The first time I ever watched this film was in student halls way back in 2003 and I remember thinking two things at the time:01) Where the f*ck is Gabriel Byrne's character supposed to be from!?
&
02) This film isn't really any good, is it?
Flash forward 7 years to tonight, I am on a bus heading back from Glasgow and the only thing I have to watch on my Zune (yes that's right, I have a Zune, so what!?) was "Ghost Ship". I had already burned through all my podcasts and the prospect of watching a film when I got home didn't make me happy, so I grit my teeth and started it up.
The film is about a salvage group who have just come back from a successful haul when they are approached by a pilot with a new proposition. He has found a large boat out in international waters that was not responding to radio communications. Despite their original worries, they decide to accept the job and go out to sea to find this missing ship. When they arrive they find more than just a large boat; it turns out to be an Italian cruise liner that went missing in the 1960's. Once they get on board, they start to find evidence that they are not the only people to have been on the ship recently. However, undeterred the continue exploring. As time passes one of the crew members begins to see a little girl around the ship, unable to explain it they doesn't mention it to anyone.
After the crew find large amounts of gold and decide to abandon the ship, things really start to go wrong. The ship doesn't want them to leave and to be honest, neither do I because I want some questions answered.
To be honest, "Ghost Ship" is really only memorable for one thing and that happens in the first 5 minutes when a metal tensile wire snaps across a crowded dance floor leaving the dancers in a terrible state. The movie is totally worth watching just for that. It may be the finest "people getting cut to pieces scene" ever! However, the rest of the film is a little bit of a ship wreck...forgive me....
The acting leaves a lot to be desired as the crew over act their way through the entire production with the enthusiasm of an amateur dramatist. The plot itself is a little dry on interest, but keeps plugging along in an acceptable way. Although, I was pretty bored after about 40 minutes, you may feel differently; maybe even sooner. In terms of gore the film really is disappointing after such a strong start and even worse there is a severe lack of scares. Thinking about it in this way makes me think of it as less of a horror movie and more of an action thriller, which if it were it would still fail on a bunch of different levels.
In short, "Ghost Ship" is not a good movie. Poor acting, a middling script and low scare count take care of that with ease. It is a real shame because I didn't really mind the cast that much; I really like Gabriel Byrne in most things, as specially in "End of Days". However, he wasn't even enough to save this film from becoming an exercise in how to make an outstandingly average fright-fest. Like I said the beginning is of epic proportions and should be watched on loop, but the rest of the film you can kind of forget about, and if you watch it...chances are you will forget about it after a short while.
Rating 2 out of 5
See it if you liked:
Triangle
Virus
The Shining
What does IMDB say?
Review by Stephen King
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