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Ghost ship

Threat advisory: Guarded - General risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

1962. The Italian passenger liner Antonia Graza is a symbol of post-war opulent luxury, its hundreds of rich passengers dance the night away as they sail along with nary a care in the world. Then without a trace, the ship vanishes and no sign of it is ever seen again until...

2002. In a port somewhere in Alaska, the crew of the salvage tug Arctic Warrior are offered a job by a pilot - the young man has spotted a large and seemingly abandoned ship out in a remote region of the Bering Sea. After some reluctance they set out and soon come across the eerie remains of the Antonia Graza - the once grand cruise liner is now a rusted hulk, seaworthy and adrift but why has it suddenly reappeared? Forced to leave their own boat behind, the crew must figure out how to sail the ship back to port - but the dead inhabitants are not at rest and its up to first officer Epps (Julianna Margulies) to unlock the secret of what horrific events happened the night of its disappearance. As each one of the salvage crew start dying in gruesome fashion, only she and a little girl who has long since departed this world can stop the malevolent presence on board out to fill his quota of souls to carry off into the darkness once and for all.

Filmed in exotic Queensland.

Persons of interest

Julianna Margulies .... Epps
Gabriel Byrne .... Murphy
Ron Eldard .... Dodge
Isaiah Washington .... Greer
Harrington .... Ferriman
Alex Dimitriades .... Santos
Karl Urban .... Munder
Emily Browning .... Katie
Francesca Rettondini .... Francesca
Mark Hanlon .... Screenwriter
John Pogue .... Screenwriter
Steve Beck .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Ghost ship official movie site
Ghost ship QuickTime movie trailers

Studios and distributors:

Warner Bros * Roadshow Films

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Goat shit.

There is no mythology, religion or superstition that says that the souls of the innocent are up for grabs. The guilty get punished, the innocent get rewarded, the wheel turns. At no stage can some supernatural being have dibs without judgement. This is the basis of Ghost ship: that someone can collect souls just by being in the right place at the right time. Even if you allow Mark Hanlon and John Pogue the benefit of the doubt and say that the story doesn't relate to any known belief system, it makes no sense; if a demon can capture souls and divert them away from their just reward then there is no just reward. Spirituality is not like a supermarket where whoever has the biggest trolley can walk out with the most groceries.

Apart from that, Ghost ship is replete with clichés, from the oddball crew living life on the edge to the Captain who knows more about the history of the sea than a sea historian to the scary practical joke to someone walking backwards in a darkened room to things going bump in the night. Then there's the lighting: in almost every room on the Antonia Graza the filmmakers have simulated strong sunlight reflecting off water despite the facts that most of the rooms aren't open to the sky and most of the film takes place at night. Then there are the things that you'd think people would notice, like a glass of whiskey that hasn't evaporated in almost 40 years.

Sheesh. The scariest thing about Ghost ship is that someone gave the filmmakers millions of dollars to make it.