“Event Horizon” is a mind-blowing horror film that has endured the test of time due to its unique visual approach. Described by director Paul WS Anderson and production designer Joseph Bennet as a “techno-Medieval” look for their gothic space movie, the collage of artistic influences is more than admirable. For Event Horizon, the team took inspiration from Paris’ most famous Gothic cathedral: Notre Dame whose elements were rearranged to create the most unique ship since Nostromo which when seen from above resembles a crucifix like most churches: Arches, vast oval corridors (resembling a church nave), high ceilings, overlapping doors, intricate exterior steelwork (resembling the designs of stained-glass windows), and antenna dishes (based on the gargoyle clusters of Notre Dame), cruciform shapes, columns, flared pillars, vaults and "torture dungeons" (e.g., the medical room) and medieval triptychs can be seen throughout in exquisite and grandiose detail.

Bennet and Anderson though went a step further than most horror films and used Elements Clive Barker’s “Hellraiser” (1987) to add spikes and the rotating and interlocking rings of the ship’s core as well as to give a nasty edge to the death scenes with written symbols in crimson red blood. For the infamous Hell visions and the ship's videos, it is surprising to see the influence of 16th-century Renaissance painters like Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel who depict Hell as the polar opposite of Heaven with images of simultaneous terror and beauty and the repulsively attractive aesthetic of Joel Peter Witkin’s photos of dissected and deformed people. This is precisely what “Event Horizon” demonstrates in its myriads of mesmerizing shots. From afar, there is a somewhat quiet space luxury in this spaceship. Inside, this nightmare fuel space Gothic cathedral with its uneasy mute blue/black/green/grey palette demonstrates that when there is a will, there is always a way to craft something truly novel.