Returning to the Abyss: Event Horizon: Inferno
Nearly thirty years after the release of the cult classic Event Horizon, the nightmare of the haunted starship continues in the comic series Event Horizon: Inferno. Published by IDW Publishing under their horror imprint IDW Dark, the series serves as the official sequel to the film and follows the prequel comic Event Horizon: Dark Descent.
While Dark Descent explored the doomed original crew, Inferno pushes the story far into the future—showing that the evil tied to the Event Horizon never truly died.
A Story Set Two Centuries Later
Unlike the prequel comic, Inferno takes place 200 years after the events of the original film.
The wreckage of the Event Horizon has been drifting near Neptune for centuries after the catastrophic events of the movie, when the possessed ship slaughtered its rescue crew before being partially destroyed.
But legends surrounding the ship have only grown.
In the comic, a powerful billionaire launches a private expedition to recover the remains of the vessel and, more importantly, the mysterious gravity drive that once allowed the ship to travel through another dimension.
He believes the technology could unlock unimaginable power.
Unfortunately, history has already proven that the Event Horizon’s engine does much more than bend space.
It opens a door to hell.
A New Crew Meets an Old Evil
The expedition arrives with a small fleet of mercenaries, scientists, and explorers, all drawn by the promise of wealth and discovery. What they find instead is a ship that never truly died.
The Event Horizon itself has become something like a cursed artifact drifting through space. Even after two centuries, the influence of the hellish dimension it touched still lingers within its corridors.
As the crew begins exploring the wreckage, it becomes clear that the ship is still connected to the nightmare dimension it once opened. The gravity drive—the heart of the vessel—remains the key to that cosmic gateway.
And something on the other side may still be waiting.
A New Direction for the Franchise
The comic is written by Christian Ward, who previously expanded the franchise with Dark Descent, and features artwork by Robert Carey.
Ward approached the sequel differently from the prequel. Instead of staying tightly connected to the film’s characters, he moved the timeline forward by centuries to create a new story within the same terrifying universe.
This allows the comic to explore larger ideas:
- corporate greed and exploitation of alien technology
- the long-term consequences of humanity’s encounter with the unknown
- the terrifying persistence of the evil that infected the ship
In many ways, Inferno feels like a mixture of gothic horror and military science fiction—something closer to Aliens-style space action combined with demonic horror.
Expanding the Mythology of the Event Horizon
The original film worked largely because it left its horrors unexplained. The dimension beyond the gravity drive was described only as a place of “pure chaos, pure evil.”
The comics have begun to explore that mythology more deeply.
Dark Descent introduced the demonic entity Paimon and showed the gruesome fate of the original crew. Now Inferno explores what happens when humanity, centuries later, decides to revisit the same forbidden technology.
It reinforces the central theme that made the film so disturbing:
Humanity didn’t discover a new way to travel across the stars.
It discovered a door to something ancient, hostile, and hungry.
The Event Horizon Still Has a Pulse
The most fascinating aspect of Event Horizon: Inferno is the implication that the ship is more than just haunted. It may actually be alive in some way, acting as a bridge between our universe and the infernal dimension beyond the gravity drive.
If that’s true, the expedition isn’t simply exploring an abandoned spacecraft.
They are boarding a gateway to hell.
And after two centuries of silence, the Event Horizon may finally be ready to open that door again.