Ghost Ship (2002)

Directed by Steve Beck [Other horror films: Thir13en Ghosts (2001)]

Ghost Ship is pretty much what I expected – an unique enough story, but due to the very Hollywood feel, it just feels neutered and pretty underwhelming.

I’ll give it props for the story idea (despite occasionally feeling a lot like 1980’s Death Ship), because it was sort of interesting. The opening to the film also got your attention (though some of the special effects there were quite atrocious in a way only early 2000’s horror can be), but as much as I was hoping this would surprise me, I’m not that lucky a man.

Truth be told, one of the reasons I really wasn’t expecting much was due to the fact I knew this was directed by Steve Beck, who isn’t a big name, but he is the guy who did the underwhelming Thir13en Ghosts a year earlier, and the unfortunate thing is that this movie’s quite a bit worse than that earlier effort, which is a wonderful feeling, believe you me.

What the movie has is potential, but that’s the most it has. The setting, a desolate, empty ship, is pretty solid, and like I said, the plot itself is interesting, but the route the movie takes (especially in regards to the finale, which I thought was entirely too expected) just hollows everything out into [insert generic Hollywood horror movie comparison here].

I sort of liked seeing Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects), but otherwise, the cast here struck me as weak. I guess both Isaiah Washington and Julianna Margulies were okay (though Washington’s story was pretty poor), but Desmond Harrington’s character, and the route he took, wasn’t at all something I cared for.

Death Ship is a movie I mentioned earlier, and bringing that back for a second, the one positive thing I can say for sure about Ghost Ship is that it’d be an easier movie to rewatch. I’m not saying the movie’s necessarily better, but it’s not near as dry as Death Ship was (and also, Death Ship had a lot more potential than Ghost Ship ever did, which ultimately hurt it). All this said, though, Ghost Ship is still a very weak and generic movie that’s not really worth watching, and I’m just sad to say that I pretty much saw that coming.

5/10

This was covered on Fight Evil’s podcast, so if interested, listen to Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I discuss this film.