By: debbie lynn elias
This week’s latest Halloween haunting comes in the form of “Ghost Ship,” the tale of the Antonia Graza, an Italian cruise ship lost at sea in the North Atlantic on a voyage from Italy to America in 1962, which is now discovered in the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska. Dust off those old elementary school geography books folks because someone needs to explain how the ship got from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific undetected. Extraterrestial transportation? Uncharted canals through Canada or the North Pole? An asleep at the wheel Coast Guard? Self-opening locks in the Panama Canal? Evil itself relocating from the Bermuda Triangle? And what have our global surveillance satellites been doing the past 40 years (since we know they haven’t been watching Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden)? Here, the find is ultimately made by a weather spotter for the Royal Canadian Air Force. A glaring deficiency in the script to the be sure!
Headed by Skipper Murphy and ship owner Epps, the crew of the Alaskan salvage vessel Arctic Warrior (mind you now, “the best damn salvage crew in the business” according to Murphy) heads out to uncover the mysteries of this floating behemoth, not to mention the potential fortune to be made from the recovery of the salvage. Oh yeah, and did I mention there’s $100 million (yes, One Hundred Million) in gold bullion on board? And as all seafarers know, any ships found unattended at sea, fall under the laws of that time honored tradition – finders keepers, losers weepers. But hauling in this catch turns out to be more than light duty.
Complete and replete with all the usual essential elements of a haunted house, only on a ship – hanging corpses, empty halls, creaky halls and walls, mysteriously opening closets, ghosts and other apparitions, things that go bump in the night (and day), cigarettes suddenly burning in ashtrays 40 years old, oozing blood from the ship’s bowels, and the pies-d’-resistance, a splendorous ballroom showing us a “slice of life” from years gone by mixed with haunting images of a party just ended so reminiscent of that in “The Shining” (and of course, the requisite little ghost girl warning Epps of pending doom – we follow the crew on their exploration of the deserted luxury liner, the atmosphere of which in and of itself evokes those same feelings of majestic awe (with a bit of creepiness) experienced on viewing footage of the actual Titanic explorations. If for no other reason, this is a must see film for the work of cinematographer Gael Tattersall and art director Richard Hobbs, those individuals responsible for this aspect of cinematic excellence.
Naturally, once the salvage crew discovers the fortune and attempts to take possession of it, not only does their individual greed come to light, but each begins to meet an untimely demise, the order of which is obviously dependent upon star quality and billing in the credits. What’s causing the deaths? Watch and see. What’s causing the haunting of the ship? Watch and see.
Gabriel Byrne is on board as the craggy old seafarer, Murphy and spends much of the film with a bland banal look on his face, all the while seemingly trying to disguise his Irish accent, a trait which I think would have added even more credibility to his character had he accentuated it rather than hide it. Crew members Dodge, Greer, Santos and Munder are effectively played by Ron Eldard, Isaiah Washington, Alex Dimitriades and Karl Urban, respectively. But it is Julianna Margulies as salvage owner Epps who keeps the ship and the film afloat. With a tough, no nonsense attitude, Margulies plays it straight, with no camp, and is more than convincing as the feisty Epps. And her ability to stomach blood and grotesque situations (a quality undoubtedly honed on “ER”) while keeping her head on (as opposed to those that seem to lose theirs, in more ways than one) is indeed impressive.
Director Steve Beck who gave us last year’s “Thirteen Ghosts” but who is probably best known for his visual effects work on “Hunt for Red October”, “The Abyss” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” seems at home “on the water” and in unusual and horrific situations and does his job keeping the story flowing. Not a masterful script by veteran John Pogue and collaborator Mark Hanlon (did they even pass geography???), it nevertheless gets the job done, thanks to Beck, Tattersall and Hobbs, giving us a haunting little tale set on the high seas, just perfect for a Halloween viewing
