Ghost Ship

Summary

“Holy shit. An ocean liner? Where did that come from?”

It is commonly held among horror film circles that the late-Nineties and early-2000s were some of the worst years for the horror genre. I have a soft spot for this era, because I was in Junior High and High School during that period. I rented a lot of those movies on VHS, and was mostly disappointed by them but it didn’t stop me from checking them out. Shout! Factory’s Scream Factory line has recently begun distributing numerous films from Dark Castle Entertainment. Dark Castle Entertainment was a production group within Silver Pictures that was a partnership between Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gil Adler. Their first couple films House on Haunted Hill and THIR13EN Ghosts have both already received releases from Shout! Both of those films were of course remakes of classic William Castle films and also explain the naming of the production company. After those two films, it was decided to start making original scripts and the first one was Ghost Ship. Like other Dark Castle films, it was released on Halloween and received middling reviews, but generated a good profit off of its budget ($68 million gross versus $20 million budget.) I had not seen the film in 2002, but I was happy to check it out now.

In 1962, on an ocean liner called the Antonia Graza full of the creme de la creme of New York, a crowd of people dance with one another and enjoy the drinks and entertainment. A beautiful singer (Francesca Rettondini) sings to them with a backing band. Someone on board has planned their demise in a horrific fashion at the dance. The only person who seemingly survives the attack is a young girl named Katie (Emily Browning.) In Present Day, the crew of the Arctic Warrior tugboat find boats in the open sea and bring them to port to be salvaged. Led by Murphy (Gabriel Byrne), the crew splits the profits up from their adventures once they come ashore. At a bar, a gentleman named Ferriman approaches the crew to show them a photo of an abandoned ship he spotted in the Bering Sea. He wants a 20% finder’s fee. The crew discusses their options and when the opportunity to split the proceeds six ways is offered, they all sign on. Greer (Isaiah Thomas) hesitates to sign on because he is getting married in a month. They decide to offer Ferriman a fee of 10% and he accepts with the proviso that he be allowed to come with them. As they approach the coordinates, the radar that Santos (Alex Dimitriades) is monitoring starts acting up. It seems like the ship is appearing and then disappearing. The Arctic Warrior narrowly avoids crashing into the ship. Murphy knows immediately that the ship he is looking at is the Antonia Graza and when it disappeared. Despite the obvious difficulty that they would face to bring back the ship with their tugboat, Murphy convinces Greer not to phone the ship in so that they will not need to split the proceeds with additional partners. The ship is in bad shape from years of dilapidation. When Munder (Karl Urban) falls through a floor, Epps (Julianna Margulies) and Dodge (Ron Eldard) help to pull him up. She sees the little girl Katie’s apparition on the floor below. They continue on to a room where they find a digital watch, which proves that someone else has boarded the ship before them. As the crew unfolds more secrets aboard the ship, they come into contact with numerous ghosts and discover a treasure while in grave danger.

This movie, like almost all of the horror films from the early oughts, can not quite reach the heights that horror films had established years earlier. I think it really has more to do with that time than anything to do with the scripts or actors. At the time, the CGI effects had a hazy look that simply looked fake and certainly did not look scary. Also at that time, rock radio had been upended by a bunch of terrible music branded as Nu-metal or rap rock. I lived through it, and it was all garbage. For example, there is a sequence where a character named Santos is listening to Mudvayne and it reminded me of exactly how bad the radio was back then. These types of cringe-worthy issues probably are what keep people from going back to these films instead of revisiting a film like Friday the 13th. That said, I have never had any issue revisiting this era warts and all. I think that a movie like Ghost Ship is a pretty good example of the good aspects and the shortcomings of horror films at that time. The actors in the film are well cast. The cast features Gabriel Byrne, who I think is fantastic, Julianna Margulies, Isaiah Washington, Karl Urban, and Ron Eldard. All of them are capable actors. The script itself is fittingly goofy, but the premise isn’t terrible and has some nice twists. I don’t know exactly what people would want out of a script for a film called Ghost Ship, but I thought the plot was perfectly adequate minus a fairly obvious reveal late in the film. It is easier to have the Dark Castle films appeal to you if you remind yourselves that the producers were considering these films as basically an outgrowth from their beloved Tales from the Crypt television series. It was their attempt to have a big Halloween film each year. I think Stephen Beck did a capable job of directing the film and blending some really amazing practical effects with some somewhat antiquated computer generated effects. On the good side – the opening sequence is amazing. Also – the set designs on the film are very impressive and took a lot of hard work. I especially like what they were able to accomplish with their lighting for the sequences. On the bad side – the reveal late in the film is pretty silly and the film’s reliance on songs from that period is key sequences hurts the potential for the film to really feel frightening.

At the end of the day, Ghost Ship is certainly a mixed bag, but for people looking for an easy entertainment I found it a pretty easy way to spend an hour and a half. Fans of the film will no doubt be happy to see the attention that Shout! Factory has given the film.

Video

Shout!Factory did not commission a new transfer of Ghost Ship, so my guess would be that this video transfer probably looks very similar to the transfer used on the original release by Warner Bros. That said, if the aspect ratios are correct this release is in the original 1.85:1 as opposed to the 1.78:1 ratio from the release by Warner. This is honestly not a big deal, because the transfer holds up pretty well. While fine detail levels are not up to the same level as some of the more recent 2K and 4K transfers I have seen come through Shout! recently, I can’t imagine that fans will be too upset.

Audio

Shout!Factory has provided the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track that replaces the TrueHD 5.1 track that was featured on the Warner Bros. release. This track has good clarity of dialogue and the score by John Frizzekk is full of jump scares and atmospherics. Fans will be pleased. 

Supplements:

• This Isn’t Real – in this new interview with actor Isaiah Washington that seems to be taken over Zoom, the actor discusses his memories of working on the film and how he was originally envisioned as the protagonist. Most interesting is when he talks about how the scene with Francesca was originally planned.
• Dark Castle at Sea – in this new interview with producer Gil Adler, Gil discusses the ideas behind forming Dark Castle and the production of Ghost Ship.
• Every Body on Board – in this new interview with makeup effects supervisor Jason Baird (also seemingly taken over Zoom,) Baird discusses the impressive work done for the amazing practical effects in the film.
• Audio Commentary with director Steve Beck – this new commentary track is very informative and frequently funny. Beck seems like a humble guy that is happy to talk about the hard work that went into the film.
• Max on Set: Ghost Ship featurette
• Visual Effects featurette
• A Closer Look at the Gore featurette
• Designing the Ghost Ship featurette
• Secrets of the Antonia Graza clips
• Mudvayne “Not Falling” Music Video
• Theatrical Trailer

Overall Scores:

Video – 4/5

Audio – 4.5/5

Supplements – 4/5

Overall – 3.5/5

Ghost Ship is an entertaining film, but it is a pretty slight offering for horror fans. The fans of the film who grew up watching the era of late-Nineties and early-Oughts films will probably be pleased to be able to add Ghost Ship to their collection in this deluxe edition with the original aspect ratio with an improved DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. The special features are solid, with a very good new audio commentary with director Steven Beck. Overall – this release will appeal to fans of the Dark Castle Entertainment pictures.