The cast is, as a whole, up to the challenges with which the movie presents them. No one person stands out, which is probably just as well in an ensemble piece such as this. However, several actors manage to form the core of the cast. Richard T. Jones, although his character almost has "comic relief" tattooed on his forehead, performs his part well, giving the movie moments of levity most horror films lack. Sam Neill gives an interesting performance that is an edgier version of many of his earlier ones. Laurence Fishburne, who starts by being monotonously boring, almost imperceptively deepens his performance through the movie, leaving me feeling quite good about his work here.

And Fishburne is better than the writing sometimes deserves. Though the trick of moving classical horror into a science fiction realm couldn't have been an easy one--and it was done reasonably well--it could have been done better. The writers captured the essence of a haunted house movie (no easy feat either), but they failed at the level of characterization. The motivations of some of the characters (especially Kathleen Quinlan's Peters) simply don't hold up. However, in a haunted house movie, the writing is sometimes not terribly important. (Look at Kubrick's The Shining--despite unreal characters and even questionable acting, it still works). What is often important for an effect is: a) excellent directing, b) creepy music, and c) having either slowly creeping horror or outright terror. "Event Horizon" definitely has the music and the excellent directing. Paul Anderson (Mortal Kombat) does a hell of a job here. His directing is stylish and enhances the story well. Although "Horizon" doesn't achieve the level of horror to which it aspires, it does do something many horror films don't--it sticks with you. Event Horizon created the same sort of sick fascination that are the province of Dawn of the Dead and Vertigo. (And calm down, I'm not directly comparing this movie to Hitchcock's masterpiece.) Any movie that can make the viewer feel vaguely dirty for hours afterward has something good going for it.