Hmm, well, the first five minutes are fairly interesting I suppose, but after that Ghost Ship just goes downhill. No, on second thought, going downhill doesn't quite do it justice. Sinks like a stone is better.
On paper at least this 'haunted-house-at-sea' shocker could have been, should have been quite good. The basic premise - a haunted passenger liner - is reasonably intriguing (think Titanic meets The Shining) and it's produced by none other than Robert Zemeckis and Joel Silver under the banner of their 'Dark Castle' production company. It's also directed by Steve Beck who's last effort, 'Th13teen Ghosts' (also for Dark Castle) was actually pretty good and finally it's got Gabriel Byrne in it who usually turns in a respectable and very watchable performance.
To be fair, everything starts out quite well. As is the norm for a packed multiplex on a Friday night these days, the first few moments of any film are accompanied by a steady chorus of chatting, popcorn munching and sweetpaper
rustling. Ghost Ship was no different. The popcorn-chorus was still in full swing when the pink, pseudo-romantic credits were rolling and swooning, classical music flooded the cinema. The camera zooms in onto the deck of the Antonia Graza, a 1960's luxury cruise liner where three dozen passengers are partying on the deck. As we draw closer, a malfunctioning, high-tensile cable whips across the dancefloor, simultaneously and graphically slicing all the passengers in half. Ok, so it's highly unlikely, nay physically impossible, not to mention extremely unpleasant, but it's a stunning sequence nonetheless and at least it stops the sweetpaper rustling dead in its tracks. As the partygoers on the screen disintegrate into a twitching bloody mess on the floor, you can almost hear the filmmakers saying, 'Now then, do we have your complete attention?'
And for a short while at least, they do. Unfortunately they don't manage to retain it for very long. You know exactly where the story will take you before it even takes you there. You just know that 40-odd years later the Antonia Graza will suddenly and mysteriously turn up, seemingly adrift and abandoned, after being declared missing for the last 4 decades. Which it does, shrouded in the obligatory, spooky mist and accompanied with the mandatory creepy, groaning noises. You know that some rag-bag collection of salvage workers are going to try and claim the ship for themselves. Which they do. You just know that when they get there, one of them will 'have a bad feeling about all this', and that that person will be the first one who bites the bullet in a suitably disgusting manner. Which he does. You also know that some sort of 'freak accident' will leave the crew stranded on the ghost ship, just as night falls and a thunderstorm is setting in. Which, of course, they do. So far, so predictable, so good. The trouble is that none of it is in the slightest bit scary. Once the dramatic opening sequence and the eerie establishing scenes are out of the way, very little actually happens until the contrived and, frankly, naff ending. All the tension and unease felt in the first 20 minutes soon turns into impatience as you wait for the next scary bit, which after an hour becomes frustration that you still haven't had a scary bit and before you know it, it's turned into the acceptance that you ain't gonna get another scary bit. Which you don't.
When viewed on the small screen six months later, Ghost Ship offers no new surprises - it's still as pants as it was the first time. Some films, horror films in particular, benefit substantially from being transferred to video and DVD but sadly this is one of the ones that don't. The digital surround sound is quite groovy I suppose - all creaky, groany, drip, drip, drip etc.. and that shocking opener is definitely a DVD freeze-frame moment but the script still sucks, the acting is mediocre at best and you just can't escape the fact that very little actually happens. Very little that could conceivably be classed as scary, exciting or entertaining anyway.
There's not much to get excited about in the way of special features either, a handful of behind-the-scenes stuff and a music video is your lot. The first two documentaries - 'On Set: Ghost Ship' and 'Secrets of the Antonia Graza' are your standard promotional fare and are both around 10 - 12 minutes each, with three shorter featurettes of around 5 minutes each focusing on 'Visual Effects', 'A Closer Look at the Gore' and 'Designing the Ghost Ship'. Also thrown in is a music video by, uhm... someone called Mudvayne (?)
All in all then a pretty bum package. Bad film, average DVD, but if you really must indulge yourself then the region 1 DVD is available now for around 12 to 14 quid from all the usual internet and mail order companies (Play.com, Amazon.com etc...) and the region 2 DVD will be along to rent and buy on July 21st.
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Production Year: 2000 - Horror - Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Carmen Electra, Anna Faris, Kurt Fuller, James Van Der Beek, Keenen Ivory Wayans
In a remote region of the Bering Sea a boat salvage crew discovers the eerie remains of a ... more
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 li...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
A routine salvage operation turns into a hellish nightmare for Murphy (Gabriel Byrne) and ... more
his crew (Julianna Marguilies, Ron Eldard and Isaiah Washington). Shockingly gory and chilling events unfold on board an abandoned luxury liner as the team come f...
Advantages: You can laugh at your 'I'll look after you' boyfriend when he jumps at the first sign of anything gruesome. Disadvantages: Its winter, they're in Arctic waters, they're in the middle of the ocean, yet this silly girl seems happy waltzing around in a little t-shirt rather than a jumper. Hmm.
J4M1721 04.02.2004 (25.06.2004)
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Review of Ghost Ship (DVD)
![Ghost Ship [DVD] [2003]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78520998.jpg "Ghost Ship [DVD] [2003]")
Jul 5th, 2003
(Jul 6th, 2003)
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