Ghost Ship on DVD

It’s always a shame when a good idea is massacred by the filmmakers so badly that you almost forget there’s a good idea in there.

Ghost Ship, the latest “horror” movie from Steve Beck (Thirteen Ghosts), could very well be the least terrifying movie of the year, and that includes family films.

A salvage crew gets word that there’s a ship floating in the middle of the ocean, and it appears it could be the Antonia Graza, a ship that’s been missing for 30 years. So the crew wants to be the first to salvage the boat, just in case there’s something of value (for example, several million dollars worth of gold bars).

What the crew doesn’t know is that the boat is evil; haunted by the ghosts of hundreds of passengers and crew that were killed years before. One by one, the salvage crew is picked off and added to the death toll in increasingly disgusting but unfrightening ways.

It’s hard to enjoy a horror movie that isn’t the least bit scary. The premise of Ghost Ship is good enough, and the opening sequence shows definite promise, but the screenplay by Mark Hanlon and John Pogue takes wrong turn after wrong turn. By the end of the movie you’re bored and in need of a real scare. It seems to be one of those movies that substitutes gore for substance (kinda like Thirteen Ghosts, in fact).

The ending is so absurd that you have to think for a few seconds to make sure you just heard what you think you heard.

If you’re looking for a good horror movie, rent The Ring. If you’re looking for a bad horror movie, you can probably still do a lot better than Ghost Ship. There just aren’t any redeeming qualities here to warrant a viewing.

The DVD, however, is quite impressive. It’s presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, and the quality rivals last year’s Thirteen Ghosts. There is absolutely no trace of grain or dust, and even though much of the film is very dark, all the detail is clearly visible. The audio is also very good, with some excellent surround use, mostly during the gruesome deaths.

Extras include a number of short featurettes that are easily more entertaining than the movie itself. “Max On Set: Ghost Ship” is a 15-minute piece that features behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew, while “A Closer Look at the Gore,” “Designing the Ghost Ship” and “Visual Effects” are shorter pieces that focus more on the making-of the film. You can also “Unlock the Secrets of the Antonia Graza” to get even more behind-the-scenes footage and untold tales. Of course by that time you’ve already had more than enough of Ghost Ship, so it’s hard to find an incentive to go on.

This is a very nice DVD; it’s just a shame the movie sucked so much.

Ghost Ship, from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
91 minutes, anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) 16X9 enhanced, 5.1 Dolby Digital
Starring Julianna Margulies, Ron Eldard, Desmond Harrington, Isaiah Washington and Gabriel Byrne
Produced by Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, Gilbert Adler
Screenplay by Mark Hanlon and John Pogue
Directed by Steve Beck

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