In order to entertain, you have to make the old new again. One way of doing that, is combining story elements that aren't used together often. Let's say that you've seen dozens of heist films, like "Ocean's Eleven", "Reservoir Dogs" and "The Italian Job". If I make the target of the theft a submarine, suddenly the genre you know is different.
Switching up the setting is another way to keep things fresh, especially if the market is flooded with similar products. Off the top of my head, I can name a number of haunted house movies. "Poltergeist", "The Haunting" and "Paranormal Activity" are all good examples. You may not have counted "Event Horizon" among them, but basically the ship is a haunted house in space.
Classic Movie Trailers – Event Horizon (1997)
We all know the ingredients of a good slasher film; you need a bad guy, a bunch of potential victims and a short-range weapon of some kind. Suspense and gore are the two main draws of this particular subgenre. We are tense when someone is fleeing danger and we cringe when they are caught and killed. A gun would take away from the magic of these movies, since bullets can chase a lot faster than we can run away.
When someone mentions that type of story, a number of characters pop into my head. The first thing I see is the "Ghostface" mask, from the Scream franchise. Then it's normally Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees. Until recently, I hadn't thought about the xenomorph from "Alien", but he fits right in with the rest
There's really something about the backdrop of space. You can write an old story, set it next to the stars and make it seem new and different. If you ask me, it's the fact that the setting is married to science fiction. We're so used to seeing the two together, we don't notice the third party in the triangle.
"Star Wars" is a step away from being "Lord of The Rings"; it has the high fantasy, the unfamiliar creatures and the sharp divide between good and evil. What really sets it apart, is the Sci-Fi that's added in. The swords are lightsabers, the crossbows shoot lasers and the great evil eye is a powerful space station. The underlying story of Lucas's film may not have been original, but we were awed by the way it was told.
"Event Horizon" tries to do the same thing, with supernatural horror. It isn't obvious about it right away, and it tries to hide it for a while. Sam Neill, as Doctor Weir, was the magician in scientist's clothing. His explanation of the ship and it's intended use, was nothing but a set-up for the old "bait and switch".
We were in a land, far, far away and we thought we left the terror at home. We didn't know that it was sleeping in a wormhole, waiting to be discovered. When the crew finds the black box from the proceeding spacecraft, we hear the first clue as to where the movie's going. It didn't show little green men with ray guns, that's for sure.
There are a couple of ways to tell a haunted house story. You can make the ghosts the main antagonists, and have them use the objects inside to muder everyone. Another tried and true method is the indirect approach; instead of the ghosts actively killing, they drive the inhabitants to kil themselves. You can use possession or have them lose their sanity, but they need to become a danger to others and to themselves.
The only critical element is a hopeless situation. You need to keep the prey trapped, with no means of escape. If your haunted house is floating outside of Earth's atmosphere, you'll find that the job is already taken care of. There is certain death beyond the walls of a spaceship, and it can be light years away from the nearest help.
When you think about it, there is no better stage for horror than deep space. It's isolating, cold, unforgiving and frightening. Moreover, it brings expectations right along with it, and those are the greatest tools that fiction has. Great storytelling is about surprise and wonder, and the only way to achieve them is to change the old formulas.
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Se "Event Horizon" on Netflix!
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