Cruising right along to its silly ending (complete with a laughable twist that reveals the identity of the killer/killers), “Ghost Ship” still manages to help pass the time with a reasonable amount of shock scenes and blood and guts. The opening sequence, where the cruise liner’s patrons and crew are sliced in half by a runaway metal rope, is a real crowd pleaser. But alas, you know you’re watching a movie that has no interest in being innovative when it employs the tried and true gimmick of “now you see it, now you don’t”, where a character spots a ghost, is distracted and looks off screen, only to look back and the ghost is gone! Oh dear, how…old.

"Ghost Ship" seems to get a "strictly average" rating from most horror geeks but I've always enjoyed this one. I've seen it quite a few times over the past couple of years and it holds up to repeated viewings. The plot is pretty standard (a salvage crew discovers a long-lost cruise ship, only to find a dark secret once they're aboard) but the film is effectively creepy, surprisingly gory (especially in this age of watered-down, PG-13 rated "horror") and satisfying from beginning to end.

The opening scene (set during the doomed ship's final voyage, when a tightly wound cable snaps and slices through everyone on an outdoor dance floor) sets the tone immediately and makes you go "Whoa! What the hell just happened?" From there we move on to the present day, when a mysterious man approaches the crew of a beat-up salvage boat in a dockside bar and shows them aerial photos of what looks like an abandoned ship adrift in the open ocean. They take him up on his offer to investigate the find, which turns out to be the long-lost "Antonia Graza," an Italian ocean liner that disappeared without a trace 40 years earlier with a full crew and 600 passengers aboard. Naturally, when the salvagers board the mysterious vessel, weird things start to happen very quickly, so the crew desperately needs to get off the ship before it claims them all as victims.

The real star of this movie is the haunted Italian ocean liner. The set design of the Ghost Ship is very effective, showing just how creepy a deserted boat would look after 40 years adrift at sea. Though it must've been a beautiful ship in its heyday, the Antonia Graza is now a rusty hulk, moldy, slimy and covered in rot... all of which only hides the true horror that happened within its walls for so long. Juliana Margulies of "ER" fame is the first salvage crew member to realize that All Is Not Right aboard this ship when she encounters the ghost of a little girl who was traveling alone on the ship's final voyage. As Margulies' crew members poke around in the bowels of the haunted ship, they discover a stash of gold bars in the cargo hold. Naturally, greed makes everyone go a little crazy while the ghostly little "Katie" shows Margulies what happened to the crew and passengers of the Antonia Graza (in a lovingly shot, action packed, blood-splattered massacre scene that even the most hardened gorehound will have to admit is pretty frickin' cool). Gore fans will get a kick out of the various death scenes in "Ghost Ship." We see a swimming pool full of blood (shades of "The Shining!"), people being impaled on giant hooks, guys getting sucked into giant gears, and even some hot Ghost Boobies, until eventually Margulies finds herself facing off against the guy who brought them to the ship in the first place, who is of course Not What He Seemed To Be.

Horror fans have been unjustly dismissing this flick for far too long. I say check out "Ghost Ship" and judge for yourself. It's a well made, disturbing little roller coaster ride that may well put you off of the idea of ever taking a leisurely ocean cruise.

Finally, a breath of fresh air. There's been downpours of such "horror" films like Darkness Falls, They, and Secret Window, and it's nice to see a movie that sets up its characters in a chilling manner, slowly letting us get to like them, and then the horror turning on us in a subtle yet horrifying manner that gives us nightmares. The movie I'm talking about hasn't actually come out yet, and will probably never be released. I'll bet you thought I was talking about Ghost Ship, right? Ghost Ship is not a movie like that; in fact, it's the complete opposite of what horror films were in their peak in the 70s and 80s. That doesn't automatically mean it's a terrible film. It's just not great.

A salvage crew at sea spots a 40 year old cruise ship out in the middle of nowhere. The b-list and z-list actors go aboard to search for whatever treasures may be aboard. But it's a ghost ship, so various horror-related things occur to them, as they die (you guessed it) one by one.

The opening scene is a great one-setting the mood (which is quickly broken) and then some gore that isn't over-the-top. In fact, it's pretty funny, and I was amazed that they didn't go all out. But then it becomes typical new millennium horror fare. The characters are all underdeveloped, there's the bad-ass woman, there's the captain of some Western European descent, there's the two buffoons, there's the person trying to hit on the bad-ass woman, and there's the mole/traitor in the midst. You can combine those, if you want. The misadventures of these characters are strictly by-the-books, with some creepy surroundings and a few jump scares, but nothing really more. The special effects are generic, and everything comes down to some silly conclusion that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Wait, was I describing Ghost Ship, or was I describing every other horror movie that has come out recently?

On the other hand, the movie has some cheesy fun to it. You wait to see what sort of improbable happenstances occur, with some sort of schadenfraude to it. You don't care about the characters, so you wait to see how they're going to be killed next. It's fun, for the most part, if you can leave all of the nautical mumbo jumbo behind and just go for an atmospheric if hardly scary ride through the ghost ship. Incidentally, the scariest part of the movie is actress Julianna Margulies's eyebrows. But, why not give Ghost Ship a try? It's enjoyable, and you might actually be scared by it (well, probably not).

My ratings: 5/10

Ghost Ship is an adequate horror flick. Nothing new or original here.There is an excellent opening scene that lulls you into a false sense that the film is actually going to be some good, but it barely manages to keep any suspense for its 91 minutes. Yes it's mildly scary – but it could have been so much more.If anyone like isolation, wandering long dark corridors and a good ghost story, rent 13 Ghosts. If you're a salty sea dog with a penchant for hauntings, this is the film for you.

I enjoyed watching this film. The opening of the film completely grasp your attention and draws you intothe film to want to know what happen and how its going to turn out.

Ghost Ship is like the typical haunted ship films and although it may have some similiarities it has alot of differences.

I liked this film and I am sure if you watch it you will too!