In 2040, deep space research vessel the Event Horizon is launched to explore the boundaries of the solar system. She disappears without trace beyond the eighth planet, Neptune.
Seven years later, she suddenly reappears and sends a distress signal. Rescue ship the Lewis and Clark (named after American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark) is dispatched to investigate.
R.I.P. Sam Neill.
Novelisation
Evil waits forever.
For whatever reason (possibly based on earlier drafts by Philip Eisner), author Steven E. McDonald alters year to 2046, meaning spaceship went missing in 2039.
At just 218 pages, spanning 51 chapters, shit remains pretty faithful to film, but author mentions Christian eschatology and presents 'The Other Place' existing as a parallel dimension.
Justin describes the gravity drive as an 'unholy-looking construction', at least ten metres in diameter, a broad torus covered on the outside by a series of spikes, occupied on the inside by a huge dark sphere that resembled nothing more than a rotted, mottled orange.
So rotating magnetic rings are exclusive to film.
Comics
Dark Descent (August 2025-February 2026)
Five-piece prequel follows Captain Kilpac on the ship's maiden voyage in 2040, where after entering the Chaos Realm, his crew are terrorised by demonic entity Paimon (which may be a conscious nod to Ari Aster's Hereditary).
The final issue is pretty much a replay of the film's finale, as survivors attempt to blow up the ship, with Miller's equivalent Kwon doing just that.
An epilogue shows Paimon placing the Event Horizon back together as if it was a model kit.
Weir has more visions of Claire, saying to come and find her.
Inferno (April 2026-September 2026)
Meat of ongoing series takes place 231 years after the film.
Billionaire Daniel Durante sends a team of space marines (dubbed the Tank Tops) on his spaceship the Virgil, to salvage technology from one half of the Event Horizon.
They encounter Lieutenant Starck clutching a severed demon head on the bridge, telling them they're gonna need guns in hell.
It's Doom meets Aliens.
Pandemonium (December 2026-2027)
The final chapter in Christian Ward's trilogy teases heaven is definitely worse than hell.
Similar novels
Salvation Day (2019) - Kali Wallace
Ten years after a deadly virus broke out on board the House of Wisdom, massive exploration vessel reappears.
But for Zahra and her crew, the ship could be their salvation. All they needed to do was kidnap sole survivor of the tragedy Jaswinder Battacharya, and the last person whose genetic signature would allow entry to the spaceship.
But what they could not know was what waited for them - a terrifying secret buried by the government that lay sleeping among the orbiting dead.
And then they woke it up.
Dead Silence (2022) - Stacey Kade (as S. A. Barnes)
First off, title can be many things, which I won't go into.
Claire Kovalik is days away from being unemployed when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange distress signal. With nothing to lose and no desire to return to Earth, Claire and her team decide to investigate.
What they find at the other end of the signal is a shock: the Aurora, a famous luxury space-liner that vanished on its maiden tour of the solar system more than twenty years ago.
Whispers in the dark. Flickers of movement. Words scrawled in blood. Claire must fight to hold onto her sanity and find out what really happened, before she and her crew meet the same ghastly fate.
Dead Space
Before going any further, there was an obscure horror of same name released in 1991, which was actually a remake of Roger Corman's Forbidden Planet (1982).
Anyway, many forget that franchise began as a comic series, beginning five weeks before game and ending a couple of days before.
Chronology is totally fucked (prequels, prequels to prequels, sequels to prequels), but 2010 novel Dead Space: Martyr (set in 2214) is where timeline begins.
2008 game
Following a docking malfunction that crashes the Kellion into the Ishimura's landing bay, silent protagonist Isaac Clarke (in honour of sci-fi supremos Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke), sets about salvaging parts to repair the ship and escape. But those pesky Necromorphs have other ideas.
CUT OFF THEIR LIMBS!
Just saying.
Cover art (copied for animated feature Downfall), is dominated by a floating severed hand.
As random as it might seem, I'm suggesting design was inspired by:
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| An empty glove scaring the shit out of Captain Miller. |
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| To prevent herself from becoming a Necromorph - death by lethal injection. |
Claire's suicide
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| Heavily depressed, she takes a straight razor and slits her wrists inside a bathtub. |
Violent hallucination vs Claire
Jump scare is actually terrifying.
But in 2023 remake:
Both are haunted by Skye and Claire (the manifestation of Karl's dead daughter and Weir's late wife respectively).
Memory Suite vs Gravity Drive room
Transmission (E7) vs activation
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| It sucks serious ass. |
Gravity Drive
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| The core, aka the 'heart of the ship', pays tribute to Hellraiser's Lament Configuration and Clive Barker was consulted during pre-production. |
Guess what?
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| Dead Space 2 |
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| Dino Crisis 3 |
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| DmC: Devil May Cry |
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| Silent Hill 4: The Room |
Finally.
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| The Cabin in the Woods The spherical orb (less rings) that Fornicus, Lord of Bondage and Pain is clutching looks vaguely familiar. |
Nightflyers (2018)
TV series is based on George R. R. Martin's expanded 1981 novella of same name and was cancelled after one season.
Poster vs Gravity Drive corridor
Karl D'Branin vs Dr. William Weir
Both are haunted by Skye and Claire (the manifestation of Karl's dead daughter and Weir's late wife respectively).
Stasis pods vs Gravity couches
Memory Suite vs Gravity Drive room
So if TV series ripped off film, film must've ripped off novel, right?
That's for another time.
Miscellany
Space Station Silicon Valley (1998)
Third-person platformer was originally released on N64.
In 2001, space station Silicon Valley housing robotic animals is launched. Seven minutes later, it vanishes. After a 1000 years, bastard reappears, and the duo of Dan Danger and Evo are sent to investigate.
Considering the Event Horizon was missing for seven years, seven minutes can't be a coincidence.
South Park - Woodland Cutter Christmas (S8 E14) vs Blood orgy
Galaxy Quest - chompers vs Gravity Drive corridor
By Grabthar's hammer, we live to tell the tale.
Daymare: 1998 (2019)
Between March-April this year, I showed you guys every pop culture reference survival horror had to offer.
Very, very briefly.
City pamphlet features the historic Lewis and Clark route and Investigation Report mentions Dr. Weir.
One more.
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| Death Horizon |
Tagline
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| Infinite space. Infinite terror. |
Paradise 1 and Revenant X are the first two books in David Wellington's Red Space trilogy.
Both use:
Endless dark.
Endless terror.
Talk about taking the unsubtle piss.
For shiggles, final part got creative.
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| Erebus 13 The dark devours. |
Err, yeah.
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