Home Entertainment NSFW – Take a gory look at the EVENT HORIZON that almost was

NSFW – Take a gory look at the EVENT HORIZON that almost was

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event-horizon-movie-poster-1997-10202554881

Event Horizon is one of those classic horror films of the ninties. Practical effects are dominant, special effects are expensive and seldom used and some good ol’ “show ’em nothing” style of horror helped make this a pretty good film. But not a great film.

Event Horizon is also a perfect example of studio meddling, with the final product being a watered down, jump cut edited version of what director Paul “Yes the Resident Evil guy” Anderson wanted to unleash on the big screen. And if he had had his way, Event Horizon would have been a far gorier and intense film. See for yourself after the NSFW jump.

Why did they have barbed wire on a space ship? Still, it’s clear that Anderson had a much darker vision in mind for Event Horizon, judging by these stills from Dread Central. Originally, Anderson had completed the film and the running length was 130 minutes, including those very graphic mutiliation scenes seen in the pictures above. Paramount, the studio backing the film was clearly unnerved by this version of the film, as were test audiences, and told Anderson to trim his movie down by 30 minutes and to make it less gory.

Since then, the only evidence of these footage that has existed was on a poor VHS copy of the film, as Paramount decided to just scrap all that extra content instead of preserve it. Until last year that is, when a fresh VHS tape cropped up with the missing footage in much better condition.

I’m personally hoping that Paramount and Anderson release a director’s cut of the film. I’d pay good money for that version of Event Horizon.

 

 

Last Updated: August 20, 2013

21 Comments

  1. I think execs did good job then in reigning Anderson in … The movie was pretty flipping scary when it came out. … but then I do generally dislike horror movies preferring not be psychologically scarred be my cinematic experiences 🙂

    Reply

    • James Francis

      August 21, 2013 at 12:41

      Yeah, that amount of gore would never have flown in the Nineties.

      Reply

  2. Admiral Chief Raider of Tombs

    August 20, 2013 at 13:00

    Good grief, this movie freaked me the hell out

    Reply

  3. Skyblue

    August 20, 2013 at 13:10

    Now I want a director’s cut dammit

    Reply

    • James Francis

      August 21, 2013 at 12:41

      Same here.

      Reply

    • michael kelley

      October 28, 2016 at 07:44

      Apparently paramount burned the directors cut as they felt it had no use. Someone found a copy in a Transylvania basement but it was of low quality and had editor marks all over it (images were released with 2006 DVD, of which NONE are shown here-these images are all split second frames from the theatrical). Anderson said in 2012 that some exec supposedly found a VHS copy of the entire 130 minute original but no ones heard anything since.

      Reply

  4. Draco Lusus

    August 20, 2013 at 13:20

    I would think the barbed wire came from the other dimension maybe?

    Reply

    • Igzorn

      February 24, 2014 at 21:19

      i wonder why but nobody brings up the the “warp” comparison. you know the dimensional drive in warhammer 40.000 .

      Reply

      • michael kelley

        October 28, 2016 at 07:42

        That comparison is EVERYWHERE. Just type in “Event Horizon prequel” to any search engine.

        Reply

  5. Lourens Corleone

    August 20, 2013 at 13:54

    There’s loads of barbwire…in hell! Also, I wonder where they got the flies to cause maggots.

    Reply

    • Diznits

      October 18, 2015 at 22:22

      They always have flies in Hell. Every annoying and disgusting bug you can think of? It’s in Hell.

      Reply

  6. Justin Hess

    August 20, 2013 at 15:12

    I liked this film. Yeah, it blatantly riffs on Alien but it does well.
    I’m a big fan of scruffy space types who smoke cigarettes on their ship
    and don’t act all awed by space but treat it like another day at the office.

    Event Horizon really was pretty good and it scared the living shit
    out of me as a kid.

    Reply

  7. Matthew Holliday

    August 20, 2013 at 15:44

    This movie scared this shit out of me when I was 14 years old watching this on etv.
    If it wasnt for the adverts every 5 minutes, I would have lost my shit.

    Reply

  8. James Francis

    August 21, 2013 at 12:42

    Good lord. And the footage actually exists? If I was a Paramount exec, this would be a no-brainer…

    Reply

  9. Daniel Brady

    January 11, 2014 at 15:35

    I wondered how I had forgotten half of those frames…

    Reply

  10. Fullname J Warrington

    October 15, 2016 at 22:26

    “perfect example of studio meddling”

    Eh, I don’t know. By-and-large the most effective horror movies let you fill in the gaps yourself, rather than dumping it in front of you and parading around being all “god DAMN I’m so EDGY and COOL”

    The older I get, the more I appreciate “Studio Cuts” over “Director’s Cuts”; many wind up being excruciatingly long without actually adding any real meat to the story they’re telling

    Reply

  11. michael kelley

    October 28, 2016 at 07:40

    Those images are all in the theatrical release. They are split second frames, but they’re in it. Unless you believe I have the only DVD of the directors cut in existence. Event Horizon is a f*cking LANDMARK sci-fi horror movie, if you don’t like it it’s due to some subconscious puritanical subjectivity, because watching the film with a truly open mind makes it a spectacular piece of work. The entire premise of a gravity drive creating a gateway to another dimension? This was 20 years before “interstellar”, where all of a sudden it’s trendy to accept gravity as being inter-dimensional. Rather than a sequel I want a prequel about the original mission that was lost! The building of the gravity drive?!? My God, the possibilities are endless.

    Reply

  12. D J Richert

    April 28, 2017 at 18:32

    I have to ask, have you even watched this movie? Because I’m gettin that you havent bothered. Know why? Cuz if you had youd know a few things that you obviously don’t. And in the unlikely event you did somehow actually watch the movie you missed the whole, or most of, the plot. It’s people like you that make me hate film reviewers. You think you know everything about film but you know what? YOU KNOW NOTHING

    Reply

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