Ghost Ship

Plot synopsis:
In May 1962, aboard the Italian ocean liner SS Antonia Graza, dozens of wealthy passengers dance to the song "Senza Fine" sung by Francesca, an Italian singer. A young girl, Katie Harwood, sits alone until the ship's captain offers to dance with her. Elsewhere, a hand presses a lever that unravels a thin wire cord from a spool. The spool snaps and the wire whips across the dance floor, bisecting the dancers.
Forty years later, at a bar, a boat salvage crew — Captain Sean Murphy, Maureen Epps, Greer, Dodge, Munder, and Santos — celebrate their recent success. Jack Ferriman, a Canadian weather service pilot, approaches them and says he spotted a vessel adrift in the Bering Sea. Because the ship is in international waters, it can be claimed by whoever brings it to port. The crew sets out on the Arctic Warrior, an ocean salvage tugboat. The ship is the Antonia Graza, which was believed to be lost at sea. As they prepare to tow it, they discover it contains a large quantity of gold. After a series of supernatural events, the group decides to abandon the salvage effort but take the gold, but an invisible force sabotages the Arctic Warrior. The tugboat explodes as its engine is restarted, killing Santos.
Left with no other option, the group begins repairing the Antonia Graza. Greer encounters Francesca, who seduces him into betraying the fiancée he has ashore, then leads him off a precipice to his death. Captain Murphy enters the captain's cabin and finds his ghost. The captain explains that they recovered the gold from a sinking cruise ship, the Lorelei, along with a sole survivor. Murphy is shown a picture of the survivor, whom he recognizes. He rushes to tell the others, but begins hallucinating and sees everyone as the ghost of the burned Santos, who provokes him into a murderous rage. The others think Murphy has gone mad and lock him in the drained fish tank, where Epps later finds him drowned.
Epps meets Katie's ghost, who reveals what happened on the Graza. The sole survivor of the Lorelei convinced the Graza's crew to murder the passengers for the gold. Once the passengers were killed, the crew turned on one another; soon, only a single officer was left, but he was later killed by Francesca. Another man, the mastermind behind the massacre, then killed Francesca by mystical means and branded her palm with a hook-shaped symbol using only his hands. The man is revealed as Jack Ferriman, who is actually a demonic spirit. Epps deduces that Ferriman lured the salvage team to the Graza to repair it, and decides to sink it to thwart his plan. Epps asks Dodge to keep Jack on the ship's bridge while she secretly sets explosives. When Ferriman realizes that Dodge is on to his secret, he walks towards Dodge while insulting him for not being man enough to act upon his feelings for Epps. Dodge threatens to shoot Ferriman, who simply smiles and says that murderers go to hell. Dodge shoots and Ferriman is seemingly killed.
Epps is below decks setting explosives when she is confronted by Dodge. He tells her he has killed Ferriman and that they can salvage the gold to start a life together, but Epps is made suspicious by this unexpected romantic proposal and Dodge's apparent knowledge of the deaths of the rest of the crew despite not being told of them. Realizing that his ruse has failed, "Dodge" morphs into Jack Ferriman, who has killed the real Dodge. Ferriman describes himself as a salvager of souls, a job he earned by a lifetime of sin. He plans to use the Antonia Graza and the gold as a trap to continue collecting souls. Only the souls of sinners can be readily controlled, through the mark he brands them with, and as long as the Graza is kept afloat the soul of everyone who has died aboard the ship will be dragged down when Ferriman has filled his quota and returns to hell, something which will please the "management". He offers to spare Epps's life in exchange for her not interfering but she detonates the explosives. Ferriman is blown to pieces in the explosion and Katie helps Epps escape the sinking ship. Katie is left in the debris before the souls trapped on the ship ascend to heaven.
Drifting on the open sea, Epps is found by a cruise ship and returned to land. As she is loaded into an ambulance, she sees the battered crates of gold being loaded onto the cruise ship by crewmen overseen by Ferriman, who glares at her and carries on; she screams as the ambulance doors close.

Tags: boring, murder, cult, violence, haunting, flashback, suspenseful, storytelling

Review:
Diver Maureen spotted a young girl on board is only the first of several strange things to occur and soon the crew find themselves in deeper than they planned.Opening with a scene so brutal and gory (made all the worse for me knowing it was coming) that I literally couldn't watch, this film had me hooked at the same time as having me worried that this would just be a big gore fest with nothing else to it.
The direction is good and the design/feel of the film is probably better than the material deserves  nicely building up tension and atmosphere as it goes.Overall then a good genre movie.
As soon as a few plot-aspects are clarified, Ghost Ship turns into a mediocre and predictable thrillerI'm convinced that, with a slightly more intelligent script, this could have become one of the better horror-thrillers since the new Millennium.
It is a judicious choice to have replaced the threadbare topic of the haunted house by the haunted ship.If the screenplay doesn't avoid all the Hollywood conventions, neither all the clichés of the horror film, the director Steve Beck makes up for it by shrouding his movie an atmosphere of mystery as soon as the crew discovers the ship.
But no matter, "Ghost Ship" remains a nice little horror movie whose main function is to make shiver.
Ghost Ship is by no means the worst horror i have ever seen in fact some parts of this film are quite entertaining, the problem seems to be some of the poor digital computer special affect that make this film look like a bit of a B Movie.
Never before have I been so impressed by the first couple of minutes of a movie, like I have been with Ghost Ship.
Initially, I was mentally preparing myself for her to be heavily involved in the 'scares' of the movie, but was pleasantly surprised at her innocence throughout the movie, revealing later on exactly why she is the way she is.The acting is solid enough - not brilliant (with exception of Katie, who does a very good job of tensing things up again - more so than any scare tactics) and the direction is pretty good, with the focus being on the right things and the pace of the movie consistent.I do feel not enough attention was paid to the history behind the back-story of the ship's strange events (i.e. the "Lusitania" and how the gold came to be on the ghost ship itself) as well as a suspiciously obvious lack of character background for some of the characters, although the lack of it doesn't really detract from the movie itself, but makes you realize how important these details can be after watching the movie.Emotionally I swayed through the movie.
Having said that, I think the whole 'souls' thing is a bit ridiculous, because despite it tying in with the movie's concept, it seems to justify having strange occurrences on the ship, rather than having the strange occurrences justify the reason for the ghosts.
I hope that makes some sense.At the risk of looking at this too deeply for a horror flick, I think that there's more to the gold than just being 'stolen gold' - in my mind, the movie is not about the ghosts, or the gold, or the ship.
Ghost Ship is not a movie like that; in fact, it's the complete opposite of what horror films were in their peak in the 70s and 80s.
But it's a ghost ship, so various horror-related things occur to them, as they die (you guessed it) one by one.The opening scene is a great one-setting the mood (which is quickly broken) and then some gore that isn't over-the-top.
It's all aboard for spooky thrills and gory spills in Ghost Ship, a slick supernatural horror from director Steve Beck (who brought us the equally polished Thir13en Ghosts) that launches itself at full steam ahead with a particularly memorable opening scene—an entire room of cruise-ship passengers are graphically sliced in half when a metal cable whips across the dance-floor.The film then slows to a more leisurely speed to introduce Captain Sean Murphy (Gabriel Byrne) and his salvage crew (Julianna Margulies, Ron Eldard, Isaiah Washington, Alex Dimitriades and Karl Urban), who return home after six months at sea to be offered the opportunity of a lifetime by pilot Jack Ferriman (Desmond Harrington): the recovery of an Italian liner, the Antonia Graza, which mysteriously disappeared at sea forty years earlier.Once on board the ship—a rusting, abandoned hulk adrift in international waters—our plucky seafarers stumble across a fortune in gold bullion, but soon get that sinking feeling when they discover that the boat is haunted and it looks unlikely that any of them will ever set foot on dry land again.Despite almost being scuppered by a plot that takes a little too much swallowing at times, and suffering from a rather uneventful middle act, Ghost Ship is still a very entertaining popcorn horror: the cast all acquit themselves well, with Margulies proving to be a particularly capable lead; the set design, gore and digital effects are all top notch; there is some welcome nudity from hottie Francesca Rettondini, who plays a very sexy ghost; and director Beck successfully steers the film back on course for an exciting and surprisingly uplifting climax, followed by a pretty neat twist ending..
Watching this story work it's way to the point of searching for the ship, to me was an excellent visual, when the scope that Captain Murphy (Byrne) is using to track her, sort of 'skips' out then comes back on, and this extremely large vessel, is right in front of them, and they scramble to go into reverse, but only to run right into her!
But that doesn't mean of course that this can't be a good source of inspiration for a new movie.And that's exactly what the makers of "Ghost Ship" must have thought.
Before they can begin repairing and towing the ghost ship towards harbor, a series of bizarre things starts to happen to the crew and they get trapped in the ship, as the prisoners of a demonic creature...During the first hour this movie really gave me a good time.
The story is nice and even though this is yet another horror movie in a series of many, it has a more original approach to offer (a ghost ship isn't something that you see in every movie).
A salvage crew featuring the underused Gabriel Byrne (replacing Brian Cox) and the lovely Julianna Margulies set out on a mission to find a mysterious floating behemoth only to discover that it's the 40-year lost Antonia Garza, a cruise ship that vanished without a trace.Once on board the salvage crew quickly begin to realize that something sinister is going on and have doubts about the completing their mission.
As they try and figure out how they can tow it back to land and cash in on its cargo, supernatural events begin to dominate their very existence.The story is very linear and lacks real depth or complexity, but the film has a strong enough cast and direction to make it interesting and enjoyable to watch.
The special effects are a little mixed, as if the film makers ran low on budget half way through, some of them are really good where as others are pretty much 'B' movie quality.All in all 'Ghost Ship' is a missable horror movie, but it's not one to avoid.
It contains a decent plot that seems reasonable, the avoidance of an excessive use of gore, though the beginning, resembles a scene from The Cell and 13 Ghosts, is pretty startling induce the audience into watching the movie.
Classic horror like the first Halloween keep you in suspense waiting for the scare...Ghost Ship keep my curious as to what the heck was going on.
I liked this fun Popcorn Horror film way back in 2002 when i saw it at the cinema & it was an exciting time at the movies when that music started like an old 50's film & then that Amazing & bloody opening scene just wow!!!
The look of the old Abandoned Ghost Ship is amazing i wanted to explore it lol such a great setting for a supernatural story like this.
The cast are also a great especially Genre regular Desmond Harrington, he is a very underrated but excellent actor who was also excellent as the lead in the excellent backwoods hillbilly slasher Wrong Turn (2003) & the survival Thriller Exit Speed (2008) & he has a nice ordinary guy presence to him like the old school genre heroes like Tom Atkins & Robert Forster, the rest of the cast are good also like having a veteran like Gabriel Bynne & up & coming big star like Karl Urban,great casting for this type of Horror flick & all made really well on a nice budget of 20 million, so not a cheap low budget flick but a modest budget flick.
Not great movie, but it's enough solid that could have been great if it has a good script and I think this film looks like a bit of a B movie.
However, entering this movie without having really heard anything about it prior to watching allowed me to recognize it's qualities in other areas.The film is really quite well organized; the scenes aboard the ship can be quite chilling at times.
The sound effects and dark corridors in the ship are excellently done.The acting in the movie was excellent too in my opinion, there wasn't really a weak character in the plot.
This movie is utter tosh  but no more than I've come to expect from the imagination-impoverished US film industry.To start, the premise is a bit of a give-away  a ghost ship.
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.
"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.
As for the story, it's extremely unengaging - it goes by at a frenzied pacing, giving us no time to absorb any atmosphere, anything making these people characters instead of body fodder, and manages to skip over some glaring questions that never get answered (like how some characters simply disappear without any explanation.) The use of thrash metal on the soundtrack during scare scenes - while cutting to new shots every two seconds or so - takes away any last chance of creating an air of terror.I guess it's not completely worthless.
Now, some several years later I notice that the cast list also has a young Emily Browning (who is actually pretty good for a child actor and you can see that she was going to go further than this floating vessel of a film), plus Karl Urban who does nothing here to show that one day he'll actually be a damn sight better than his performance in 'Ghost Ship' allows him.Ultimately, 'Ghost Ship' is one of a million other forgettable horror films which you won't remember by the time the credits roll.
(Consider, for example, that Ridley Scott's masterpiece Alien is essentially a haunted house movie, set on a spaceship.) Unfortunately, Ghost Ship shows little in the way of solid craftsmanship.
(Consider, for example, that Ridley Scott's masterpiece Alien is essentially a haunted house movie, set on a spaceship.) Unfortunately, Ghost Ship shows little in the way of solid craftsmanship.
Since the primary asset of a haunted house movie is rarely the plot, this sub-genre must rely on elements like shock tactics and suspense - two characteristics where Ghost Ship falls short.
Since the primary asset of a haunted house movie is rarely the plot, this sub-genre must rely on elements like shock tactics and suspense - two characteristics where Ghost Ship falls short.
It certainly succeeds in some of its basic principals, in that it keeps you gripped to your seat like suspense / horror movie should and has great special effects.
It was good for the gore, but totally unbelievable that a wire moving at high speed would slice right though 50 people, but would leave them standing there for a few seconds to go `Um. What just happened?'  They could have done it a bit differently and still captured that same gore effect, but made it more realistic and not defy the laws of physics, biology and gravity.Too bad, could have been a great scary movie if not for the major flaws..
The movie as a whole is moderately diverting and worth a watch if you don't have anything better to do.The first five minutes is unadulterated genius--without serious competition, the most hypnotically poetic use of pure gore ever committed to film.Take or leave the rest of it, but the first little bit is breathtakingly glorious cinematic history..
Twisted but kept my attention and surprised me...I had several different scenarios that I figured was the plot line ( and this from a person who has 50 years of movie and television viewing under their belt) , yet I did not come up with the real story line (although I came close at the last 20 minutes) and did not anticipate the ending , so I rate it quite highly .
It's what makes critics and moviegoers alike so angry; when a film presents at least a little potential, but then it all gets squandered by lazy scriptwriting, bad acting and lackluster direction.Case in point: GHOST SHIP.
The first ten minutes of this film may be the best opening for a horror movie since the first installment of SCREAM.
The opening death sequence isn't that good, all the gore looks noticeably fake, unlike scenes in Saving Private Ryan, but it's ok, what I liked most about Ghost ship is the Twist, and the funky soundtrack that plays as the twist unfolds.
Produced by Dark Castle Entertainment (the same people who brought to you House on Haunted Hill and 13 Ghosts) and directed by Steve Beck (13 Ghosts), Ghost Ship is one of those horror films that will disappoint you if you have high expectations and will satisfy you if you are one of those people who expect little out of horror movies.The film begins in 1962 with a scary, ridiculous and laughable scene where a group of rich Europeans inside a pleasure cruise get cut in half by what appears to be a freak accident.
We get transported to the year 2002, where a team of sailors whose job is to salvage ships that are lost at sea (I didn't even know that profession existed) receive an invitation from a mysterious man: there is a lost ship out there, and they will get a great deal of money if they manage to find it and save it.The rest of the film seems like a cross between Titanic and Event Horizon.
And as long as there's greed, bad things will happen.Good for a horror film.
One thing is for sure that Ghost Ship would have done better if they did more good stuff to it.
You see the story was great although the writers could of at least included more ghosts like some could be rotten corpses in half or something nice with good effects.
Don't get me wrong  Ghost Ship isn't a bad film; it's quite enjoyable, but it just isn't horrific.
The idea behind it is (which I won't spoil if you haven't seen it yet) frightening and well thought out, but it just doesn't come across well in the film.The movie starts off very promisingly  with a downright nasty death scene involving a party of people on a cruise-liner, but then quickly nose-dives into yet another formulaic Hollywood by the numbers' Horror/Thriller.It's worth a watch  but come on Hollywood, you can do a lot better than this  where have all the genuine scares gone?.
Ghost Ship never pretends to be an Oscar-worthy film, and that's a very good thing.
Add to the horrid plot bad writing, cardboard characters and a cast who looks like they were forced into being in this film, and you can see why Ghost Ship failed on so many levels.
I wouldn't say this film was bad, but it could of been alot better, not alot of it made sense, usually i can work things out but this it took me a while to get it really.......It isn't film i could watch again, if you like modern B movies this is for you.....
Not as scary as House on Haunted Hill (1998), but still has enough fright for the bite...Watch it, if you are a lover of horror movies and like a decent scare....
The liner is strange and wonderful, and the whole film looks like a huge amount of effort and money went into creating the whole atmosphere with loving care.Too bad the movie itself is so dreadful.
It had some good special effects but that is all I can say positive about it..I am not a "blood and guts" fan and quit watching movies like these a long time ago..I was really hoping to see more "ghostly iamges"..
I mean, I can see what his role is just from his last name(Ferriman=Ferry Man) but I would like to see a movie explaining him and who he works for and all that.All in all Ghost Ship was a good movie.