Ghost Ship belongs to the venerable tradition of haunted ship movie (Alien being the best example), with the added twist that Satanic forces are specifically identified as the malefactors. Other examples are Dark Side of the Moon and the not-quite-brilliant Event Horizon. This genre, broadly, has a few conventions:
- The protagonists are on a ship, either on a sea or in space, and cannot reasonably leave it.
- In the course of the movie they encounter a second ship of unknown provenance.
- An unknown evil entity boards from that ship, and the crew starts dying one-by-one.
In Ghost Ship, our protagonists are the crew of an oceangoing salvage tug who stumble upon an Andrea Doria-like ocean liner in the Bering Strait. It’s been lost for fifty years, and there’s a secret cargo which promises a big payday. There’s also a deadly secret and…pretty soon people are dropping like flies.
So does this movie actually work? I’ve decided on yes. First of all, you’ve got Julianna Marguiles, who’s awesome and solid in horror roles. You’ve got Gabriel Byrne who brings the proper notes to the role of the tug captain. Finally, you’ve got Karl Urban pre-Eomer. For historical interest there’s Isaiah Washington pre-Grey’s Anatomy. Emily Browning, just starting out, is hauntingly effective as the ghost of a little girl from the doomed liner. There are no casting problems to speak of.
The effects work holds up after eleven years. The CG ship effects aren’t great but they aren’t on screen much either (smart move). The gore effects are excellent, and the opening sequence is particularly well-done (and brutal). All good horror movies have one standout sequence and this is fairly high on my list of good, standalone scenes.
The story works well enough. The depiction of evil as mundane and work-a-day is a welcome to relief from over-the-top characterizations. There aren’t inappropriate tone shifts. The characters get enough development that we sort-of care when they start buying the farm. The filmmakers paid attention to the background characters from the Italian liner as well (the captain was remarkably poignant in a small role).
Anyway, I think what really makes it stand out is good production values mated up with decent casting. These provide cover for an admittedly threadbare story. The end result is entertaining and worth watching.