DEATH SHIP turned out to be my Halloween 2004 movie without even intending to have it be the feature of the night. One of the most notorious "bombs" of the 1980's, DEATH SHIP actually turned out to be one of the most interesting movies I've seen in a while for a couple of reasons. George Kennedy stars as the captain of an excursion liner who is facing retirement with less than a dignified attitude, who's boat is rammed by an old Nazi freighter that apparently acted as a sort of floating death camp, complete with a medical atrocities ward. For reasons never clearly explained the ship has become "haunted" or possessed by the Nazis who manned it [who's demise is also never explained] and continues roaming the seven seas looking for souls to torment by ramming pleasure yachts and lurking around until the survivors scrabble on board for refuge.
We do indeed get a new batch of survivors to be tormented, and the bulk of the film has this apparently none too bright handful of humanity slowly figuring out that the DEATH SHIP is not just some old boat floating around, but not until after an old lady is mutated by some sort of leftover germ warfare experiment, Kennedy is possessed by the DEATH SHIP and goes insane, one guy gets thrown down into the flooded hold and onto a pile of rotted human remains [the film's finest "ewww" moment], and the hot panted chick decides it would be a good idea to TAKE A SHOWER on the DEATH SHIP, to disgustingly amusing results.
To a certain extent this is a masterpiece of trash 1980's horror and another one of those "you can't make 'em like this anymore" movies you sort of watch with a quiet awe, wondering to what depths it will sink next to elicit a howl or two. To be sure it is a somewhat uneventful movie, with not really much happening once you get down to it, and only two or three graphic deaths depicted on screen. The meat of the film lies in the territory of previous "Ghost Ship" type films [there is a great deal of resemblance to Amando deOssorio's GHOST SHIP OF THE BLIND DEAD especially], with endless panning shots of the rusted hulk, dimly lit interiors and surprisingly well maintained engine room -- coupled with appropriately gloomy mood music -- that convey without a doubt to audiences that something is creeping in the dark, though we never see any zomboid Nazis.
And on that note this film has a curiously indefinable moral position: The movie goes out of it's way to show us the dusty echoes of Nazi horrors, but beyond showing them to us never has anything to say about them or the people who committed and suffered these atrocities. I liked how the film has the boat dunk oil onto the white uniforms of Kennedy and two of his officers as they clamber on board, giving their clothes a sickening gray hue that said to me "It just turned them into Nazi sailors." We also get a somewhat disturbing shot of Kennedy all mucked up with his hair slicked across his forehead Hitler-style, but what does that really have to say about who his character is? Is he an escaped war criminal? We are shown movie reels of Nazi rallies and concentration camps that supposedly drive one character to throw himself off a high ledge, but what of it?
The answer is that this may have been one of the last of the great Nazi Exploitation Films, with the distinction being that it was a predominantly American production. By not necessarily staking a moralistic claim on what it shows us, the film exists as a sort of quasi mood piece, instowing revulsion, dread, and above all curiosity in the viewer as they try to make sense of what they are seeing & hearing, which is what those Nazi horror flicks like ACHTUNG! THE DESERT TIGERS and THE BEAST IN THE HEAT were all about. Here we get a supernatural angle where the Nazis are all gone, with only the legacy of horror left to bear witness upon how evil they were -- The pain and anguish they created still haunt the DEATH SHIP, but who or what is behind the DEATH SHIP's actions, and how are we supposed to feel about it?
By not providing an answer the film succeeds where it's ultra-lowbrow production values may not. I like how the victims of the DEATH SHIP's horrors all describe what is happening verbally while it takes place in case the disjointed editing intended to keep the budget down leaves anyone behind. I appreciated the unpredictability of the script, and also liked how the movie ends, with the DEATH SHIP apparently just continuing on it's miserable way to the next victim, and making this just a snapshot in a couple of days from the life of a never ending nightmare now happening to whomever gets in it's way. Definitely worth seeking out, though the film is out of print and not likely to be revived anytime soon.
I give it ** out of **** for being so utterly unpredictable and single-minded; A howler to be sure, if you're in the right frame of mind.
We do indeed get a new batch of survivors to be tormented, and the bulk of the film has this apparently none too bright handful of humanity slowly figuring out that the DEATH SHIP is not just some old boat floating around, but not until after an old lady is mutated by some sort of leftover germ warfare experiment, Kennedy is possessed by the DEATH SHIP and goes insane, one guy gets thrown down into the flooded hold and onto a pile of rotted human remains [the film's finest "ewww" moment], and the hot panted chick decides it would be a good idea to TAKE A SHOWER on the DEATH SHIP, to disgustingly amusing results.
To a certain extent this is a masterpiece of trash 1980's horror and another one of those "you can't make 'em like this anymore" movies you sort of watch with a quiet awe, wondering to what depths it will sink next to elicit a howl or two. To be sure it is a somewhat uneventful movie, with not really much happening once you get down to it, and only two or three graphic deaths depicted on screen. The meat of the film lies in the territory of previous "Ghost Ship" type films [there is a great deal of resemblance to Amando deOssorio's GHOST SHIP OF THE BLIND DEAD especially], with endless panning shots of the rusted hulk, dimly lit interiors and surprisingly well maintained engine room -- coupled with appropriately gloomy mood music -- that convey without a doubt to audiences that something is creeping in the dark, though we never see any zomboid Nazis.
And on that note this film has a curiously indefinable moral position: The movie goes out of it's way to show us the dusty echoes of Nazi horrors, but beyond showing them to us never has anything to say about them or the people who committed and suffered these atrocities. I liked how the film has the boat dunk oil onto the white uniforms of Kennedy and two of his officers as they clamber on board, giving their clothes a sickening gray hue that said to me "It just turned them into Nazi sailors." We also get a somewhat disturbing shot of Kennedy all mucked up with his hair slicked across his forehead Hitler-style, but what does that really have to say about who his character is? Is he an escaped war criminal? We are shown movie reels of Nazi rallies and concentration camps that supposedly drive one character to throw himself off a high ledge, but what of it?
The answer is that this may have been one of the last of the great Nazi Exploitation Films, with the distinction being that it was a predominantly American production. By not necessarily staking a moralistic claim on what it shows us, the film exists as a sort of quasi mood piece, instowing revulsion, dread, and above all curiosity in the viewer as they try to make sense of what they are seeing & hearing, which is what those Nazi horror flicks like ACHTUNG! THE DESERT TIGERS and THE BEAST IN THE HEAT were all about. Here we get a supernatural angle where the Nazis are all gone, with only the legacy of horror left to bear witness upon how evil they were -- The pain and anguish they created still haunt the DEATH SHIP, but who or what is behind the DEATH SHIP's actions, and how are we supposed to feel about it?
By not providing an answer the film succeeds where it's ultra-lowbrow production values may not. I like how the victims of the DEATH SHIP's horrors all describe what is happening verbally while it takes place in case the disjointed editing intended to keep the budget down leaves anyone behind. I appreciated the unpredictability of the script, and also liked how the movie ends, with the DEATH SHIP apparently just continuing on it's miserable way to the next victim, and making this just a snapshot in a couple of days from the life of a never ending nightmare now happening to whomever gets in it's way. Definitely worth seeking out, though the film is out of print and not likely to be revived anytime soon.
I give it ** out of **** for being so utterly unpredictable and single-minded; A howler to be sure, if you're in the right frame of mind.