It seems like horror just cannot stop itself from creating “legacyquel” after “legacyquel”! These are the films that reimagine classic movies while still continuing their story, with the upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer being a perfect example; it follows the general plot of its predecessor but still sets itself within the same universe, continuing the original plot while introducing a whole new cast to continue the franchise. There have been many legacyquels in recent years — to varying degrees of success — which is why horror fans are still so baffled why we haven’t gotten one for Paul W. S. Anderson’s seminal classic, Event Horizon. This film broke ground in both the horror and science-fiction genres, with its story of astronauts finding a portal to hell not only innovating each medium but featuring some of the best effects viewers had ever seen. It was a thrilling, unnerving movie whose narrative was never truly finished (and which was unfortunately marred by a shoddy release schedule), which is why Event Horizon is the ’90s classic that most deserves its own legacyquel today.
What’s Scarier Than Space Demons? ‘Titanic.’

Horror and science-fiction have always gone hand-in-hand, with few films exemplifying this disturbing relationship better than Event Horizon. Following the crew of a spaceship as they stumble upon an interstellar wreck, these innocents soon learn what massacred the other ship’s inhabitants: hell itself. A scientific mishap opened a portal to the netherworld in the stars, with Event Horizon intertwining demonic terror with the horrors of deep space to create a kind of movie audiences had never seen before. It was an ingenious approach that not only told a revolutionary narrative but was filled with shocking moments of gore — so, why did it flop at the box office?

Related

10 Critical Flops That Are Actually Misunderstood Masterpieces

“Do you fear… death? Do you fear that dark abyss? All your deeds laid bare, all your sins punished? I can offer you an escape.”

Event Horizon’s dismal premiere had many contributing factors, but a large portion of the blame can be owed to another film: Titanic. Anderson has openly discussed how the immensely popular romantic drama ruined his film’s release schedule; both were produced by Paramount Pictures, and Titanic was supposed to be a summer release while Event Horizon was slated to come out later in the year around Halloween. Unfortunately, Titanic’s director, James Cameron, made the executive decision to not have his film ready until December, causing studio executives to flip their schedule and leave Anderson’s intergalactic horror as an eerie sore thumb among other summer releases. This, combined with critics constantly comparing it to Alien, meant the actual quality of Event Horizon was overlooked by a host of confused moviegoers who hadn’t expected the scientific atrocities on display. It’s been amazing to see the film become a cult classic since, but it’s still so unfortunate that, due to no fault of its own, it suffered such a paltry premiere — which is why it’s the perfect candidate for a legacyquel.
‘Event Horizon’ Left Viewers Wanting More

Image via Paramount Pictures

While it’s questionable how many reboots of classic franchises are actually necessary, each one benefits from something that Event Horizon thoroughly deserves: updated special effects. The film already had amazing gore during its initial release; especially for a ’90s scary movie, it perfectly combined practical and VFX to make its violence viscerally unsettling for the audience. The scenes of people having their flesh bitten off or being attacked by rabid demons were already horrific — now imagine if they had the benefits of more than two decades of special effects progress! Unlike other movies that have to redeem the shoddy bloodshed of their predecessor, a rebooted Event Horizon would only have to further the sickening gore that was already on display in its original. It would make every scene of torture even more disturbing, and it would be the perfect punctuation for why Event Horizon truly needs a legacyquel: its unfinished story. People often forget how ominously unfinished the end of Event Horizon actually is. It leaves viewers questioning what happened to the noble Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne), who doomed himself to Hell for the rest of the crew, and it doesn’t give any answers around whether the complex technology that opened this demonic portal made it back to the greedy executives who commissioned it initially. While so many other legacyquels are forced to manufacture whole new plot hooks to keep their franchise going, Event Horizon’s ending contains so many potential paths forward that it would be easy to push its story into even more horrifying scenarios. Through no fault of its own, Event Horizon’s bad premiere left it without a way to finish its complex narrative for more than twenty years, which is why the horror creators of today need to commit to “rebooting” it and providing more of the hellish terror that fans have loved for decades.
The Horror of ‘Event Horizon’ Deserves More Time

While it’s unfortunate that Event Horizon has yet to receive a proper legacyquel, this may actually be a good thing. As seen in disappointing continuations like Halloween Ends, too often these reboots tarnish a classic franchise rather than give viewers the terrifying endings they were hoping for. There’s a chance that an Event Horizon legacyquel would be a disappointing mess — but the original film is amazing enough to take that chance. It has always stood out as a horror trailblazer that deserved so much more appreciation than it received, with the film not only innovating this genre’s way of storytelling but offering an ingenious plot that deserved so many more movies to tell itself in full. It’s one of the few ’90s classics that was actually left with more story to tell, which is why, more than any other scary movie, Event Horizon deserves a legacyquel today.

Event Horizon

Release Date

August 15, 1997

Runtime

96 minutes

Director

Paul W.S. Anderson

Writers

Philip Eisner