Director: Steve Beck

"Sea Evil" my arse.

In the wake of the poorly received Thir13en Ghosts (2000), director Steve Beck books us onto the decidedly leaky mainstream horror film Ghost Ship. With a budget of $35 million, compared to $20 million for Thir13en Ghosts, Dark Castle producers Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis prove they have no idea about making good fright flicks – they simply pour more money into each successive lame project and hope for the best. It works for action films, why not horror? Just look at another abomination of theirs, the glossy remake of House on Haunted Hill (1999) for further proof. Time to give it a rest, boys.

Ghost Ship recycles that tired maritime story device involving a salvage operation to deposit a cast of characters onto the titular vessel, an Italian luxury liner called the Antonia Graza which disappeared in 1962. Unbeknownst to the salvage crew, who are coaxed out of much needed shore leave to do the job (The Perfect Storm anyone?), there is an evil force at work on the rusting hulk that causes all sorts of mayhem, until the predictable final act wheels out a rehash of the excruciating climax to The Haunting (1999) – yet another crap remake of an old classic.

The production values, cinematography and special effects work are all excellent. Also look out for some reasonable gore including a great mass torso-ripping scene, a hook in the neck shot, a few floating corpses, a swimming pool filled with blood (shades of The Shining), and an impalement shown after the fact.

Gabriel Byrne is superb as Captain Murphy, providing much needed dramatic weight for the story and natural leadership for the young cast, which includes Alex Demitriades as Santos the engine mechanic, and Julianna (Out for Justice) Margulies as Marueen, a tough salvage expert who gets wind of the supernatural threat early in the piece.

These laudable craft elements are utterly wasted though on a ridiculous story that screams Hollywood Has No Clue. There is no genuine fear, suspense or terror built up during the course of the narrative, just a string of arbitrary shock moments and the occasional gory flashback sequence. The presence of a little girl ghost (Emily Browning) whose soul is trapped on the ship is particularly grating.

If you have a hankering for horror at sea, give the submarine film Below (2002) a try. It also succumbs to its Hollywood pedigree, but at least there are two or three creepy sequences to relish.