Directed by:
Steve BeckCinematography:
Gale TattersallComposer:
John FrizzellCast:
Gabriel Byrne, Julianna Margulies, Ron Eldard, Desmond Harrington, Isaiah Washington, Alex Dimitriades, Karl Urban, Emily Browning, Francesca RettondiniVOD (3)
Plots(1)
In a remote region of the Bering Sea, a boat salvage crew discovers the eerie remains of a grand passenger liner thought lost for more than 40 years. Once onboard, the crew must confront the ship's horrific past and face the ultimate fight for their lives. (official distributor synopsis)
Videos (1)
Reviews (4)
A horror film for not very demanding viewers. A really great and memorable scene comes right at the beginning, then the film stumbles until it reaches the end. The story is a classic B-movie ghost story, a slightly modernized version of a famous tale that has been told by salted-to-the-bone sea wolves in various variations for God knows how many generations. And to make matters worse, it is in the naive spirit (hehe) of the series I don’t like called Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction. It has some promising moments (the aforementioned opening can't be topped, though) and it goes by quickly, so in the end why not. Two and a half.
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A bunch of uninteresting characters running around the interiors of a ship and experiencing unpleasant things. Not only have we seen all of this a hundred times before, but it’s made even worse by the twists that become increasingly absurd and stupid with every passing minute. I was calm during the opening credits, but I found myself irritated by the time the end credits rolled. That's what I call emotional gradation! One star only for the A-list actors and a bigger budget than similarly bad movies have.
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If you want to watch Ghost Ship, I recommend especially the opening scene, which is very well-shot, and there are also great contrasts and an excellent finale. However, the rest definitely doesn't live up to expectations, it's just a drawn-out treasure hunt featuring one lunatic. The characters aren't particularly well-developed and are somewhat predictable given that most of the action takes place on the ship.
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Ghost Ship can serve as a reflection on how the opinions of others influence our judgment, as well as on how deceptive such judgments can be. This stands out especially when compared to the Spanish horror film Rec. In the end, I gave both films almost the same percentage rating. Rec received excellent reviews and praise that fueled my high expectations, which were ultimately not completely fulfilled, whereas Ghost Ship had very critical and venomous reviews that cooled my expectations to a minimum. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised because I really didn't expect anything from it. Ghost Ship is obviously not great art; viewers must look elsewhere for that, and it does not represent a genre peak in any way. It is just an average, routine ghost story that can boast of having a few decent scenes, such as the execution of the passengers or the gradual discovery of the interior of the abandoned wreck. However, it is also limited by mediocre directing and screenplay. Compared to Rec, it does have a more decent cast, especially someone like Gabriel Byrne, who demonstrates why he is a respected actor even in a film like this. Undoubtedly, more could have been extracted from it, and undoubtedly, there are a number of clichés in the film, but let's be honest, I found more of them in Rec. Moreover, practically no other genre, perhaps with the exception of space opera, has as many horror series sequels as A Nightmare on Elm Street, Children of the Corn, Halloween, etc., which are squeezed to absurdity. Those directors and screenwriters use clichéd scenes precisely because they know they work very well on horror audiences. All in all, it is an average, but sometimes quite entertaining B-movie: 50% overall impression.
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