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Ghost Ship

Ghost Ship (2002)

October. 25,2002
|
5.6
|
R
| Horror Thriller Mystery

After discovering a passenger ship missing since 1962 floating adrift on the Bering Sea, salvagers claim the vessel as their own. Once they begin towing the ghost ship towards harbor, a series of bizarre occurrences happen and the group becomes trapped inside the ship, which they soon learn is inhabited by a demonic creature.

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Reviews

Wordiezett
2002/10/25

So much average

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Claysaba
2002/10/26

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

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Quiet Muffin
2002/10/27

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

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Philippa
2002/10/28

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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cudambercam13
2002/10/29

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!

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Leofwine_draca
2002/10/30

Good old Dark Castle. This is the production group that brought us the remaked likes of the below-par HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (the sum of the parts being far greater than the whole of the movie) and the above-par THIR13EN GHOSTS (a film that actually managed to be consistently scary). Their third film, GHOST SHIP, is not necessarily a remake of one such film, but it's not the first film with that title. Instead inspiration seems to come from the 1999 sci-fi horror film VIRUS and the 1980 B-movie DEATH SHIP, with George Kennedy. Sadly, GHOST SHIP is a clichéd and predictable "cast run around corridors getting killed" type-thriller with almost exactly the same set-up as the previous two films Dark Castle has produced, but with even fewer genuine scares or surprises.The film plays out various uninteresting incidents with monotonous regularity. The opening sequence is the best in the film. We are introduced to a bunch of upper-class twits dancing on board a cruise liner sometime in the 1960s. There's a foxy lounge singer on the soundtrack and some romantic lettering spelling out the titles. Think you've got the wrong film? Think again. The passengers find themselves massacred by a wire, which flies across the ballroom and cuts them into little pieces in a scene which reminds one of the Canadian indie hit, CUBE. The effect is simple, unbelievable, but astonishingly gruesome, and a real jolt to the system. A shame then that things go downhill so quickly.GHOST SHIP is a film with a lot of spooky appeal. It's atmospheric and the creaking, mouldy corridors of the long dead ship make for a great setting, I'll give you that. Thumbs up to the set artists and production designers. Unfortunately, the matter-of-fact plot plays out exactly as you would imagine: the salvage ship "mysteriously" blows up, trapping the characters on board; body parts are found floating in the water and then mysterious, miscellaneous 'haunting' type things start happening. Blood runs out of walls, history replays itself, a naked ghost leads a womaniser to his death at the bottom of a lift shaft (?). Techno music has a habit of playing at inopportune moments and there's an effectively spooky little ghost girl hanging around like the twins in THE SHINING, except this time she's "good" and played with skill by newcomer Emily Browning.By the time the end of the film comes, things aren't even scary anymore. When one character is revealed as a monstrous demon, they couldn't even be bothered to have any makeup. The whodunit aspect of the plot is lamentable and the finale, although boasting an impressive explosion, is empty-headed and severely disappointing. The less said about the ridiculous shock ending the better. Watch out for the dozens of plot holes and inconsistencies that the movie offers. I never knew you could carry a bar of gold around in your back pocket; I didn't realise trouser belts were that strong.The cast is a mixed bunch but generally uninteresting, thanks to the unlikeable characters. Gabriel Byrne is here, but who knows the reason why. Although he easily lends gravitas to the proceedings he seems understandably bored and unstrained by the material. Julianna Margulies's feisty female heroine is a predictable Lara Croft-style adventurer and utterly banal, while the the comic relief from the likes of Ron Eldard and Karl Urban is a bore. Elsewhere we see actors from NEIGHBOURS (!) hamming it up as gory zombie ghosts and a token black being led to his death in a stereotypically racist moment. GHOST SHIP, aside from the copious amounts of atmosphere, is an extremely boring and unnecessary film that adds nothing new to its genre. Dark Castle need to pull their finger out and make a film with some actual plot to it next-time, instead of creating a movie which rips off a dozen others in the process.

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Joejoesan
2002/10/31

This is a nice ghost flick with a great cast. Among the leads are the always watchable Gabriel Byrne, Julianna Margulies and a young Karl Urban. The story is about an experienced salvage team that encounters a still floating abandoned Titanic-like ship and wants to bring it home. What they don't know is that the ship is haunted and one by one the crew members lose their lives.The story starts in great fashion with a shocking massacre on deck but when the crew finally meet the ghosts (and when they start explaining things) it all goes down. What a pity. I liked the movie sets and actors in this story. Some scenes even reminded me of Kubrick's The Shining - and that's a compliment.About two minutes from the end you think that you have been watching a okay but not classic ghost story but unfortunately the last surprise spoils the whole film. Don't you hate that when that happens?7/10

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David Love
2002/11/01

The film commences with (almost) an entire complement of passengers and crew on a 1960s cruise ship being sliced in half by a cable. It's dramatic and horrible. Then we switch to the 'present day' where things slow down.'The best damn salvage crew in the business' is led by Captain Sean Murphy (an Irishman convincingly played by Gabriel Byrne) and consists of Maureen Epps (the lovely Julianna Margulies), Dodge (Ron Eldard), Munder (Karl Urban), Greer (Isaiah Washington), and Santos (Alex Dimitriades). We get to know them well over the next few days.A Canadian Air Force Pilot, Jack Ferriman (Desmond Harrington) approaches them with pictures of an ocean liner which he spotted and convinces the crew to take a look at the ship, and take him with them. They discover that the ship is holed and sinking. They have three days to repair it and tow it.However, once on the ship strange things happen. Munder falls through a floor, Epps sees the ghost of a little girl (Emily Browning), Greer is seduced by the voice of the dead (and dead gorgeous) Italian singer (Francesca Rettondini).Steve Beck does a superb job as Director in keeping the suspense up. What is going to be behind the next door? Behind one door is millions of dollars worth of gold! After the crew's own boat mysteriously explodes, they are left to fend for themselves on the cruise ship as the spooky events escalate. And the plot weaves its way towards its conclusion.The movie is genuinely horrific with great special effects. The actors are all good. Why is this rated so low? I'm knocking a couple of points off for that fast-motion scene where all the plot points are revealed in rapid succession to a background of pumping beat music. But it's still worth eight.

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