien and sinister lurking in space was present in the B-movies of the '50s, then the theme took on a huge amount of existential psychological overtones in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Tarkovsky's Solaris. Then, of course, came the main proponents, Ridley Scott 's Alien and James Cameron 's Aliens.

Such seminal films were reflected in other pop-culture media, including tabletop and role-playing games like Warhammer 40K, which pushed the boundaries of space horror even further — mixing it with elements of the mystical and occult, no less than Giger himself.

Under these conditions, the most ingenious idea was to keep space horror in the haunted house style, because what makes the genre so terrifying is the total isolation of those who are in a spaceship. This is the subject of the 1997 movie directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and written by Philip Eisner, which can be described as both a space horror and a psychological sci-fi thriller.

A TV adaptation is in development, so why not check the source material out now that it's available to stream on Prime?

What Is This Cult Sci-Fi Movie About?

We're talking about the 1997 film Event Horizon. The script was developed by Philip Eisner and is presented as a 'haunted house story in outer space'. And the plot is indeed that, starting as a suspenseful thriller and ending as an eerie horror about mankind's first contact with sentient beings from another dimension, which might turn out to be Hell.

The plot follows the crew of the rescue ship Lewis and Clark, sent to retrieve the crew members of a spaceship called the Event Horizon. The spaceship, which traveled to Proxima Centauri by faster-than-light travel, disappeared 7 years ago and suddenly reappeared near Neptune's orbit. Only there were some incredibly gruesome murders on board, and the cause may have been contact with something living in hyperspace. The movie stars Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson, Richard T. Jones, Jason Isaacs and Sean Pertwee.

Despite receiving lukewarm reviews upon release (the film's problems were due to its production and editing in an extremely compressed time frame, as Paramount Pictures wanted to release it before the premiere of Titanic ), over the years the film has come to be considered a cult classic and has influenced the further development of sci-fi horror, including both its original inspirations Alien and WH 40k, as well as other franchises such as the video game series Dead Space. Even Christopher Nolan borrowed a scene explaining the workings of wormholes for his Interstellar!

News about the TV Adaptation

And it's been known for several years that a TV adaptation is in development by Paramount Television and Amazon Studios, with Adam Wingard, known for both the successful Godzilla vs. Kong 2021 and the less successful Death Note 2017, working on it. Yes, the live-action version of the iconic anime was a complete failure for Netflix, but Wingard can be trusted given his track record in recent years.

'It's definitely in the works,' Wingard told Inverse. 'I've just been in Godzilla land for so long. I wouldn't say that there's definitive traction in terms of it moving forward, but we have a f---ing amazing script.'

As for the original movie, it was already streaming on Prime, but it required an MGM+ or Paramount+ subscription. Now it's also available with a basic subscription to the Amazon-owned streaming service.

Source: Inverse.