10 Great Films From Bad Directors
7. Event Horizon - Paul W.S. Anderson
Perhaps best known these days for his mixed bag of a Resident Evil Franchise, Paul W.S. Anderson is a bad director who can at least be said to make some really fun movies. The first Alien vs Predator is a campy action-horror that deserves way more praise than it gets, and 1994’s Shopping was surprisingly slick for a directorial debut.
Far and away the director’s best work was 1997’s Event Horizon. A sci-fi horror that went massively underappreciated upon release, Event Horizon has grown beyond a cult film into a bona fide sci-fi horror classic.
Concerning a rescue crew sent to investigate the reappearance of an experimental warp ship, the situation aboard the Event Horizon quickly goes south as the crew succumb to terror, madness and perhaps the trappings of hell itself. Also, out of character for Anderson, the film doesn’t feature a single scene of Milla Jovovich naked. Very strange.
A somewhat typical ‘ghost ship’ story coloured with tinges of cosmic horror, Event Horizon was rightfully reassessed as a flawed masterpiece in the years since its home video release. Anderson supports this view, saying he was immensely proud of the work he and the crew put in and that the film didn’t get a fair shake at its initial debut.