In August 1997, a movie called Event Horizon was released in theaters. While ultimately a standard space horror movie in the vein of Alien, its thematic elements, much of its set designs, and the plot, drew influence from a wide range of sources: aside from the Alien series, it borrowed elements from the original Russian version of Solaris, 2001, The Haunting and Hellraiser. in addition to non-film media such as Doom and the tabletop
wargame Warhammer 40,000. Some of the thematic influences are quite obvious. The Gothic-inspired design of the Event Horizon seems to be lifted from Warhammer 40,000, as is the concept of a dimension of pure chaos that sits between point A and point B when a ship attempts to bend space and time in faster than light travel. Teleportation being a gateway to hell was also a majour theme of Doom, as well. The pacing and mood of the film is not unlike Alien and Aliens, starting off slow but building up into a crescendo. The film was written by Philip Eisner (also known for cable channel Sci Fi's Firestarter: Rekindled) and an uncredited Andrew Kevin Walker (perhaps best known for Se7en). It was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who was riding high on the success of the Mortal Kombat film and wanted to go back to making R movies. Regardless of what one may think of most of his work (among them the Resident Evil movies and Alien Vs. Predator, which in my opinion is an absolute abortion that still doesn't reach the level of failure presented by Alien Resurrection), this film turned out to be quite good.The year is 2047. and the Event Horizon, a ship that has been presumed lost, having disappeared without a trace in 2040, has suddenly reappeared near Neptune. The Event Horizon was designed for faster-than-light travel, by a stardrive that would bend space and time to create a wormhole extending to any point in the universe. Unfortunately, when the original crew attemped to use it, the entire ship disappeared. Dr. William Weir, played by
Sam Neill, designed the stardrive and so accompanies the rescue ship Lewis and Clark. When they arrive at the Event Horizon, the crew is absent, the ship is without power, and bioscans return strange readings. As the rescue crew explore the ship, the stardrive activates itself and pulls the engineer in, sending a shockwave that damages the Lewis and Clark. Things only get worse from there, as Dr. Weir and the others are plagued by visions of the things that haunt them, the engineer returns, comatose, only to attempt suicide, and Weir himself falls prey to the influence of whatever had taken over the ship. In the end, Captain Miller of the Lewis and Clark sacrifices himself to save the last surviving members of his crew.The film was a failure at the box office, and it got a bit silly towards the end ("you let me burn! *fwoosh*") but became a cult classic, to the point that a special edition was released in 2006. Paul Anderson is a hack, but he managed to pull off some excellent direction. I think the main difference between this film, and the Resident Evil and Alien versus Predator series is that Paul Anderson didn't write Event Horizon.
Then there's the Doom movie.
The general plot of Doom, both the classic games and the more recent Doom 3, has been that attempts to create teleportation technology have opened up a gateway into Hell. The Doom movie gets rid of all that. In the movie, released in October 2005 with a high production budget, the monsters that roam the UAC facilities are revealed to be humans turned monstrous
through an added 24th chromosome. These monsters are able to infect others through bites, and in the end it is revealed that the monsters tended to go after the more unsavoury characters, such as a Marine named Portman, a perverted asshole obsessed with sex and a bit of a coward. Private Hudson his not. The hero, John Grimm, is injected with the chromosome as a last-ditch effort to save his life, and becomes superhuman instead, going on a rampage throughout the facility slaughtering monsters and zombies left and right.My first impression of the movie was that they drew a good deal of their set designs from Doom 3. The plot is nothing at all like Doom, having replaced the Biblical concept of Hell as presented in the games with genetic modification with a morality twist and mixed it with Aliens. It's basically Resident Evil in space.
It's hard to decide if I like or dislike the movie. I remember there was a lot of pissing and moaning about the plot as details were revealed even before the movie came out, and the writer defended it to the death, blaming Hollywood for just about everythin
g that pissed fans off. I'm not sure if the genetics plot was his idea or not, but the premise is frankly irritating especially in light of what Doom is supposed to be about, but the movie itself has high production values and the acting isn't shit-terrible for the most part. It definitely has an Aliens feel to it, but that's not saying much as sci-horror with a hidden, elusive enemy was basically invented by the Alien series and is nearly an ubiquitous trope now. Plot aside, it suffers in the same way Doom 3 did- too much trying to balance action and suspense, killing both. The movie fared better than the game, for the most part, but the only time it ever actually felt like Doom was the 5-minute first person shooter sequence. And even then it didn't feel like Doom 3, it felt more like Classic Doom- the classic, borderline silly run and gun that I grew up with. Which I guess kind of saves the rest of the movie- it's Grimm's Crowning Moment of Awesome, and the movie's as well.So it comes down to this: Why do I call Event Horizon the "real" Doom movie? Because it embodies what I think Doom 3 should have been and what it clearly wanted to be- a high-suspense horror tale that relies on a cultural fear of classic, Fire n' Brimstone Hell to create tension, making the scary parts that much scarier. It's not as action-packed, but frankly the argument over "Modern Doom" and "Classic Doom" and whether one or the other should be action-packed or suspenseful is an article for another day.
