Year of Release: 2002
Director: Steve Beck
Starring: Julianna Margulies, Gabriel Byrne, Ron Eldard, Desmond Harrington, Isaiah Washington, Alex Dimitriades, Karl Urban, Emily Browning, Francesca Rettondini, Boris Brkic
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 2
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Synopsis and Review
"Ghost Ship" was the sophomore directorial effort for Steve Beck following his debut with "Thir13en Ghosts". The film focuses its attention on a salvage crew who is approached by a weather service pilot who mentions he has spotted a vessel adrift in the ocean. The vessel can be claimed by whomever brings it to port. Turns out the ship is the Antonia Graza, a ship that has gone missing since 1962. Once they reach their destination and board the ship, they quickly discover boxes containing gold bars. However as they explore the ship, strange occurrences start happening, which makes them quickly decide to abandon the ship with the gold. However their salvage boat explodes which leaves them with no option but to repair the Antonia Graza. The supernatural entities they encounter unveil what has happened to the boat, and the entity who has been precipitating all these events. As casualties pile on, Maureen Epps finally decides to sink the ship, since she has uncovered the sinister intentions of the entity behind what has been happening in the Antonia Graza.
"Ghost Ship" is a rather straightforward film that wastes no time in setting up the demise of its central characters. The preamble to the narrative already sets up the context for something quite awful that took in place in the ship, and the minute the salvage crew reaches it, it's clearly visible that there won't be much subtlety to whatever action is about to occur there subsequently. All the characters are flimsy sketches, with the goal for the narrative ultimately being for the supernatural occurrences to start taking place, alongside the demise of each of the rescuers in some gratuitously violent way. Ultimately it's a film that doesn't offer much in terms of character or narrative development, trying to elicit a surprise gasp from the villainous entity who is uncovered towards the end, sadly that reveal isn't much of a surprise or much shock, since not much has been built in terms of creating a bridge from the audience towards the characters themselves. It's a film that tries very hard to be suspenseful, but one where the director doesn't really know how to build momentum. The cast which is populated with solid actors, doesn't get to do much with these characters, the same going for the production team which while competent, also can't avoid the film from falling into a generic look and feel. It's ultimately a forgettable endeavor.
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