Event Horizon (1997)

More Hellraiser than Alien, this horror (not scifi) movie from director Paul W S Anderson really does make space travel feel like time spent stuck in a hellbox, especially given H R Giger, not ergonomics, has informed the design of the ship and chaos, not sense, governs the shouty, gory events on board.

★☆☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Breakdown (1997)

About a man whose car breaks down in the New Mexico desert and whose wife disappears after she hitches a ride to get help, Breakdown for a moment looks like being one of those nobody-believes-him mystery dramas but quickly develops into something much more akin to a road thriller - it's more Duel and The Vanishing than The Lady Vanishes - and even though the movie cheats and fudges some details and has the look of the low-budget nineties, it really is rivetting heart-in-your-mouth stuff, terrifying - horrifying, even - because Kurt Russell's everyman remains for a long time completely bewildered by his nightmare situation and yet it requires him to claw desperately, moment-to-moment for survival.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS