BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Nayan Gough 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.

Blake Rivera If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

paulg-67221 Credit where credit is due. The concept of this film: a salvage crew are hired to recover a 40 year old lost Italian cruise ship that mysteriously disappeared. Had this this film been a psychological horror, it would have been better.Unfortunately, this film has been made like a typical horror with clichéd characters, bad acting and poor dialogue. The main actor Julianna Margulies even admitted later on she agreed to be in this movie because of the original script and was disappointed when she arrived she was going to act out a completely different script. This does not surprise me, there are some elements of good. One example is Gabriel Byrne's character is a recovering alcoholic. We are told that he doesn't drink in a bar scene early on and he stops himself from drinking whiskey (I think it was whiskey anyway) on board the ship only to drink some after the loss of a crew member. It's a shame that this was not developed as it would have given the character depth.Another good element was the relationship between Murphy (Gabriel Byrnes) and Epps (Julianna Margulies). This too is very undeveloped. The relationship between the characters were undeveloped at the cost of trying to make this film more popular. A terrible shame as this would have let the audience develop a bond with the characters rather than a typical horror where there is usually a game of seeing who's next to be slaughtered.As for the supernatural elements, the villain's main goal is to collect souls, so why couldn't he have killed them off a lot sooner? A psychological horror would have made this film a lot more interesting and believable. At most the supernatural should have been implied. Having all "supernatural" encounters have a rational (i.e. hallucination) or supernatural explanation leaving the audience to decide for themselves is also preferable. Overall, I would only recommend this film in the sense that it's interesting from speculation perspective.

Leofwine_draca Good old Dark Castle. This is the production group that brought us the remaked likes of the below-par HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (the sum of the parts being far greater than the whole of the movie) and the above-par THIR13EN GHOSTS (a film that actually managed to be consistently scary). Their third film, GHOST SHIP, is not necessarily a remake of one such film, but it's not the first film with that title. Instead inspiration seems to come from the 1999 sci-fi horror film VIRUS and the 1980 B-movie DEATH SHIP, with George Kennedy. Sadly, GHOST SHIP is a clichéd and predictable "cast run around corridors getting killed" type-thriller with almost exactly the same set-up as the previous two films Dark Castle has produced, but with even fewer genuine scares or surprises.The film plays out various uninteresting incidents with monotonous regularity. The opening sequence is the best in the film. We are introduced to a bunch of upper-class twits dancing on board a cruise liner sometime in the 1960s. There's a foxy lounge singer on the soundtrack and some romantic lettering spelling out the titles. Think you've got the wrong film? Think again. The passengers find themselves massacred by a wire, which flies across the ballroom and cuts them into little pieces in a scene which reminds one of the Canadian indie hit, CUBE. The effect is simple, unbelievable, but astonishingly gruesome, and a real jolt to the system. A shame then that things go downhill so quickly.GHOST SHIP is a film with a lot of spooky appeal. It's atmospheric and the creaking, mouldy corridors of the long dead ship make for a great setting, I'll give you that. Thumbs up to the set artists and production designers. Unfortunately, the matter-of-fact plot plays out exactly as you would imagine: the salvage ship "mysteriously" blows up, trapping the characters on board; body parts are found floating in the water and then mysterious, miscellaneous 'haunting' type things start happening. Blood runs out of walls, history replays itself, a naked ghost leads a womaniser to his death at the bottom of a lift shaft (?). Techno music has a habit of playing at inopportune moments and there's an effectively spooky little ghost girl hanging around like the twins in THE SHINING, except this time she's "good" and played with skill by newcomer Emily Browning.By the time the end of the film comes, things aren't even scary anymore. When one character is revealed as a monstrous demon, they couldn't even be bothered to have any makeup. The whodunit aspect of the plot is lamentable and the finale, although boasting an impressive explosion, is empty-headed and severely disappointing. The less said about the ridiculous shock ending the better. Watch out for the dozens of plot holes and inconsistencies that the movie offers. I never knew you could carry a bar of gold around in your back pocket; I didn't realise trouser belts were that strong.The cast is a mixed bunch but generally uninteresting, thanks to the unlikeable characters. Gabriel Byrne is here, but who knows the reason why. Although he easily lends gravitas to the proceedings he seems understandably bored and unstrained by the material. Julianna Margulies's feisty female heroine is a predictable Lara Croft-style adventurer and utterly banal, while the the comic relief from the likes of Ron Eldard and Karl Urban is a bore. Elsewhere we see actors from NEIGHBOURS (!) hamming it up as gory zombie ghosts and a token black being led to his death in a stereotypically racist moment. GHOST SHIP, aside from the copious amounts of atmosphere, is an extremely boring and unnecessary film that adds nothing new to its genre. Dark Castle need to pull their finger out and make a film with some actual plot to it next-time, instead of creating a movie which rips off a dozen others in the process.

Python Hyena Ghost Ship (2002): Dir: Steve Beck / Cast: Julianna Margulies, Gabriel Byrne, Isaiah Washington, Ron Eldard, Emily Browning: There is something truly corrupt about a film that relies on blood and a body count to sell. Ghost Ship is about the same level of stupidity as 13 Ghosts. They are both graphic and violent plus they contain the stupidest people on the planet. Plot regards a group called salvagers although we can call them morons, idiots, nitwits, fruitcakes, whatever you wish. They discover a ship deemed lost but deemed found for this embarrassing peep show. Then the crew die in graphic methods that leave viewers yawning. Steve Beck handles the action more effectively than he did with that other embarrassment 13 Ghosts. The wasted cast include Julianna Margulies, Gabriel Byrne, Isaiah Washington, and Ron Eldard. Margulies believes that she sees a girl on board the ship. We even have an early appearance by Emily Browning who will go on to far greater things. That could be a strong indication that she had too much to drink before the shoot. They spend much time running and timing that perfect opportunity to have their guts splattered all over the wall like a bad interior decorator's job. It is a visual feast about past evil that lie in wait but the only thing audiences are waiting for is the credit roll so that they can get off this ship and forget it ever existed. Score: 2 / 10

moonspinner55 40 years after an ocean-liner is beset with tragedy while on a voyage, a salvage crew in the Bering Sea comes across the drifting vessel, thought to have capsized. Director Steve Beck takes a standard haunted-house-at-sea scenario and spikes it with a viciousness that transposes everything else on-screen; the plot, the characters, the performances and the technical achievements of "Ghost Ship" each end up taking a backseat to this filmmaker's penchant for rage and torment (which is something to see but distinctly unpleasant, and difficult to shake off). Beck didn't double as screenwriter for "Ghost Ship" (it was penned by Mark Hanlon and John Pogue, who may be harboring demons of their own), however it's the raw-nerve handling of this bloody tale that one ends up remembering. Rarely have I seen a horror movie of any era wherein the filmmaker's hostility (a deliberate, passionate hostility, one simmering in bad vibrations) completely overtook his own production. ** from ****