Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Event Horizon 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 30, 2022

Paramount has released the 1997 Sci-Fi/Horror film 'Event Horizon' to the UHD format. New specifications include 2160p/Dolby Vision video. No new audio track has been included, and no new supplements have been added. The bundled Blu-ray is identical to that which Paramount released in 2008. Note that the film was subsequently re-released to Blu-ray by Shout! Factory in 2021, a disc which contains a slew of special features not included on either of the Paramount releases.

The Event Horizon, a deep space research vessel, vanished around Neptune in the year 2040. Seven years later, a rescue vessel, the Lewis and Clark, sets out on a top-secret mission to rescue the suddenly resurgent Horizon. Accompanying the crew of the Clark is the Horizon's designer, Dr. William Weir. He informs the crew, including its Captain, Miller (Laurence Fishburne), that the Horizon was actually an experimental faster-than-light craft that defied the laws of physics by creating a dimensional gateway through folded space to almost instantly jump from one location to the next. When the crew boards the Horizon, they find the bloody remnants of its crew, and the members of the rescue party themselves begin to fall victim to what at first seems to be a series of horrific optical illusions that soon become all too real -- and deadly. The crew must cope with the horrors of the Horizon while attempting to repair a damaged Clark in hopes of escaping with their lives.

For a full film review, please click here

Event Horizon 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Paramount brings Event Horizon to the UHD format with a spectacular 2160p/Dolby Vision transfer that is worlds away superior to the original 2008 Blu-ray. I do not have access to a copy of the Shout! Factory release and cannot make a comparison, but it's safe to say that this is the current pinnacle for the film on a home video format.

Compared to the 2008 release, this UHD offers a significant improvement to the film's natural grain structure rendering. It's beautifully organic and smooth, well defined and never appearing clumpy or processed; spikes in intensity are rare (see the 45-minute mark for one). This is a particularly nice filmic texturing that is certainly the base for an excellent image. The picture is sharp and clear, and textures are complex. Though the film is fairly dark, with grays and blues and greens and browns dominating the ship interiors, there's no mistaking the exacting clarity with which the set pieces and the various costumes are presented to their fullest visual potential. Faces enjoy robust sharpness and intimate definition as well to pores, lines, and hairs, well beyond the reach of the 2008 Blu-ray. There are some inherently softer shots, and the visual effects lack that razor edge definition by their dated design, but the core film elements look stunning. Fans are going to be ecstatic!

The Dolby Vision color grading handles duties remarkably well. There is plenty of newfound depth and color accuracy to be found, and even as the film is pervasively dark there's no mistaking that this grading finds the best output display parameter for each color. Whether talking the dark green jumpsuits, flat gray ships interiors, or various brown and beige supports and accents, the picture's dreary palette has never looked so alive, but also so purposefully foreboding as it does here. Black levels, vital to that atmosphere, are excellent. Whites are crisp enough and skin tones look great.

Additionally, it is clear that a significant clean-up has been performed as well. Gone are some of the intrusive pops and speckles from the old Paramount disc (see a visual effect shot at the 23:20 mark for a good comparative example). There are no obvious print faults or encode failures so report. This is neither the best-looking movie by its nature nor one that lends itself to total UHD reference bliss, but this is absolutely a fine presentation of the film that does every second of it justice.

Event Horizon 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Rather than present the soundtrack in the Dolby Atmos configuration, Paramount has simply repurposed the aged, but adequate, Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack for this release. Please click here for a full audio review.

Event Horizon 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The UHD disc contains no extras. The bundled Blu-ray is identical to Paramount's 2008 release (the disc exterior color is different) and includes the extras outlined below (please click here for full coverage). A digital copy code is included with purchase.

• Audio Commentary: Director Paul W.S. Anderson and Producer Jeremy Bolt
• The Making of Event Horizon
• The Point of No Return: The Filming of Event Horizon
• Secrets
• The Unseen Event Horizon
• Trailers

The SteelBook is smooth, glossy, and will show handling fingerprints. The front panel features a close-up of an eye, reflecting a circular battery of lights and a bloodied face, covered by hands, center. The rear panel is identical without the center eye image. The spine is black with the film's title in white, center. A Paramount logo is at the top and a UHD logo at the bottom. Inside, the digital copy code is tucked underneath the left-hand-side tabs. The two discs, one UHD and one Blu-ray, are situated on the right in staggered-stacked formation. The inner print is a two-panel spread that features a key still from the film: Justin in a space suit looking at one of the key set pieces in the film, the gravity drive. In what may be a first for Paramount SteelBook, a plastic slipcover is included which depicts hands reaching towards the center on the front and the Event Horizon on the back. The film's title appears center front.

Event Horizon 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

All things considered, Event Horizon is a cut above many standard-fare Sci-Fi and Horror pictures. Despite a few non-fatal flaws, the film is both terrifying and entertaining, holds decent replay value, and most importantly, never becomes too mired in convention. The performances are solid, the direction, cinematography, and score all above average and effective, and the script, while not perfect, translates well to film. These elements make for a fine late-night horror experience that offers a winning combination of visual and psychological horror. This new UHD release delivers a new 2160p/Dolby Vision video transfer that is well worth the upgrade cost. The SteelBook is nice, too. Recommended.