Julianna Margulies (of past ER fame) and Gabriel Byrne (Stigmata, The Usual Suspects) turn in respectable performances in the fairly average scary movie, Ghost Ship, directed by Steve Beck. It’s worth the price of a matinee if you can’t resist the seduction of shipwrecks, ghosts, and the sea.
Ghost Ship is about the Antonia Graza, an Italian luxury cruise ship that blipped off of radar in the 60s. An elegant ballroom scene aboard the doomed vessel opens the film. This scene has a perfect 60s look and feel to it, which initially made me wonder if I were in the wrong theatre. It was a far cry from what the previews led me to expect. But I was in the right place. Not very long into the movie, we see a gruesome piece of what happened to the crew and passengers. Beck does a respectable job holding viewer interest as the story progresses, inserting more pieces in the puzzle until everyone sees exactly what happened to the original passengers and what’s going on now.
As the intrigue begins, Gabriel Byrne (Murphy) is the captain of the Arctic Warrior, a salvage ship. His crew looks a bit young and not nearly alcoholic enough to be true sea dogs, but they have one thing in common with other salvage teams: the love of treasure. International maritime law states that it’s “finders, keepers” out there, so when Murphy’s crew is presented with a chance to make a big score, the tired but greedy crew decides to climb back aboard the Arctic Warrior and head off to the Bering Sea to find the Antonia Graza and return with her treasures.
Once aboard, the team splits up to explore the ship and sure enough, the fun and suspense begin in earnest. They discover her great treasure, but when they try to offload the booty from the Antonia Graza, it’s clear she has other plans. That’s when it gets ugly. There are a lot of dead things on this ship, and she desires that the living would soon join her other dead captives.
I loved the atmosphere of this flick, with its greenish hues and dark, creepy set. There’s night, rain, mystery, the sea, and a pretty tore up ship. Although the ship was never submerged, it looks as though it’s been through quite a battle, with its wiring pulled out and hanging from the ceiling in practically every shot. I know sea air is corrosive, but dang! There’s also a bit of gratuitous language, usually an early tip-off to a lack of purposeful dialogue. Fortunately, when things start happening, there’s less swearing and the dialogue moves the story forward.
The editor deserves a tip of the hat. Ghost Ship runs about 75 minutes, just the right amount of time to develop the story and lead to its conclusion without getting submerged in subplots that go nowhere. This movie sticks to the main theme of creepy ghost ship, how it got that way, and what the current captives must do to get out with their lives.
Ghost Ship has all the standard creepy special effects and a few stunts that rival those on Fear Factor. There are several very cool, original special effects as well, and the ending is a lot of fun. Like any scary movie, the plausibility gap is often wide, but the story moves along at a fair pace, keeping you interested to the end. I thoroughly recommend Ghost Ship if you’re in the mood for this sort of fare. Bon Voyage!
I decided to ignore most reviews of this film and check it out anyway. I am very glad I did. I don’t understand why people think its so bad. Ghost Ship is about a crew who aboard an abandoned ship that went missing in 1962, and was never heard of again. The crew finds it and strange things begin to happen. They start seeing Ghosts, hence the title. The ghosts are the passengers who were brutally killed on the ship, obviously.
The film has a few scary moments and it moves along quickly. There is a major plot twist at the end that I did not see coming at all and I thought it was brilliant. You can’t comment on the acting of a horror movie, it’s pointless, but luckily Ghost Ship has a cast of well known, and talented actors such as Gabriel Byrne, Julianne Marguiles, and Ron Eldard. If not for them, the film could have been a lot more cheesy, but I thought the film was intriguing, scary, and creepy. The opening scene by far one of the most gruesome scenes in film is worth seeing this film for.
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