Reviews

The movie poster for this film has haunted me since 1980 when it came out and I was small. I got completely confused much later when Ghost Ship came out and basically ripped off the poster art, but I re-sought this movie for decades and finally it's on Amazon Prime. I'm not sure why anyone is saying it was a made for TV movie because in 1980 it was theater distributed movie.

The premise seems like a trope of sorts but let's not forget that it originated said trope, it didn't copy it. Not terribly imaginative after all. A ghost ship forces everyone from a newer ship to get onto it. Then, it's simply time to embrace the horror - that's all. But for its day, it was plenty eerie and freaky. You simply can't compare it to more modern films with better effects although amazingly, it does much better than the more modern Ghost Ship, which has some snazzy effects added to this basic premise but never conjures the unease that Death Ship did.

This came out basically at the end of the era of disaster/catastrophe films like Condominium, Poseidon Adventure, which were very popular in the 70's. Many of them, such as the Airport series, Earthquake, and this, all had George Kennedy in a lead or principal role, so this like the others has a certain late 70's textbook feel to it that's very era standard. A sort of washed out or really gritty and accurate, undressed up style. But if you're nostalgic, or simply like that sort of thing, the creeping realization of what the characters are into will be entertaining, the effects won't take away from it, and it will be fun. If you remember when this came out like me, you'll buy it just so you can say you finally found it and won't lose it again.

I'd thought that this was actually going to be a director's cut of the original movie - but then I saw that it was a new take and was very interested to see how they did.

The guy who played Manson I think was a bit over the top and trying too hard to be eccentric. All the women in the movie pretty much were gorgeous, which was not the case with the original women. Clea Duvall was good, as were the ones playing Atkins and Krenwenkel. Kudos also to the woman playing Rosemary LaBianca, although the parts for the victims were of course not long enough or complicated enough for the actors/actresses to expand.

Facts-wise it was very interesting because they pulled a great deal, especially with the dialogue, directly from quotes attributed to the real people in Bugliosi's book. But then just when I was about to commend them for being that meticulous, they pull out absurdity such as Sharon asking Atkins to cut out the baby, and other real embellishments. I think the real story is horrifying enough. There was no need to try and make things more "bankable" or to try to ratchet up the sadness by making stuff up.

I wasn't looking directly at the screen when Bugliosi made his first appearance. You could NOT have told me he was not being played by Joe Pesci until I looked up to see. He sounds exactly like Pesci - it was hilarious in spite of the subject matter.

The graphic scenes were well done. They kept on graying out the screen not unlike movies such as Sin City when things got especially graphic - at least partly for effect.

Overall not a bad movie. It got most of it right, but left out a lot and embellished a lot. It was far more like a "TV movie" than the original was and overall I'd say if you saw the original you can absolutely skip this one. In fact I'll be watching the original again as soon as this is over - it's still on as I write this.

Rarely do you get to see such a wonderful action packed and well acted movie as this one. It's truly a gift that keeps on giving. Just look at all of the one of kind things you get to experience:

1) 265 foot sea level rises that completely swallow entire continents and completely toss the interior of a 25 foot boat, while allowing the man outside of it to hold onto lines one handed and simply climb aboard.

2) In the aforementioned scene, said boat is dry docked one second and in the next is at least 8 miles out to sea in glass smooth water, and the man has been underwater the whole time it was getting there.

3) Obvious day sailors in small sailboats in the distance, and only two survivors shown in water with no visible method of them having gotten out there.

4) 28-30 year old Lindsay Wagner double as President of the US

5) Ozone holes that burn people below decks yet can't penetrate a plastic window in the bridge to burn the star actress, and that disappear in time for romantic scenes on the bow.

6) Single row sandbags stacked 60 feet high in less than two hours by a group of 9 people that are expected to hold back the entire Atlantic Ocean with no bracing.

7) Aforementioned 25' boat that makes it from Long Island to Switzerland in a single day and night on a single tank of gas.

8) Surreal levels of unrealistic science purporting to explain how a Hadron Collider controlled remotely can generate two black holes and control them, restarting the Earth's magnetic field.

9) Death Star - like laser effect as the magnetic field recovers itself in less than 5 seconds worldwide.

10) Black holes out of control within station, but the lead actress can outrun hers since they have absolutely no effect outside of the computer and adjoining rooms.

11) Axe-actuated single cable disconnection feature.

12) Survivors who have absolutely no idea what's going on with the molecular physics the entire movie who high five with complete understanding when it works.

13) Tiny weird Gandhi - like scientist who needs to get up on a chair to tell 8 people that the lead actor saved the world

14) Lead actress who takes 480KW of power through an ax blade and then wakes up pretty much in time to wink and thumbs up the camera.

15) Boat that throughout the movie is portrayed during outside shots using a small model in a tank.

And much much more!

You must see this movie. It is the finest example of film making ever produced. Even finer than Zombie 90 and Black Sheep! No seriously! Even Better! Don't take my word. Rent now!