I hope Wicked has enough outtakes somewhere to re-edit this XXX sci-fi epic into a soft-core edition for the Syfy channel, as it's head and shoulders (and cock) above the typical garbage sub-Sharknado that they pass off as feature-length entertainment on cable. As porn it represents some of the last gasps of big-budget storyline production in an industry overcome by streaming technology.
The director Sam Hain's other credits are "parody" trash and the producer Lee Roy Myers is one of the kings of parody/ripoff, so this film's quality is both unexpected and clearly an anomaly. Neither pornographer has dared to followup with anything remotely in this vein.
Title "Horizon" refers to a space ship employed to ferry troops and survivors from Earth to a refuge on Mercury (odd location choice, but sci-fi is a cousin of fantasy) after 2/3's of the Earth's population has been killed by an alien invasion in 2097. An early scene reminiscent of the groundbreaking movie "Rocketship XM" set me up for quality to follow and I wasn't disappointed.
Wicked's top leading lady Jessica Drake stars as the ship's captain and her frequent co-star Kaylani Lei is equally heroic as its commander, a much easier on the eyes team than Shatner & Nimoy. Bobbi Starr and Andy San Dimas play physicists on board in key roles, though Bobbi has a brainy type defies credibility - I picture her more as a gang-bangee. The physicists are in charge of a bomb that should kill off the rest of the Earth's billions of survivors in an attempt to quell the invasion by drastic means, setting up a "ticking bomb" suspense premise throughout the show.
There's plenty of plot and lots of sex in what turns out to be a gripping tale, intentionally molded from the genre of Space Opera popularized by "Battlestar Galactica". Both Misty Stone and Kimberly Kane are stand-outs in a quality cast, with it quite obvious that the performers are thrilled to be making almost a real movie, rather than repetitive gonzo sex acts for a change. Another miscasting is Xander Corvus as the U.S. president - I know the candidates running for office now about 80 years before this play is set are fairly lame, but Xander? Maybe Xander Berkeley. Sexiest performer is Alektra Blue, my favorite actress on the Wicked roster, who gets wonderful costuming and hairstyling reminiscent of those Angelique Pettyjohn type sexpots who guest starred on the original "Star Trek" series.
