10 Sci-Fi Movies That Ignored The Critics
5. Event Horizon
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 29%
Metacritic Score: 35
Paul W S Anderson is not known for making good films.
We know what you're thinking. But no, not that Paul Anderson, the other one.
'Specialising' in video game adaptations, Anderson's filmography includes such bottom of the barrel tosh as the original Mortal Kombat (1995), DOA: Dead Or Alive (2006) and all six Resident Evils (2002-2016). So abject are his failures, he doesn't have a single critical success to his name across a thirty-year career, and he may in fact be responsible for the received truth that video games can't, or shouldn't, be adapted for the big screen.
Yet, amongst the rough is the diamond we know as Event Horizon. Released in 1997, Anderson's third film is a cult sci-fi space horror quite unlike any other.
The film was a commercial and critical failure, suffering heavily from a disruptive production and studio interference, and yet it endures because it is so. damn. compelling. What begins as a run of the mill sci-fi adventure, with Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne leading a deep-space voyage, soon flips the script with some visceral inter-dimensional hoodoo leaning into influences as diverse as Warhammer 40k, Alien and Hellraiser.
It's ridiculously fun, it's terrifying and it beat more prestige filmmaking like Sunshine (2007) and Interstellar (2014) to the pip by a country mile.