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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

Afouotos
2002/10/25

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

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Grimossfer
2002/10/26

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

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Hayleigh Joseph
2002/10/27

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

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Cheryl
2002/10/28

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

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a_chinn
2002/10/29

Long on visual effects and style, short on plot and characters, this big budget horror film doesn't offer much outside of solid cast and some cleverly gory moments. I loved the 1950s style opening sequence to the film, with Julianna Margulies torch singing on an elegant passenger ship at sea. This scene climaxes with the film's most outrageous and memorable death scene, where an entire dance floor is cut in half when a steel cable snaps loose. If the film had maintained that level of over-the-top shock value, this film might have been better. Instead, like the the first "Blade" film with it's amazing bloodbath opening sequence, the rest of the film is a major letdown. "Ghost Ship" was directed by Steve Beck, who's only other directing credit is "13 Ghosts," which was similarly short of plot, but strong on visual effect and style, although this film's writer is John Pogue, who wrote the underrated "U.S. Marshals" and the also underrated "Quarantine 2: Terminal," but this script about a salvage crew (Gabriel Byrne, Ron Eldard, Isaiah Washington, Karl Urban, and Emily Browning) finding and setting out to loot the titular ghost ship killed off one-by-one in rather unmemorable fashions and amongst a lots of cheap jump-scares. It's kind of fun seeing Julianna Margulies pre-The Good Wife in such a disreputable of genre film, but that's not enough to save this dull horror flick. Horror fans should watch the first 10 minutes of this film, but then turn it off.

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cudambercam13
2002/10/30

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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Prismark10
2002/10/31

Ghost Ship starts out with a lot of gore and blood as in 1962 an ocean liner, the Antonio Graza, whose passengers die in what appears to be a freak accident that caused a tension wire to snap and the metal wire just carved the passengers and split them in two.In the present day Gabriel Byrne plays the captain of a salvage crew which includes Julianna Margulies. A plane pilot cuts them on the deal of salvage on the Antonio Graza that has been spotted and they decide to go for it as the rewards will be ample as the ship contains come gold shipments. The trouble is the ship is also haunted by some supernatural force and the ghost of a little girl reveals what exactly happened to the passengers and crew of the ship.The film opens interestingly and bloodily and the reveal by the little girl is also well executed. As a slasher ghost film it is better than you expect but like a lot of films where you are left in a haunted house scenario it becomes a little mundane as you know the crew will be killed off one by one as souls are salvaged.Like an episode of The Twilight Zone the film closes in a twist of a time loop. The film has some inspired set pieces but the actors do little to make it come alive.

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Scott LeBrun
2002/11/01

This decidedly average horror film is reasonably well made on a technical level, but watching it is likely to give some genre fans a serious case of deja vu. It may suit viewers who want no more than an hour and a half of doom & gloom and gore, but it doesn't offer anything out of the ordinary. It never is able to top its opening bloody set piece, which is pretty over the top, amusing, and the only memorable component of this thing.After this opening set piece, detailing the graphic demise of the crew & passengers of an ocean liner in 1962, the action flashes forward 40 years. In 2002, a tugboat / maritime salvage team get wind of the presence of this long lost ship in international waters. Lured in by their potential cash windfall, they set out to find it. Well, they find it, all right, but they also discover a sinister otherworldly presence that is determined to decimate them just as it caused wholesale slaughter 40 years ago."Ghost Ship" does have good sets and decent atmosphere going for it. It has an appropriately dreary colour scheme, and moody photography supervised by Gale Tattersall. The music by John Frizzell likewise helps to make things somewhat enjoyable. The cast do their best with the so-so material: the lovely Julianna Margulies as Epps, a strong female character, Gabriel Byrne, as her father figure / boss, Ron Eldard (Juliannas' real-life boyfriend at the time), Karl Urban, and Alex Dimitriades as assorted crew, and Isaiah Washington as the first mate. Young Emily Browning is good as the girl who tries to warn Margulies of the danger.Watchable enough for 91 minutes but pretty forgettable once it's over. It tends to get less interesting as it goes along, with the characters just abruptly losing any sense of purpose and blindly falling victim to hallucinations and the machinations of the evil entity. It's also hurt by a very annoying and clichéd ending.Five out of 10.

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