He had a fairly exemplary protagonist with ‘Jurassic Park’, which he now recovers in the recently released ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’, and was close to being James Bond before Pierce Brosnan. However, the filmography of Sam Neil reveals to us a interest in more challenging projects and characters than those of the aforementioned blockbusters, teaming up with filmmakers as peculiar as John Carpenter or Andrzej Zulawski to carry out their most twisted visions.
Another great example is what we can consider one of his masterpieces, forming part of a choral cast for a chilling and very macabre work of science fiction. A true descent into madness, with details that have had a palpable influence even if the film itself was slow to be recognized. We talk about ‘End Horizon‘, the spectacular piece of Paul W.S. Anderson that we can see on Amazon Prime Video.
In space no one can hear you scream
Having achieved commercial success with his adaptation of ‘Mortal Kombat’, Anderson found himself in a good position within Hollywood that began to have it in orbit for projects. In addition to a sequel to the fighting video game, he had it in his hand to make the first adaptation of ‘X-Men’ on the big screen. He rejected both in order to make a script of Philip Eisner that had captivated him, that mixed horror with science fiction, and that Paramount was trying to develop.
Although the board seemed to have mixed and confused impressions on the project. In later retrospectives, Anderson spoke of how many executives were hoping to sell a space adventure like ‘Star Trek,’ his big sci-fi franchise, and he couldn’t have looking for something more opposite. If anything, we could talk about similarities with ‘Alien: the eighth passenger’, due to the crossing of fantastic genres, but his foot limps on the other hand.
Anderson talks about close references to haunted houses, or the torturous psychological explorations they did Robert Wise in ‘The Haunted Mansion’ or Stanley Kubrick in ‘The Shining’. There is also some Lovecraftian terror, due to the presence of infernal creatures that are difficult to define and the progressive descent into madness carried out by its characters.
‘Final Horizon’: dead space
Because it’s hard not to see ‘Final Horizon’ as a story doomed to the worst possible ending from the very moment that this crew, with the faces of Sam Neill, Laurence Fishburne, Kathleen Quinlan Y Jason Isaacsthey go to a mysterious experimental ship that was thought missing. The development of events is insane and terrifyingwith Anderson doing a splendid setting exercise alongside the most brutal terror possible.
It was an important investment, with a budget of 60 million, and it fell short to try to cover it. But time has been claiming it as the cult jewel that it is. A explosive piece of terror in space whose imprint can be seen even in other media, such as the case of the ‘Dead Space’ video game saga. Perhaps it is not so surprising that Anderson later decided to launch another video game saga as his next big project.