Directed by Steve Beck
Starring Gabirle Byrne, Julianna Margulies, Ron Eldard, Desmond Harrington and Isaiah Washington
By and large, horror movies know how to get your attention, but I still have yet to see any horror flick that tops the opening that Ghost Ship has. It's one of those things that just has to be seen to be believed, and it goes deeper than just a kill scene. It's just AWESOME, and I'll never forget seeing it in theaters with more than a few audible "holy shit" comments from the other people in that dark room.
Unfortunately, there's little else in the movie that warrants quite the visceral reaction that the opening scene does, although I do consider myself amongst the grassroots cult fandom that the film has garnered in the decade-plus since its release date. For starters, it's got an acting crew that seems to actively give a damn about it, something that can't be overstated when it comes to movies of this nature. It's also stylishly shot and has a twist leading into the "final girl" sequence (yup, take a guess as to who survives out of that actor list above) that admittedly caught me pretty off guard. In between, it can get pretty dopey, but we horror fans take what we can get.
Our main characters for this go-round of 2002 horror are a boat salvage crew, with the two principals of this bunch being Captain Murphy (Burne) and Maureen Epps (Margulies). Most of the others pretty much immediately scream "cannon fodder" from the time we meet them, although it's always nice to see Isaiah Washington in supporting roles. Suffice to say, I'm a big fan. They're actually a pretty likable bunch, with Margulies in particular really shining as a tough-yet-relatable seafarer. Or maybe I've just got a thing for women in thick coats. Anyway, within the first 15 minutes, we get our exposition that sets the plot in motion as weather service pilot Ferriman (Harrington) gives them a tip about a ship that he saw adrift at sea. Eager to stake their claim and make a quick buck, the crew heads out to the Bering Sea.
The name of the ship is the Antonia Graza, which (surprise) is the same ship that we saw in the aforementioned amazing prologue, set some 40 years before the events of this film. The crew quickly find that the ship contains a large amount of gold, but it's pretty safe to ascertain that nobody on board is going to be making this particular claim. The set designers do a really good job making the atmosphere of the Graza seem dark and forboding, making it all the more effective when their salvage ship (derp) explodes, leaving them stranded aboard the GHOST SHIP (ta-dum).
This is the section of the movie that drags, which is amazing enough, considering that this is what the producers of the movie considered the "slasher movie" phase of the proceedings. The characters get picked off one by one due to various nefarious spiritual means. None of them are particularly creative deaths, and a large portion of this segment of the movie consists of milling around peppered in between occasional conversations that serve as red herrings to who the actual perpetrator of all this madness is. Fortunately, there's also an unexpected ace in the hole in the form of Katie, played by Emily Browning in one of her first movie roles and the ship's resident "friendly" ghost who clues Margulies in to the murderous past of the Graza just before the action-packed third act begins. Surprise, surprise, it's actually pretty tense stuff, even though it does have one of those eyeroll-inducing twist endings that I'm sick of to the point of delirium.
With that, it's judgment time. According to the ever-accurate Wikipedia, the early drafts of this script were much more psychological as opposed to the out-and-out body count fest that this movie became. Even with that knowledge, I think Ghost Ship is an okay little film, despite that near-suicidal 30-minute stretch in the middle. It's got good performances all-around, some likable characters, and one of the most downright "oh shit" scenes in horror history in the first five minutes. That should be about enough for a recommendation.
*** out of ****. Nothing groundbreaking, but it's worth checking out. Give it a shot.
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