The Ferryman

In New Zealand, the couples Tate (Sally Stockwell) and Chris (Craig Hall) and Kathy (Amber Sainsbury) and Zane (Julian Arahanga) come to the yacht Dionysus to sail to Fiji Islands in a romantic trip. The skipper Big Dave (Tamer Hassan) and his girlfriend Suze (Kerry Fox) welcome the quartet with their beloved dog Rolex. On the second day, the Dionysus receives a distress signal in Morse code and Dave head to a mysterious fog to help the ship. They find a fishing boat adrift and Chris and Zane row a small boat to the vessel to avoid reefs. They find a crew member (John Rhys-Davies) near death and they bring him to Dionysus. Sooner they discover that the man is possessed of a demon and he uses a dagger to cheat death and switch bodies with his victims.

"The Ferryman" is an underrated horror movie based on the legend of the Greek mythology of Charon or Kharon, the ferryman of Hades that carried the souls across the River Acheron to reach the world of the dead. His payment was a coin in or on the mouth of the dead person. In the introduction of "The Ferryman", there is a narration in off telling that "in ancient times there was the legend of the Ferryman. He took the dead to be judged into the afterlife and his prize was a coin in their mouth. If anyone tried to cheat death, they would also be cheating the Ferryman and they could never escape for the Ferryman would hunt them forever." The screenplay combines the foregoing legend with "Dead Calm" and "Fallen" and the result is a good gore film. In the end, I was surprised since I had the lowest expectations based on the IMDb Rating. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Vingança do Demônio" ("The Revenge of the Demon")

There are quite a few good ideas here and the actors involved must have a great time when they shot the movie. But that's not all I can review, otherwise the movie would have ranked higher. Talking about the actors: Although we have at least one great actor here, the overall performance is sometimes not really good. And by the way, any kind of nudity that might be or might not be in the movie, didn't make any difference in my rating/review. (a nod to a friend of mine, in case he's reading! ;o)

But apart from the (sometimes) overacting, the other two flaws are the (holes in the) script and the odd editing! So it's not too bad (there a few really good scares here), but overall it's not more than mediocre!

Reasonably good and old-fashioned scary demonic horror from New Zealand, "The Ferryman" occasionally succeeds in combining the claustrophobic atmosphere of "Dead Calm" with the 'do not even trust your loved ones'-suspense factor of "The Shining". This film features one of the most solid basic horror-premises in years, as it revolves on the ancient Greek myth of the ferryman who – according to the legend – needs to be paid in order to guide newly deceased souls over to the other side. For centuries already, one man always managed to escape death by constantly shifting into the bodies of unsuspecting tourists and seamen crossing the waters surrounding the New Zealand islands. He uses an uncanny old dagger to transfer his spirit into a new host and his unfortunate victims die in the old body. When a tourist yacht with six passengers on board rescues and old and sickly man during a storm, they don't realize their lives are endangered as he now has six vital and healthy bodies to choose from. The first 40 minutes of "The Ferryman" are a bit slow and uneventful, mainly because director Chris Graham spends too much time on the overly detailed and slightly redundant character drawings. We're getting rather useless information regarding the three couples' backgrounds and history. A good thing, however, is that none of the characters is your average slasher-stereotype. They're all realistic and likable (at least, most of them) people and not just dumb high-school students on their way to an island-party, or something. As soon as the eerie old man – another great role for John Rhys-Davis – plants his dagger in the chest of his first victim, "The Ferryman" turns into an exciting and spectacular horror film. Some of the death sequences regretfully take place off screen, but others are pretty gruesome and cruel. The titular ferryman only appears briefly at the beginning and the end of the film, but he's a traditionally nasty-looking monster with a rotting face and a hoarse voice. The inescapable location of a yacht in the middle of the open sea and often stuck in thick fog banks adds a great deal the atmosphere and the photography is beautiful. The last sequences on board the yacht, and particularly the ingenious epilogue, will undoubtedly please even the most skeptical horror fan. Recommended.

An individual migrates from body to body (usually when the going get's rough) by stabbing his/her/it's future host with a super duper hexed up knife. Once the transfer has been made, the wounds he/she/it inflicted heals and our body-jacker is back in business having escaped trouble and cheated death once again.

Interesting idea, I guess, though the execution could have been better. Notwithstanding, it's not a total waste of your time. I was conscious from beginning to end, so that's saying something. It made me think: What would I do if I had a knife like that? Would I use it? -Would you? These are deep questions, folks. Deep, troubling questions (Please keep a straight face). All you have to do when your body is no longer usable is stab the sh*t out of your fellow man or woman (Does it work with animals?) with your special knife and "Wallah!" -You have a new body.

The Ferryman may just boil down to personal taste which basically needs no rhyme or reason; you either like something, or you don't. I found the infatuation with the dog in the movie a bit annoying. I wanted to scream "Enough, already! -I know you love your little doggie, but give me a break!" If you had 10 mil, we know where it's going. -Sheesh! Guess I'm not a dog-person. Love, Boloxxxi.

I've had the DVD of THE FERRYMAN sitting in my pile of must sees for some time, for some unknown reason I've been putting it off. But finally got round to seeing it...and I really liked it! It's got a decent cast, the most familiar face to me was Tamer Hassan - from THE BUSINESS, and Julian Arahanga from ONCE WERE WARRIORS, but the acting was good all round I thought.

The film itself was way above average for a DTV movie, it looked like it had a few quid chucked at it, and was extremely well made.

It was quite creepy in parts, the setting on a yacht stuck in the fog in the middle of the ocean - at night, had the desired effect.

I'm not going to go into to much detail about the synopsis (thats available at the top of the title page), but if I had to compare it to something I would say it reminded me of THE HIDDEN... on a boat!

Im not sure of the UK release date, it was due out October time, but was withdrawn and hasn't had a re-release date, but keep an eye out for it.

If you've had enough of the countless remakes and slasher flicks that keep getting churned out - give this a try, you will do a lot worse i guarantee it.