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Just
in time for Halloween, a ghost story. Except most ghost stories are supposed to
be really scary and suspenseful. This ghost story is not that scary and not very
suspenseful, but it does have some disturbing scenes and images, which made it
watch able. Ghost
Ship begins with a little girl dancing with the captain of a cruise liner just
before everyone on deck but her is cut in half or decapitated by a wire in what
I can only describe as the goriest scene I have ever witnessed on film. The film then
quickly moves on to the crew of the Arctic Warrior salvage tug finishing up a
job by pulling in an oilrig that they pulled from the ocean’s depths. As the
crew celebrates the payday, a mysterious man named Ferriman brings an offer that
the gang just can't pass up. Ferriman (Desmond Harrington, We
Were Soldiers) tells the crew that he has seen a large ship drifting in the
Bering Sea, which he wants the Artic Warrior crew to salvage with him getting a
finder's fee. The two sides cut a deal and then all of them head of to the
remote area. They eventually run into the ship (but suffer little damage) and
find it empty. The group soon discovers that it is the Italian ocean liner
Antonia Graza that was built in the 50s and went missing in 1962 without a
trace. Apparently ship captains like to call these ghost ships, hence the
movie's title. Once on board, the Arctic Warrior's captain Murphy (Gabriel
Byrne, Enemy of the State) sends his crew
to determine the status of the vessel, and see if they can salvage it. The ship
seems to be in good shape at first, but then strange things start happening.
First, Epps (Julianna Marguiles) sees what appears to be a 12 year-old girl
(Emily Browning), which turns out to be the only good thing they see from then
on. Soon the ship's ghosts are out terrorizing the visitors, killing them off
one-by-one. The first to go is the engine mechanic Santos (Alex Dimitriades),
who dies with the explosion and sinking of the Arctic Warrior. Soon Murphy and
Greer (Isaiah Washington, Exit Wounds) are
also dead, leaving Ferriman, Epps, Dodge (Ron Eldard, Black
Hawk Down), and Munder (Karl Urban) left to try and save the ship and try to
get rescued. But who is really behind the evil, only the little girl knows. This
Steve Beck (Thirteen Ghosts) directed horror
flick is based on the story from Mark Hanlon. Hanlon and John Pogue wrote the
script. A few others in the film are Francesca Rettondini, Robert Ruggiero,
Jamie Giddens, Boris Brkic, and Iain Gardiner. Ghost
Ship has some disturbing imagery, and in that way it was scary. But, there was
not a lot of suspense, nor were there any thrills and chills, which is what this
kind of movie needs to deliver. Next time Steve Beck needs to try and scare us
with a good ghost story (maybe something akin to The
6th Sense) and not try to make the audience look away in shock
from the gore. Just four couches, which is probably one too many.
Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:48:04 AM Click Here to get back into frames.
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