Ghost Ship
Cast
N/A
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #2
5/10. Finally, a breath of fresh air. There's been downpours of
such "horror" films like Darkness Falls, They, and Secret Window,
and it's nice to see a movie that sets up its characters in a
chilling manner, slowly letting us get to like them, and then the
horror turning on us in a subtle yet horrifying manner that gives us
nightmares. The movie I'm talking about hasn't actually come out
yet, and will probably never be released. I'll bet you thought I was
talking about Ghost Ship, right? Ghost Ship is not a movie like
that; in fact, it's the complete opposite of what horror films were
in their peak in the 70s and 80s. That doesn't automatically mean
it's a terrible film. It's just not great.
A salvage crew at sea spots a 40 year old cruise ship out in the
middle of nowhere. The b-list and z-list actors go aboard to search
for whatever treasures may be aboard. But it's a ghost ship, so
various horror-related things occur to them, as they die (you
guessed it) one by one.
The opening scene is a great one-setting the mood (which is quickly
broken) and then some gore that isn't over-the-top. In fact, it's
pretty funny, and I was amazed that they didn't go all out. But then
it becomes typical new millennium horror fare. The characters are
all underdeveloped, there's the bad-ass woman, there's the captain
of some Western European descent, there's the two buffoons, there's
the person trying to hit on the bad-ass woman, and there's the
mole/traitor in the midst. You can combine those, if you want. The
misadventures of these characters are strictly by-the-books, with
some creepy surroundings and a few jump scares, but nothing really
more. The special effects are generic, and everything comes down to
some silly conclusion that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Wait, was I describing Ghost Ship, or was I describing every other
horror movie that has come out recently?
On the other hand, the movie has some cheesy fun to it. You wait to
see what sort of improbable happenstances occur, with some sort of
schadenfraude to it. You don't care about the characters, so you
wait to see how they're going to be killed next. It's fun, for the
most part, if you can leave all of the nautical mumbo jumbo behind
and just go for an atmospheric if hardly scary ride through the
ghost ship. Incidentally, the scariest part of the movie is actress
Julianna Margulies's eyebrows. But, why not give Ghost Ship a try?
It's enjoyable, and you might actually be scared by it (well,
probably not).
Rated R for strong violence/gore, language and sexuality.
Running time: ? minutes
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