This is a review of a movie I watched last month at AMC –“Ghost Ship”.
Descriptive
This film is directed by Steve Beck and is released by Warner Brothers. This film’s a suspended, horror and drama type and it’s from a story by Mark Hanlon.
This 1.5 hour movie talks about the incidents happened on an Italian at a remote region of the Bering Sea when five boat-salvage crews discovers the eerie remains of this grand passenger liner. "Ghost Ship" opens on an unlikely but promising note. It's 1962 and a sultry singer is entertaining the elegantly dressed guests of the Antonia Graza, a luxurious Italian cruise ship. Within minutes, though, a taut rope of wire literally slices through the ballroom, cutting off arms, legs and torsos. Only a girl, who had been dancing with one of the ship's officers, is left standing amid the carnage.
The action then shifts to the present day and the crew of a salvage tugboat called the Arctic Warrior. Under the stewardship of the captain, they consider themselves the best in the business. When a stranger, a Canadian Air Force pilot, approaches them with photos of a mysterious vessel in the Bering Sea, they decide to ditch their plans and search for the ship.
The supernatural story line develops when strange things happen as they explore the ship further and the crews must confront the ship’s past and face the ultimate fight for their lives. One after one died. The main character, Epps, strives her way back to the coast after realizing that Jack, the “pilot”, is a soul collector and he is the one wiping out all the lives 40 years ago and now. She is the only alive person from the 5 crews and she develops a friendship with the ghost Katie and helps the 600 souls on the ship to escape from Jack’s dark power at the same time helping herself. The film ends dramatically when Jack, who is thought dead on the ship when every soul is rescued, is actually on the cast already preparing to haunt another ship with the gold he’s carrying.
Interpretative
After discovering a passenger ship missing since 1953 floating adrift on the Bering Sea, salvagers claim the vessel as their own. Once they begin towing the ghost ship towards harbor, a series of bizarre occurrences happen and the group becomes trapped inside the ship, which they soon learn is inhabited by a demonic creature. This is an excellent plot to reveal human’s dark nature: greedy, selfish, deceitful, and coward crews all destroy themselves when the “soul collector” targets them. It is obvious to the crews that if they can bring this huge ship back to the coast, with the boxes of gold in it, they will have a good fortune. They only need to mend several holes on the bottom of the ship to fulfill the team’s dream. However, they didn’t succeed.
The death of the Murphy’s son in an accident after the discovery makes this designed leader loses his mind and is out of control himself whenever he remembers how his son Santos blames him for not being a good father and only cares for money. He is a coward when he’s a father. He also has conflicts with Greer, the First Mate, on decisions of what should be done when the ship is sinking. His unwillingness of letting others to go inside the ship’s Captain’s cabin shows his selfish but proud nature. When he discovers the truth and wants to warn everyone before it’s too late, no one believes in him because he totally reveals how weak he is when the situation is so bad. Greer died too, because of his subtleness and fake truthfulness that he’s proud of. He is killed by the seduction of a dead corpse. He couldn’t even resist an illusion while he always regards himself as the most faithful man to his fiancée.
There are truthful people among the group also. The two friends Dodge and Munder always devote themselves to help Epps to mend the ship. They didn’t break their promises, but they still died at last because they are not careful enough. Epps is lucky because she has the courage and prudence that Katie appreciates. Katie tries to protect her and leads her to solve the mystery. Katie’s explicit motivation is to help the crew escape, but under it all, she is looking to take her revenge. She makes a right choice. Epps prevents her own death, and when she faces the real identity of Jack, she asks her crews back instead of accepting the fortune Jack offers. Epps signifies what personality is needed for a survivor, while although Jack seems to be the evil one, he is actually only making use of human’s dark nature to fulfill his aim. What he needs is just boxes of gold and selfishness from humans – the tragedy 40 years ago is a good sign of that. Because a group of greedy men wants the gold for themselves and killed almost everyone, Katie was left alone on board herself; then one man from the group killed all his partners because he wants to have the gold all for himself; his lover kills him because she wants to give the gold to another man, the “Jack” 40 years ago. If any one of the above were as ingenuous as Epps to know that cooperation is power, then Jack wouldn’t succeed. The fact that “Jack” is still not eliminated at the end reveals to the audiences that if there is still selfishness on Earth, “Jack” will not disappear and continue to make us killing each other, even the innocents.
Evaluative
Ghost Ship is essentially a movie about a bunch of anonymous characters stuck in a floating haunted house. In general, this kind of movie can be diverting if it's put together correctly. 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. Aside from an occasional, half-hearted "boo!" moment, there's nothing scary about this movie. The meaning that the story wants to show the audience is controversial and remarkable, and a unattractive as that is, it's to be expected but a movie promoting itself as a "haunted house story set on the open sea" should produce a gasp or jolt or slight scare.
Conclusion
The plotting is appealing and it will be suitable for audiences who look for a story, not horror, when watching this film. Overall, this film is still worth watching despite of the disappointment on it’s expected horror effects.
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