Event Horizon - VHS Tape (1997)

Though it may well be the most recent floppy disk (or even hard disk), the VHS movie format is still around and some of us still own VHS players.  Our library received a large donation of VHS tapes years ago, to which we've added several cassettes from teacher reserves.  An entire aisle of one of the stacks contains just VHS tapes.  But they are rarely used, save by a few of our regulars who watch them in the library.

Event Horizon was recommended to me by a colleague as she was shelving it.  She said it was one of the scariest sci-fi movies she had seen, with images she couldn't forget.  Intrigued, I decided to take it home and dust off the VHS player.  I won't bother with a synopsis of the movie, but you can read it at IMDB.com if interested.

Box cover: Movieprop.com

The movie was interesting, but not very satisfying.  Two of us watched it and we both agreed that, though there was a lot of yelling and explosions and gore, not much really happened.  You wait for the payoff and it never really comes in the Event Horizon narrative.  Add to that a flimsily-conceived plot with the deus ex machina of sci-fi titles, an alternate dimension, and you have a movie that looks visually interesting but doesn't engage mentally.