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Ghost Ship
Review by Mike Furches (Mike's bio)
Directed by Steve Beck
Written by Mark Hanlon and John Pogue
Gabriel Byrne... Murphy
Julianna Margulies... Epps
Ron Eldard... Dodge
Desmond Harrington... Ferriman
Isaiah Washington... Greer
MPAA: Rated R for strong violence/gore, language and sexuality.
I saw Ghost Ship on opening night, in part as a result of the handsome trailers that I had seen for weeks prior. This looked like on the surface a delicious little scary movie, and one that would be just in time for the Halloween season. But just as Halloween is a season I choose to stay away from, Ghost Ship is a movie that I wish I would have stayed away from. It was another classic case of a movie whose trailers were exciting and hopeful, only to have the movie itself be a major disappointment.
The premise of the story is simple: A rough and tough salvage crew is made aware of a floating, deserted ocean liner. The stranger, a reported weather observer, lets the salvage crew be aware of the ship and promises to let them in on its whereabouts for a mere 10% of the take, possibly millions, plus the pleasure of going with them on the salvage. We know in advance that the ship has something desperately wrong with it due to a horrific string of events that we see unfold in the opening 20 minutes of the movie. There is enough blood and gore here to make up for the duration of the movie and the opening scenes are enough to encourage keeping away anyone under the age of 16. Shucks, for that matter most adults.
The movie actually starts off beautifully in some regards. We see an ocean liner cruise ship with all of its glory. There is the magnificent ship herself, the famed Captain's dinner, dance, beautiful music, and a wonderful little girl all alone. Then suddenly tragedy hits and the rest of the movie is a mystery of sorts in trying to figure out what happened in the opening scenes. What plays during the rest of the movie however is unfortunately tragic hype and unfortunately stale, stagnant horror scenes with virtually no original ideas or scares.
There is actually quite a bit more I could say about the story itself but unfortunately there was not much worth commenting on. The action was a little tense at times but all in all a let down. There was nothing spectacular about the acting in the film, for that matter any of the characters that you actually developed some liking for end up dead. I don't like spoiler reviews but come on, you have to know that in horror movies a lot of people end up dying. That is the pattern after all. There are actually very few frames that will scare you. There are a couple of creepy things that occur, but again nothing that hasn't been done in this genre a hundred times before. Don't get me totally wrong, some things have been done before and can still be creepy. Things like blood oozing from the walls, as is done here, but there is no intensity and effort put into the development of those scenes in this movie. I could go on and on but will instead choose to point out one of the areas that did have some spiritual connections.
It seems that as if part of the reason for the problems in this movie is the evil character's desire to send people to Hell. His main purpose as a matter of fact is to send as many people there as he possibly can. He realizes after all that everyone as they get older has sin in their life. He desires to meet his quota and thus make "someone" happy. He also realizes that small children can not be a part of that quota because they have not come to the age where they understand what sin is. A wonderful process and thought to include in a movie but unfortunately there are no answers given and the theme does not even play out well. For example, in Ghost Ship, the one who is innocent is not supposedly old enough to have sinned, but she is old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. This is a thought process that in the eyes of the viewer makes little or no sense. The little girl, in this case, does as much with the direction as possible but unfortunately someone forgot to give us any details into her background or develop any legitimate story that we care about. We find out she is alone, without her parents and an innocent who desires to help the salvage crew. A good ghost if you choose. Unfortunately she is not good enough to save the majority of the crew.
While the premise of Ghost Ship was enough to get me into the theater I would caution you to wait until this one comes out on premium television, like HBO or something like that before spending any money to watch it. For that matter I wouldn't even rate the discount movie theater of video market for this one. There you would actually have to spend extra money.
The reality of it is that there is evil in this world. The truth is that people who have made Jesus Christ their leader and forgiver have all the power necessary to overcome that evil. It is unfortunate that when movie makers make movies that address the concept of evil and consequences for sin, they do not also address the availability of forgiveness for that sin. I realize that that can be done in symbolic ways, but unfortunately in Ghost Ship there is no hope. As a matter of fact there is actually no deliverance, only death and destruction.
On a scale of 1-10 this one tanks with a 3 (and that is being kind).
Copyright 2002, Mike Furches. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.
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About Mike Furches: Mike is the senior pastor of United at the Cross Community Church in Wichita, Kansas. The church, located in the inner city of Wichita has a unique ministry to former gang members, drug addicts, prostitutes and others often neglected by the church. Mike also is involved in freelance writing and speaks nationally. Check out his web page for more information: http://www.furches.org/ E-mail Mike |
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