This entry will be a bit different, so keep that in mind.
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It isn’t often that a movie comes along that is so horrifying, that the studio demands content be cut then destroyed forever. This was the fate of Event Horizon, a movie so gory and nightmarish that much of the content was trimmed down from the final product. Some of the recovered lost footage has been seen and is truly disturbing visually, so I feel this is a rare case where the studio made the right move.
How to describe Event Horizon? It is a film set in space aboard a derelict vessel that a crew comes across and turns out to be haunted. It sounds simple enough, but the film shows no limits in terror. The horrors lurking in hyperspace and beyond were some of the most terrifying imagery I have ever seen. I am not giving a full synopsis because I do not want to ruin any part of the film for anyone. I do want to say that it isn’t for the faint of heart, and is one of the most intense horror films ever.
All that being said, I want to discuss something else about the movie. Many fans of Warhammer 40K have the opinion that Event Horizon is the best unofficial Warhammer 40K movie out there. This may sound strange to non fans, but the reason actually makes a lot of sense. In Warhammer 40K, there is the Warp, a nightmarish zone of daemons who will tear ships apart and slaughter the crew if they accidentally get pulled in. The way to travel through the warp is through the protection of a Gellar Field. Many view this as a prequel film, depicting humanity discovering the warp and much of it lines up, albeit unintentionally. The evil presences in the ship resemble Chaos forces , and writing appears that is very similar to Chaos Ruins.
The entity(ies) encountered could very well be the daemons or chaos affected beings of the warp who then corrupt humans. Given the natures of some of the deleted scenes and what is known about them, the actions perpetuated actually fit the domain of one of the Chaos gods perfectly, that being Slaanesh. And even more interesting is that the timeframe of the fim, would perfectly line up with the timeline of the Warhammer 40K series and when humanity would have started to explore and discover the warp. This isn’t to mention the architecture and other imagery that will seem very familiar to fans of the franchise. This all being said however, I admit that this probably wasn’t the filmmakers intentions, but it makes the film work so much better in my opinion. Event Horizon is terrifying either way, but this just makes me appreciate the film more and I would like to think the director and writers were maybe paying homage in some way to the franchise.
What do you think? Do you agree with the theory, or do you feel its farfetched? Let us know your thoughts.