“Does anybody read me? This is Captain John Kilpack of the spaceship Event Horizon. My crew and I attempted faster-than-light travel and have found ourselves stranded someplace…well, someplace that defies understanding. One of my crew is dead already—murdered by some creature claiming this space to be hell. I fear it may be correct… The dead have appeared to me, and there is something else loose upon the ship. If you can hear me, it may be too late for you… Libera te tutemet ex inferis.”
I think writer Christian Ward is getting "Event Horizon" confused with John Carpenter's "The Thing", as there is suddenly this amorphous creature that "absorbs" crew members. I don't remember that from the movie.
Also, Ward is killing off every major character before there is time to even give a shit about them. Of course, if you've seen the movie, you know that nobody survives anyway, so what's the point? No, seriously, that's not a rhetorical question. Whatever. I will finish the series regardless...
One might think that there is absolutely no reason for a tie-in comic book prequel to a movie that was a critically lambasted box office failure to be this good. Granted, Event Horizon has become a cult classic in horror circles since its release 28 years ago, and it's pretty damn clear that writer Christian Ward and artist Tristan Jones are among its fans, myself included. Three issues in and this series keeps getting better and better. To be clear, the book started off pretty damn good. Now, I find myself lusting for an eventual deluxe, oversized hardcover edition with a slew of extras and an extensive cover art gallery.
Being a prequel book, we have a pretty clear idea where things are headed for this crew. It's kind of like Titanic in that way. We already know how it ends, so the point of the story lies in building toward that with an interesting cast to keep us entertained us while we wait for tragedy to strike. We certainly don't have to wait long for that tragedy, as the massive Event Horizon starship finds itself stuck in a literal interdimensional hell and a demonic king stalking its hallways, playing mind games amongst the scientists and engineers behind this experiment gone awry.
Issue 3 focuses on the ship's doctor, Peter, who was diagnosed with cancer two years earlier. He wants to die somewhere with a view "worthy of a thousand lifetimes." We know from the outset he's doomed, so it's just a matter of how he gets there. I won't spoil the particulars, but Jones's artwork is certainly worth the view, with some truly marvelous and horrifying splash pages and one particularly disturbing panel involving a conjoining of two crewmen that's spectacularly horrendous.
The opening splash page of the Event Horizon lost in the chaos realm is pin-up worthy, and the monstrosities of the chaos realm that have come to lay claim to the ship and crew are suitably gnarly. Looking at Jones's work, it's hard to not to feel as assaulted as the Horizon's passengers. There's so much atmosphere in these pages, with Ward's script and Jones's pencils working perfectly in synch with one another, that it's hard not to get lost inside the story. You certainly don't want to be there, but it's impossible to look away from. You have to turn those pages to see what awfulness comes next.
Ward's writing is endearing, too, immediately putting us on Paul's side and giving us somebody to root for. He also mixes in a certain bit of wry humor, like when one conjuration of a murdered colleague, who has a head riddled with glass shrapnel in a slight homage to Hellraiser, ensures their murderer to trust them because they still have "a very sharp mind." It's funny and grotesque in equal measure. But given that this is an Event Horizon book, it's the grotesque that ultimately wins out, and rightly so.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5 Event Horizon: Dark Descent #3 Creators:
Writer: Christian Ward Artist: Tristan Jones Colorist: Pip Martin Letterer: Alex Ray Main Cover: Jeffrey Alan Love Variant Cover: Chris Burnham
Horror at its best! Stuck on a starship with no escape!
Event Horizon: Dark Descent #3 is the series at its most unhinged, unholy, and unapologetically terrifying. This issue doesn’t just lean into the franchise’s legacy of cosmic dread—it detonates it. The creative team delivers a nightmare that feels ripped straight from the darkest corners of the original film, then magnified through a demonic lens.
With the crew nearly wiped out or absorbed into Paimon’s grotesque, ever‑growing wheel of flesh, the King of Hell finally turns his gaze toward Captain Kilpack. Watching a man defined by faith confront something older, crueler, and infinitely more intimate than his Creator is the kind of horror that lingers long after the final page.
And yes—this is the issue that finally reveals the truth behind the film’s infamous blood orgy. The creative team doesn’t shy away from the brutality or the metaphysical implications. Instead, they expand the mythology in a way that feels both inevitable and deeply disturbing. It’s bold, grisly, and exactly what fans of Event Horizon’s lore have been waiting for.
The pacing is relentless, the visuals are stomach‑tightening, and the atmosphere is a masterclass in escalating dread. Every page feels like a descent—slow, deliberate, and horrifyingly beautiful.
Really ramping up now and a great companion to the movie, I have lightened up more on what was revealed in the earlier issue. About now I'm really looking forward to fabled 'The Blood Orgy' and how its handled in this comic. There are only whispers to what was meant to have been seen in the movie and they are pretty nasty for sure so im not holding on to hope this comic will go balls out on that subject because if they did this comic would will go down in infamy with The Boys Herogasm.
Now we're cooking. This was my favorite issue so far. The ship is becoming a confined death trap, and the weight of the monstrous horrors is being felt.