Event Horizon: Dark Descent by Christian Ward; artwork by Tristan Jones
Event Horizon: Dark Descent book cover
Author Christian Ward
Artist Tristan Jones
Many thanks to IDW Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced
copy of Event Horizon: Dark Descent by Christian Ward with artwork by
Tristan Jones. This comic is based on the original film Event Horizon
and serves as a prequel to understand how the abandoned ship The Event Horizon
was initially left floating in space sending out distress signals. While I’ve
heard of the film, I’ve never seen it. It’s not necessary to see the film to
understand the basic storyline of this comic, but it might be more interesting
if you are familiar with the events of the film. You’ll be able to pick up on a
few key details (that I ended up googling while reading this). Nevertheless, as
someone who was not really familiar with the film, I absolutely loved this
comic. The story and artwork are dark and dread-inducing. It’s bloody, gory,
and gross, and the pages are filled with the kind of cosmic horror that can
truly tout the term Lovecraftian. I loved how the story combines elements of
sci-fi, quantum physics and space travel with occult and demonology, and doing
so in a creative and unique manner that synthesizes these two genres.
The story begins with Dr. Will Weir, who is in the original
film. Dr. Weir is the designer of the ship, but he is grieving over the loss of
his wife. His grief seems to induce strange dreams about his wife who is
calling for him to find her. In some of the dreams, he envisions her bloody and
eyeless, among other graphic scenes in the Event Horizon. We then learn about
the crew of the ship who are preparing to fulfill the main objective of their
mission: an interdimensional jump facilitated by a gravity drive, allowing the
ship to fold space time and move between vast distances in a matter of minutes
as opposed to millions of years. The ship has staffed a crew of expert
scientists, physicians, engineers, and navigators to facilitate this monumental
experiment. However, as we learn in the first act, all of the crew members are
escaping their own personal traumas and pain they experienced on earth, whether
it was recent or from their pasts. In a way, they all seemed to see the journey
in space as a means of escaping their past pain; however, as we will soon find
out, hell is inside of them, and their pain and trauma will reemerge as their
worst nightmares.
As the crew gets ready to engage the gravity drive, the
communications officer receives a notice from Earth about one the crew members’
whose escape involves a death he tried to cover up. When Nia Atwell, the coms
officer, attempts to inform the captain about their navigator Devlin Conners’s
warrant, Conners ends up killing Atwell. It was a little unclear if this
prevented these two crew members from being at their posts and prepping for the
jump, but in any event, when the gravity drive is engaged, something strange
happens, and it seems to have opened a portal to hell, bringing in Paimon, the
sightless king of hell. Paimon recognizes the desperation and violence in
Conners and uses him as a kind of soldier to inflict his torments and violence
on the crew, killing them in gruesome and gory ways. I won’t get into the
details here, but the story takes on a kind of occult slasher feel, as the crew,
unaware that a portal to hell has been opened, try to make sense of the
uncertainty and dread that seem to be plaguing all of the crew. Furthermore,
each of the crew members begin to hallucinate about their traumas, re-living
them and experiencing the pain and tumult of these traumatic experiences that
they sought to escape.
I couldn’t put this edition down, reading through the story
in nearly one sitting. The story really picks up once Conners kills Atwell and
the portal to hell is breached, allowing Paimon to enter the Event Horizon.
Furthermore, Jones’s dark, gory artwork contributes to the feeling of dread and
cosmic horror that permeates this book, like a lurking fear or creeping death. His
artwork emphasizes not only the uncertainty of unexplored dimensions but also features
examples of gruesome body horror and a gory ghoul that seemed to be constructed
from the bodies of the dead crew members. It’s totally gross, and I loved it.
This was a fun and wild comic, although it’s definitely a downer. Nevertheless,
I recommend this for fans of dark sci-fi, and the kind of Lovecraftian cosmic and
body horror that Stuart Gordon would be proud of. Highly recommended!
The story begins with Dr. Will Weir, who is in the original
film. Dr. Weir is the designer of the ship, but he is grieving over the loss of
his wife. His grief seems to induce strange dreams about his wife who is
calling for him to find her. In some of the dreams, he envisions her bloody and
eyeless, among other graphic scenes in the Event Horizon. We then learn about
the crew of the ship who are preparing to fulfill the main objective of their
mission: an interdimensional jump facilitated by a gravity drive, allowing the
ship to fold space time and move between vast distances in a matter of minutes
as opposed to millions of years. The ship has staffed a crew of expert
scientists, physicians, engineers, and navigators to facilitate this monumental
experiment. However, as we learn in the first act, all of the crew members are
escaping their own personal traumas and pain they experienced on earth, whether
it was recent or from their pasts. In a way, they all seemed to see the journey
in space as a means of escaping their past pain; however, as we will soon find
out, hell is inside of them, and their pain and trauma will reemerge as their
worst nightmares.
As the crew gets ready to engage the gravity drive, the
communications officer receives a notice from Earth about one the crew members’
whose escape involves a death he tried to cover up. When Nia Atwell, the coms
officer, attempts to inform the captain about their navigator Devlin Conners’s
warrant, Conners ends up killing Atwell. It was a little unclear if this
prevented these two crew members from being at their posts and prepping for the
jump, but in any event, when the gravity drive is engaged, something strange
happens, and it seems to have opened a portal to hell, bringing in Paimon, the
sightless king of hell. Paimon recognizes the desperation and violence in
Conners and uses him as a kind of soldier to inflict his torments and violence
on the crew, killing them in gruesome and gory ways. I won’t get into the
details here, but the story takes on a kind of occult slasher feel, as the crew,
unaware that a portal to hell has been opened, try to make sense of the
uncertainty and dread that seem to be plaguing all of the crew. Furthermore,
each of the crew members begin to hallucinate about their traumas, re-living
them and experiencing the pain and tumult of these traumatic experiences that
they sought to escape.
I couldn’t put this edition down, reading through the story
in nearly one sitting. The story really picks up once Conners kills Atwell and
the portal to hell is breached, allowing Paimon to enter the Event Horizon.
Furthermore, Jones’s dark, gory artwork contributes to the feeling of dread and
cosmic horror that permeates this book, like a lurking fear or creeping death. His
artwork emphasizes not only the uncertainty of unexplored dimensions but also features
examples of gruesome body horror and a gory ghoul that seemed to be constructed
from the bodies of the dead crew members. It’s totally gross, and I loved it.
This was a fun and wild comic, although it’s definitely a downer. Nevertheless,
I recommend this for fans of dark sci-fi, and the kind of Lovecraftian cosmic and
body horror that Stuart Gordon would be proud of. Highly recommended!
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