It's one of those films that I want to like, but just missed the mark a bit. Visually it is lush and atmospheric. The ships and technology look credible, the Event Horizons like a gothic haunted mansion in space. The characters are quote engaging, but not really quite developed enough like you get in e.g. ALIEN. The story builds up well but then pulls out the old horror clichés and loses it (the scenes that were cut were deemed too gory, but I found them merely too cheesy --like rejects from Hellraiser-- and I think removing them improved the film).
Moreover the plot made no sense while --with a small twist-- it could have been so much more consistent.
The idea is that the Event Horizons' experimental jump drive accidentally transports the ship to Hell, where Bad Things happen to the crew, and then comes back, becoming a portal to Hell. As such Bad Things happen to the rescue mission. The film basically can't decide whether it's science fiction or horror. How could it have solved this? Let's say the experimental jump drive works by creating a wormhole through a fourth dimension. Unfortunately, it unintentionally punches a hole in the fifth dimension of probability, hence blurring the boundaries between our reality and our imaginings, causing our most dark and repressed human fears and drives to become real (hommage to Forbidden Planet, right there). Or perhaps it accidentally punched a hole into a Lovecraftian dungeon dimension, a parallel universe utterly alien to ours, cold and dark and filled with eldritch gibbering horrors that are attracted to our brilliant pinpoint lights of consciousness like insects to a light bulb... Both these explanations would be plausible in the film and consistent with its scifi universe. And frankly make a more compelling story.
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