Review of Ghost Ship (2002) by Filipeneto — 31 Mar 2018

When we think we've seen a bit of everything in horror, comes a movie that surprises us with something new. It can be good or bad, better or worse achieved, but has the added value of novelty. This is one of this cases: movies about haunted houses come in droves, but movies about haunted ships is something different. The director (Steve Beck) and screenwriter (Mark Hanlon) did a reasonable job and got a very interesting story, without the dead times and gratuitous violence that infest the actual horror films. The cast, headed by Gabriel Byrne and Julianna Margulies, also did a decent job, although I believe that Byrne would be able to admit that this was not one of his best films.

Blood abounds, there are scenes able to revolve the stomach and times when we really got stuck to the screen, but its not an overly graphic film. Everything rests beautifully in a slightly blurred picture, a very threatening and gloomy environment discreetly accentuated by sound effects. The decadent scenarios of the ship were designed in the smallest details, and are elegantly compared to their "original" aspect, through the use of a kind of "hallucinations" that closely resemble temporal flashbacks. One of the most impressive moments of the film, however, is its opening scene. Its something that we simply are not expecting to see. The end is not as strong because we, from the middle, can predict some of the key points in the outcome, removing impact to the climax. In the middle of the film, the director and screenwriter were lost, revealing themselves unable to better develop the plot.

I confess that this film impressed me when I saw it for the first time. I loved it then, and it still is one of my favorite horror movies, by its potential and its scowling environment more than by it's quality. Not a great movie, its not a work of art, but its entertaining and gives some nice chills.