This message contains spoilers For “Ghost Ship”.
In 2002, Steve Beck’s “Ghost Ship” sailed in theaters and became decent commercial success, totaling $ 68.3 million at the world box office against a budget of $ 20 million. It was not a critical sweetheart either, because the film seemed more concerned with frightening special effects (which seem dated now) than telling a coherent story that leaves a strong impression. However, while “Ghost Ship” is not the kind of horror film you watch for his fascinating intrigue, It makes a perfectly pleasant slasher This does not adhere to logic or practicality. It is also derived as devil for the most part, although “Ghost Ship” does not pretend to be something that it is not. The film shamelessly embrace its loaded film B roots and plays as A typical horror film of the 2000sExchanging a competent narration for ultra-studied gore.
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Sometimes, however, even a completely mediocre horror film like “Ghost Ship” can present a cold open which is quite impossible to forget. Rather than counting on the shock value of all this, the tearing sequence of the film gradually strengthens anxiety on its way to an unexpected conclusion.
“Ghost Ship” opens on a party on board the Italian liner Mme Antonia Graza, where hundreds of passengers are seen dancing and having a good time. The scene has a jovial mood at the beginning, with a beautiful singer interpreting “Senza Fine” while a little girl named Katie (Emily Browning) looks, bored. A kindly older gentleman then invites Katie to dance in an effort to include it in the common spirit of the party, and it accepts. Admittedly, this gentle and serene moment will not end in a way with a tragedy, right?
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What is happening then is a bloodbath, although the numb horror and brutality of this scene really come from the way the tension is constructed slowly before things happen to the south in the most terrifying and unpredictable way possible. Take a mysterious hand on a lever, a broken thread and a boat wrapped with unconscious guests, and you have all the ingredients you need for a horrible recipe for disaster. That said, let’s talk about the dark and horrible opening of “Ghost Ship” and the way the rest of the film is desperately (and fails) to be up to it.
Ghost Ship has a frightening opening that perfectly balances the shock and the suspense
While the party aboard the Antonia Graza continues, a series of horrible events occurs quickly. A mysterious person pushes a lever, causing a chain of engines and cranks to roll and stutter on the ship. In the end, a particularly tense thread rushes into the joyful crowd, passing the other side with blood and dripping viscera. For a while, everything is always that the guests look with horror, as if it were incredulous while being suspended in time. It was at this moment that Beck makes the accumulation and suspense pay, while the camera moves on different guests, revealing that their bodies were carefully separated in two points.
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The thread has crossed everything (from metal to bone), causing bisect, falling and chest of the life of bodies. Katie is the only exempt from this spell because she is a child and was too short for having been struck by the wire. The gentleman who was dancing with her also falls on the ground, making Katie of terror scream. The bodies around his blood and his guts, some still contract to try to reach out to their half bisect. The combination of abundant gore and the view of a child witness to something so deeply traumatic looks like a punch in the intestine, creating the perfect atmosphere for a promising horror film. Unfortunately, the rest of the film lacks vapor fairly quickly.
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When another crew decides to get on the Graza and resolve its mystery of what happened years later, everything that follows is far too complicated for its own good. A ghost child (!) Attracts passengers to accelerate their disappearance, a rescue ship explodes mysteriously, and a disaster disaster spirit seems to be responsible for this absurd mess. It is difficult to take most of the Campy melodrama in “Ghost Ship” too seriously, but there is a sequence in which the aforementioned ghost child shows that the member of the Maureen (Julianna Margulies) rescue team) In fact occurred on the Graza this fateful night. It is an intriguing scene that reminds us of the shiny opening. The flashback that followed also reveals previously unnsen details of the blood massacre, while “My Little Box” by John Frizzell expands in the background.
I deliberately refuse the details of the key intrigue because “Ghost Ship” is worth looking at at least once, even if everything is down after its remarkably bloody opening scene. If you want to live A Slasher style b movie It’s ridiculous but self -aware, then “Ghost Ship” may well be the watch once for you.