Review of Ghost Ship (2002) by Petrice F — 30 Apr 2014

Produced by Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis through their Dark Castle Entertainment brand, which was set up to produce low budget horror films. This one came from a spec script by Mark Hanlon, which was rewritten by John Pogue (The Quiet Ones (2014)), with SFX artist Steve Beck making his feature debut.

It should have been a bit of cheesy hokum, but it feels like a poor man's Virus (1999), if that's possible. It begins in 1962, when a load of passengers on board the Italian ocean liner, Antonia Graza, are killed in a freak accident involving a metal cable.

Cut to present day, and a boat salvage crew, consisting of Captain Sean Murphy (Gabriel Byrne), Maureen Epps (Julianna Margulies), Greer (Isaiah Washington), Dodge (Ron Eldard), Munder (Karl Urban) and Santos (Alex Dimitriades) are taken to the Antonia Graza, after a tip-off by Canadian pilot Jack Ferriman (Desmond Harrington).

They find the ship, and after exploring it proves to be dangerous, they attempt to tow it to the nearest port, however they end up getting picked off one by one by someone. This should have been a bit of cheesy fun, but it ends up being more dull than entertaining, all the cast concerned end up over-acting to the high hilt.

Despite it's low budget and getting slammed mercilessly by the critics, it still turned in a tidy profit. Needless to say, Beck hasn't directed another feature films since.