Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

tomgillespie2002 Take one look at the poster of Death Ship and its tagline 'those who survive the ghost ship would be better off dead!', and you can pretty much guess what you're in for. Death Ship is a run-of-the- mill, low-budget horror featuring a killer Nazi ship that feeds off blood and manages to lure some unfortunate genre archetypes on board for 90 minutes of rambling shenanigans. The one major plus that perhaps makes the film stand slightly above others of its kind is the presence of two genre legends - George Kennedy and Richard Crenna - both no doubt looking for an easy pay-day but lightening the mood nonetheless.Grumpy and socially awkward Captain Ashland (Kennedy) is making his final voyage, transporting a ship full of dull socialites and holiday-makers around while his second-in-command Trevor Marshall (Crenna) waits patiently to take the reigns. When their ship is suddenly struck by a ghostly black freighter that blurts out warning messages in German, only a few survivors escape with their lives, drifting out to sea and eventually finding themselves on board the mysterious vessel. The group find nobody alive on board, and when the annoying lounge act Jackie (a young Saul Rubinek) is seemingly drowned by supernatural forces, it quickly becomes apparent that this is no ordinary ship.The injured Ashland gradually becomes obsessed with taking command of the freighter, mocking Marshall for his lack of leadership qualities and developing a sudden fondness for the Third Reich. The scenes between Kennedy and Crenna, two strong leading men in their heyday, are when Death Ship is at its most enjoyable. Kennedy hams it up no end, but this only adds to the fun. Sadly these moments are few and far between, and the obvious lack of funding forces the movie to resort to endless scenes of inane chattering, gloomy shots of the ship's interior, and some terrible stock-footage where you can barely tell what's happening. One scene of Victoria Bugoyne trapped inside a shower spurting blood is undoubtedly memorable but inspires some unintentional laughs, but that is slim praise for a film that ultimately bores.

fedor8 An unmanned German WW2 ghost-ship from the past spends its abundant free time by seeking out cruise-ships and ramming itself into them, sinking them. It's a peculiar hobby for a ship to have, I admit, but one that allowed this fairly fun story to unfold.George Kennedy, who always sticks in my mind primarily as a cop from the "Naked Gun" movies (even though I've seen him in many other movies), is at first a little hard to accept as the movie's Main Menace; I sort of half-expected to at any moment see Leslie Nielsen hanging around on deck as well, tripping over things. Kennedy plays a perpetually grumpy, misanthropic soon-to-be ex-Captain of a cruise-ship, so – naturally – the Nazi ship has an eye on him to become its new captain: he might just be evil enough to steer it yet more "large circles" around the Atlantic.The movie wastes no time in getting down to business, unlike some horror films which take eons to get the plot rolling. In a matter of a few minutes we are given only the raw bones of who's who, without the unnecessary personal details that time is wasted on in slow-moving horror films that want you to "get to know the characters". Why would we need to? They're monster/zombie/ghost-fodder anyway, most horror-flick characters. Only 10-15 minutes into the movie, and we already have the survivors aboard the Nazi ship, and that's when the fun starts. Nice and quick.Once on the ship, the perpetually morose Kennedy agrees to become its new Nazi lunatic, accepting his new position as the ship's Eternal Captain – or so he (and the viewers) mistakenly thought. Inexplicably, the ship – which had been aiding Kennedy in bumping off the shipwrecked survivors - eventually and very suddenly turns against him, thereby saving Crenna, his wife, their daughter, and their son (who seems to suffer from severe incontinence; his urination came quite close to becoming the running gag). It isn't clear why the ship did this. Until then, its sole purpose was to kill everyone aboard it (aside from Kennedy) i.e. all the un-haunted passengers, including the kids. Perhaps the Nazi ship finally realized that Crenna's children are blond and blue-eyed so it changed its mind about offing them? Who knows; I can't get inside the heads of most Hollywood writers, let alone inside the mind of a fictional Nazi ship.There is some other nonsense, though. This is a horror film, after all. 1) After the ship had sunk, Crenna and the other survivors drifted on a lifeboat for a while. It isn't quite clear how long they drifted, but the editing suggests that it must have been a few hours at least, a half-hour minimum. After this vague time-period, suddenly Kennedy appears from under the boat, gasping for air! OK, fine, the Nazi ship has magic powers and has kept him alive against all biological odds, in order to turn him to the Dark Nazi Side. But how come none of the passengers said "hang on! How the hell did the Captain manage to hold his breath underwater for this long?! Where's he been all this time? Under the friggin' boat???" 2) Crenna, after having endured hours or maybe even days stuck on a life raft with presumably little or no water (on an open ocean) is finally offered some water by his wife a little after they board the Nazi ship. So what does he do? Does he perhaps drink it? No. He washes HIS BLOODY FACE with it. Damn, I'm surprised he didn't ask his wife for soap too. "I refuse to wash my face and hands without soap, and when I'm done with that, and only THEN, will I drink it, but NOT before." Ever been VERY thirsty? Of course you have. Extreme thirst makes people lose all sense of dignity; yet Crenna seems to have both dignity and patience in superhuman amounts. 3) The kids are awful actors. Each one snickered in at least one scene, when they were supposed to be scared – or at least when they were supposed to be not snickering. I am amazed the director failed to notice this. Or perhaps he did – but only in the editing room months later when it was too late to re-shoot the scenes with the undisciplined little brats. Needless to say, I doubt these kids had much of an acting career after this film.A huge plus, and one that makes it easy to overlook some of the (minor) flaws, is the film's typical early 80s look which gives it a visual edge which it otherwise might not have had, had it been made later (especially in the visually awful mid and late 80s). The early 80s American films still had some of that wonderful 70s graininess. Very nice photography and an ideal, desolate setting for this kind of a horror flick. I wouldn't call this a hidden gem, but it's not too far from it, and definitely worthwhile for people who like early 80s horror/fantasy films.

Sonoran-gem42 C'mon I mean how could you not love this movie? It delivers exactly what the title promises, it's a ghostly ship that just prowls around the Atlantic in aimless circles arbitrarily ramming other ships and trapping any survivors in a twisted maze of rust, fascism, and horror. It's the kind of movie you randomly stumble across on TV a stony Saturday afternoon when your like 15 and you and your friends are still laughing about it a full hour after it's over. Super low budge, bad acting, story gets a lil' patchy at times, basically so bad it's good. A movie really dose not need to be Oscar material to be entertaining. For what it is it's actually a great movie with some really scary scenes. The Nazi element in the story line makes for some really creepy stuff. If you like simplistic, cheesy 80's horror movies like Maximum Overdrive or Return of the Living Dead WATCH THIS MOVIE!

Michael_Elliott Death Ship (1980) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Low-key but mildly effective horror film from Canada has a carnival ship get struck by a mysterious boat, which seemed to ram them on purpose. A group of survivors get aboard a lifeboat and soon come across an old ship, which they're able to get on. It doesn't take long for them to realize that the ship has a life of its own and needs blood in order to keep going. DEATH SHIP isn't a completely successful film and a part of me was very disappointed that the movie wasn't better but at the same time there are several effective scenes that make it worth viewing. It should also be noted that the movie was released during the slasher era of horror movies and if you're expecting violence and gore then you're going to be disappointed. There's one scene where a woman gets into a shower and the water turns to blood and this here is the only time you see any red stuff and if it wasn't for the nudity in this scene you might even give this a PG rating. With the lack of blood the film tries to get it right with mood and I think on this level the film works. I found the ship itself to be quite eerie and the scene where the ghost ship pretty much sneaks up on those in the lifeboat was very effective and shot extremely well. The first murder sequence was also quite effective because it didn't have to use violence and gore to get its point across. The majority of the death scenes are low-key but this is why they work so well. Another good thing the flick has going for it is the plot point that the ship was used by the Germans during WWII in order to do tests on humans. This makes for the perfect setting, although the film never clearly goes over who or what is possessing the ship and eventual captain. Is it the Nazi ghosts? Is it the victims? The film doesn't hit on this but perhaps they were just wanting it to be a mystery. DEATH SHIP also benefits from having some familiar faces in its cast including George Kennedy and Richard Crenna. Neither of them offer up Oscar-worthy performances but they fit their roles just fine and at least keep you interesting. Sally Ann Howes, Jennifer McKinney and Saul Rubinek round out the supporting players. As good as this film is at the same time you can't help but wish it was a tad bit better. There are certainly some pacing issues and I think it starts to lose its way during the final twenty-minutes but overall I'd still recommend the film simply because it did try to do something different in an era when most movies were getting away from the atmosphere and going for gore.