Event Horizon

Event Horizon – 1997 – United States, England

I like this movie. In fact, I like it so much, that I wrote an essay about it for my college cinematography course. Event Horizon isn’t especially original. It’s basically Alien (1979) combined with a haunted house story with a bit of Hellraiser (1987) thrown in, but that sounds like a winning combination to me. Director Paul W. S. Anderson (director of Mortal Kombat and Death Race) and actor Laurence Fishburne are always a delight.

In the year 2047, an outer space rescue team goes to Neptune to recover a ship that disappeared while testing an experimental warp drive. The ship is abandoned, and the only clues are some bloody remains and a series of violent and surreal video recordings from the crew. It turns out that the warp drive accidentally transported the ship to Hell, and the crew were all possessed by demons. As the rescue team uncovers the mystery, they are plagued by hallucinations and specters from their past. Eventually, one of them is possessed by a demon, and then the murders start.

Death Race

Death Race – 2008 – United States

Remakes aren’t always bad. The Thing (1981) is better than The Thing from Another World (1951). The Fly (1986) is better than The Fly (1958). I don’t know if Death Race is better than Death Race 2000 (1975), but it’s pretty dang good. As far as I’m concerned, director Paul W. S. Anderson (who also directed Event Horizon and the original Mortal Kombat) can walk on water, but I haven’t looked through his filmography in a while, so don’t try and prove me wrong.

In the dystopian future, the U.S. economy has collapsed. No one has a job, and crime is rampant. Overcrowded prisons are for-profit institutions, and they make money by selling pay-per-view subscriptions to deadly gladiatorial games starring convicts.

Aliens vs. Predator

Aliens vs. Predator – 2004 – United States

Alien vs. Predator imagines what would happen if the Xenomorphs from Alien (1979) and the Predators from Predator (1987) ever got in a fight. Before this movie, Alien vs. Predator was a comic, a video game, and a fantasy for nearly everyone who ever saw both Alien and Predator. But the Alien vs. Predator movie (AVP from here on) is the first movie to officially tackle the concept. It is probably exactly what you are expecting.

In modern times, humans explorers find a ziggurat beneath the Antarctic ice. The ziggurat contains ancient Aztec, Egyptian, and Cambodian art and writing as well as hieroglyphics featuring Xenomorphs and Predators. But actually, the ziggurat is a battle arena built by the Predators for their Xenomorph-slaying rites of passage. Its labyrinthine tunnels change their layout every ten minutes and are full of traps and Xenomorphs. As the human explorers probe the ziggurat’s depths, they are sealed in and trapped in a deathmatch between the Predators and their Xenomorph prey.