Event Horizon: Does the 1997 cult horror film have two different endings? Details revealed

Event Horizon is a film in the science fiction and horror genre. The film is directed by Paul Anderson with a script from Philip Eisner. Paramount Pictures released the film on August 15, 1997. It's produced by Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin, and Jeremy Bolt under the banners of Golar Productions and Impact Pictures. Here's the official synopsis as per IMDb:

A rescue crew is tasked with investigating the mysterious reappearance of a spaceship that had been lost for seven years.

There have been reports that the film had two different endings. Yes, there are two alternate endings of the film, which we will be exploring in this article.

The burning man ending of Event Horizon

Event Horizon had two alternate endings, and one of them involves the burning man. It's a different take from the final situation, which shows Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne) being trapped inside the gravity drive room of the ship. Meanwhile, William Weir (Sam Neill) is possessed and gives his horror visions.

In this ending, Corrick dies due to burn injuries. Miller keeps getting his visions of dying in a fire. It puts Corrick as the last villain whom Miller has to face. But the makers realized that the test audiences didn't like this version.

The screaming ship ending of Event Horizon

A still from Event Horizon | Image via Apple TV

This ending of Event Horizon is ambiguous. It showcases Cooper and Starck getting saved by a team. Starck thinks Weir has saved her, but soon realizes that it's a hallucination. The last scene features the door of the ship shutting automatically. This hints that evil forces are still on the platform. Starck's hallucination reveals that it will take her some time to overcome the trauma.

In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, director Paul Anderson said that the original cut of the film was much darker than the one we saw. He revealed that the studio was quite hesitant to go ahead with it.

"Bits and pieces of a lost cut of Event Horizon turn up, like on different VHS tapes there will be bits of scenes that are slightly different from earlier cuts. But I think the truth is, when we delivered the first cut to Paramount, they were just horrified by the movie. It was much darker and scarier than they ever thought it was going to be. An executive actually said to me, ‘We’re the studio that makes Star Trek,’ as if somehow I was like besmirching Star Trek as well. It wasn’t bad enough that I had made this horrible movie. So the movie ended up being trimmed a lot, and unfortunately, it was before DVD really popularized deleted scenes and things like that so there was no incentive for studios to keep that material.”

He added that bits and pieces of the film can be recovered, but he would need some money to do some reshooting. Its original cut was 130 minutes long, which was trimmed down to 96 minutes due to studio intervention. It was released on August 22, 1997.