Mjeteconer
Just perfect...
Robert Joyner
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Lela
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
amiranda-39274
Movie begin by showing an Italian ocean liner in the 60s, while showing it, this eerie, yet kind of nice music is playing, and then it shows the title of the film in pink, this really threw me off at first, with a false sense of security. Then it shows this really nice fancy party, with people dancing and looking happy, it then shows Emily browning ( Series of unfortunate events) when she was a little girl dancing with captain, all the while a very attractive singer named Francesca is singing an Italian song called Senza Fine, despite never watching this movie as a kid, this song and opening sequence feels very nostalgic and blissful. Of course without much warning a metal wire somehow breaks and cuts everyone on the dance floor into pieces, leading to a very gory shot. The movie then skips to a couple of years later to a salvaging crew, in the middle of a great action sequence, which does cause a mood whiplash, but after the last scene it is welcomed. The crew then return to port and meet a mysterious pilot who claims to have found the missing Italian liner, feeling a major payday they head out to find it. ONce they find it, the atmosphere hits you like a ton of bricks, the outside of ship looks creepy enough, they all respect the danger an old ship, a few entertaining ghost stories are told about. And the the haunting begins, well more like only 3 ghosts, 2 0f them being the little girl and captain who want to help the crew, the other is Francesca, who has some good moments that add to the atmosphere, but is never portrayed as scary, however some special effects do cause a few jump scares, and when members of the crew start dying the tension does increase. And then the second half begins, its not that its bad, but the rest crew find out that they've been lured by the devils advocate and that hes collecting souls on the ship, but needed someone to fix it, that's cool, but the way it was executed was kind of lame, when the history of the ship and the fate of the passengers is revealed, its all moving at a fast pace, with techno music, showing the crew killed everyone so they could keep all the cursed gold for themselves, and then their all killed, this was a cool sequence at first, if they slowed it down, explained more, and perhaps better music this could have been great, but instead it left me feeling kind of sick and disappointed. The climatic battle between the bad guy and Julianna Margulies (the good wife and ER), it felt very anti-climatic, but realistically i would have just blown up the boat too. Despite most of the second half being clunky, i was in awe, when all the trapped souls of the passengers are swimming from the sinking ships, turn into a spiral of light around the ship, and then enter into heaven, it made feel very good and forget most of what i hated in the second half, of course i got a mood whiplash when the survivor finds out the bad guy survived with the cursed gold and is just going to start the whole thing all over again. The movie is not scary, but i will admit suspenseful, the dialogue could have been better, the crew weren't too memorable, but like the marines from Aliens, they were likable, in fact a young Karl Urban was in this movie ( Dredd ). The plot was too simple and afterward you actually want to learn more of the backstory and characters motivations, luckily there is a special feature on the DVD that has the characters do just that. Overall the movie has great atmosphere and is fun to watch.
cudambercam13
I was extremely surprised by this movie, mostly because of the flashback sequence, the music, and especially the massacre scene. I admit I don't have any idea how that could happen because I know nothing about ships, but that probably helped keep it unexpected for me. The victims' reactions were an eye opener, and leaving Emily Browning in the middle... Creepy. Her life end story line was interesting to me as well because it's not often you see that happen to a young girl, even in horror films. It adds a sense of how traumatizing the experience must have been. Back to the music, it's fairly popular for horror films to use a calming song during the scary scenes, but Ghost Ship gave it some additional flair, in my opinion. Also, My Little Box by John Frizzle was very well chosen. I haven't heard his name tied to anything else, so I'll consider his song in Ghost Ship to be a personal one hit wonder. The scene it was used in didn't hurt it either!
Filipe Neto
When we think we've seen a bit of everything in horror, comes a movie that surprises us with something new. It can be good or bad, better or worse achieved, but has the added value of novelty. This is one of this cases: movies about haunted houses come in droves, but movies about haunted ships is something different. The director (Steve Beck) and screenwriter (Mark Hanlon) did a reasonable job and got a very interesting story, without the dead times and gratuitous violence that infest the actual horror films. The cast, headed by Gabriel Byrne and Julianna Margulies, also did a decent job, although I believe that Byrne would be able to admit that this was not one of his best films.Blood abounds, there are scenes able to revolve the stomach and times when we really got stuck to the screen, but its not an overly graphic film. Everything rests beautifully in a slightly blurred picture, a very threatening and gloomy environment discreetly accentuated by sound effects. The decadent scenarios of the ship were designed in the smallest details, and are elegantly compared to their "original" aspect, through the use of a kind of "hallucinations" that closely resemble temporal flashbacks. One of the most impressive moments of the film, however, is its opening scene. Its something that we simply are not expecting to see. The end is not as strong because we, from the middle, can predict some of the key points in the outcome, removing impact to the climax. In the middle of the film, the director and screenwriter were lost, revealing themselves unable to better develop the plot.I confess that this film impressed me when I saw it for the first time. I loved it then, and it still is one of my favorite horror movies, by its potential and its scowling environment more than by it's quality. Not a great movie, its not a work of art, but its entertaining and gives some nice chills.
Python Hyena
Ghost Ship (2002): Dir: Steve Beck / Cast: Julianna Margulies, Gabriel Byrne, Isaiah Washington, Ron Eldard, Emily Browning: There is something truly corrupt about a film that relies on blood and a body count to sell. Ghost Ship is about the same level of stupidity as 13 Ghosts. They are both graphic and violent plus they contain the stupidest people on the planet. Plot regards a group called salvagers although we can call them morons, idiots, nitwits, fruitcakes, whatever you wish. They discover a ship deemed lost but deemed found for this embarrassing peep show. Then the crew die in graphic methods that leave viewers yawning. Steve Beck handles the action more effectively than he did with that other embarrassment 13 Ghosts. The wasted cast include Julianna Margulies, Gabriel Byrne, Isaiah Washington, and Ron Eldard. Margulies believes that she sees a girl on board the ship. We even have an early appearance by Emily Browning who will go on to far greater things. That could be a strong indication that she had too much to drink before the shoot. They spend much time running and timing that perfect opportunity to have their guts splattered all over the wall like a bad interior decorator's job. It is a visual feast about past evil that lie in wait but the only thing audiences are waiting for is the credit roll so that they can get off this ship and forget it ever existed. Score: 2 / 10
