Plot
A mysterious ghostly freighter rams and sinks a modern day cruise ship whose survivors climb aboard the freighter and discover that it is a World War II Nazi torture vessel.
Cast
George Kennedy, Richard Crenna and a brief contribution from Saul Rubinek.
Verdict
I've always loved the cover art for Death Ship, trouble is for whatever reason it took me over three decades after initially seeing it to get round to watching it.
Truth be told I was quite excited booting it up, great cover art, a very interesting sounding premise and it's always great seeing George Kennedy. Did it live up to my 30+ year expectations? No, sadly very much not.
You see though it manages to be suitably creepy with its ghost ship setting it never really feels like it goes anywhere and when it does it's a tad non-sensical and very underwhelming. I wanted it to be more visceral, instead it adopts a very disappointing approach and also provides us with walk to walk lackluster deaths and a finale that feels rushed and apathetic.
Death Ship is one of those few movies I think could do with a remake to reach the potential is badly squandered here.
Rants
I was going to do a rant about the people who original ran the ship this movie is about, speak of how I'm in awe that they're so prevalent at time of writing and ask how such a thing is even possible. That however would likely prevent this from getting published so I'll resist the urge.
The Good
George Kennedy is excellent here
Fantastic concept
Solid setting
Brilliant cover art
The Bad
Annoying kids
Awful deaths
Concept is wasted
Too many plot holes.
