Ghost Ship (2002)

- written April 2003

The Antonia Graza is an Italian cruise ship that has been missing for 40 years and just was sighted in the Bering Strait. An American salvage crew works a deal with a local pilot to board the boat and tow back to shore as a sort of “finders keepers.” However once aboard, the crew realizes that the ship has a few secrets that will put their lives in danger. Getting off the ship won’t be very easy at all and it could be downright deadly.           Overall: This is one of those films that makes you just ask “why?” There have been more than enough ghosts ships stories in recent years (Event Horizon, the relic, lost voyage, Virus, Deep Rising) that you gotta wonder why the producers had to pile this onto the list of unseen horror films where there is no original thought left. When you get done to the basic plot you really realize the haste in which the film was made and the lack of proper brain power was used to catch the mistakes. It’s an Italian cruise ship with people speaking Italian…so why does the little girl speak no Italian? How come there are rat poison cans with labels written only in English and the labels on doors (such as the captain’s cabin) only written in Italian? How is it that the wire which snaps and slices everyone on the deck in half, then misses the girl and kill the guy she’s dancing with in the chest? If the gold came aboard the ship 2 days prior to the killings, how did the entire crew immediately formulate a brilliant plan to steal it all and kill everyone else in such a short period of time and then happen to find weapons that shouldn’t have been on such a ship? What has happened to the ship for the last 40 years considering with satellites, subs and whatever else, no one found this before? Is the “owner” of the gold truly alive or dead? If dead, how come everyone can see the person? I liked the cast (Julianna Marguiles & Gabriel Byrne) but could have skipped everything else. I expect more from a horror film released in theaters. I’ve seen better films go straight to cable tv.           Comparison: Virus meets Titanic

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