Whenever I’m watching a movie, especially when I’m going to review it, there is a part of my brain, somewhere in the back of my mind, that’s already writing about it. I’m always thinking about an entry point for a review, or something clever to say.
Buy Death ShipAbout 45 minutes into Death Ship, all I kept thinking was, “For a movie with Nazi ghosts on a literal death ship, this thing sure is dull.” That was right about the halfway point, and I’m happy to say it did pick up from there. The back half isn’t exactly good, but it isn’t boring.
A cruise ship is winding down its journey. When it ports, Captain Ashland (George Kennedy) will abdicate his role to Trevor Marshall (Richard Crenna). He’s not happy about it. He’s not happy about much of anything. He’s a cranky old soul. He especially hates being asked to sit with the plebs at dinner time. When the night’s entertainer, Jackie (Paul Rubinek), asks him to stand up and give a bow to the dinner crowd, he barely acknowledges them and grumbles to himself.
He’s happy when he’s called to the deck because a boat seems to be trying to ram them. They have hailed the ship to keep their distance and attempted to maneuver around them, but this mystery ship keeps coming straight at them. Captain Ashland is unable to get the ship out of their way, and they are rammed. The other ship crashes right through their hull.
Presumed budgetary concerns keep the film from showing us much of the crash. We get a couple of scenes of the engine room flooding and crew members screeching at each other to “get out of here,” but that’s it. Cut to it being daylight, and only a handful of people have survived, floating along on some sort of makeshift raft
Hundreds of people must have drowned. There were apparently no lifeboats on board either. Luckily, crewman Nick (Nick Mancuso) and his girlfriend Lori (Victoria Burgoyne) made it. I write “luckily” because at the time of the crash, the film made sure to show us that those two were below decks having sexy fun times. Somehow they managed to get dressed and run topside and find the only apparent floating device on board while everyone else drowned.
The captain literally floats up after a few minutes, half drowned. Where he was before is unclear. How he survived underwater for untold amounts of time is also unclear. Poor George Kennedy spends half this movie unconscious; the other half he spends mostly standing on the death ship’s bridge, surrounded by shadows, looking maniacal.
Just when they are about to give up all hope, a rusty old ship shows up. Our heroes hail it but get no response. They spy a ladder and climb aboard. The ship is deserted and spooky. Despite this, Trevor Marshall and his wife will allow their two young children to run around the ship unsupervised. Later, they will put them in a cabin by themselves for the evening, even though at least a couple of people have mysteriously died.
Everyone behaves strangely on this ship. At one point, our man Jackie is magically grabbed by some cables, then tossed to and fro, dunked upside down into the ocean for a bit before finally being tossed into the ocean. Our heroes scream at this but no one actually does anything to help. They don’t toss him a rope or try and manipulate the cables. Once he’s gone, they just carry on like nothing happened.
No one seems the least bit curious as to what this ship is, or where the crew has gone, or why it seems to be running on its own. (The film loves to show us parts of the engine room with lots of gears pumping up and down, and switches being turned on and off by themselves.) They don’t even bother discussing how to steer the ship to safety or send out a signal.
Like I said, the first half of this film is pretty dull. But then the ghost Nazis turn things up, and we get things like a blood shower, a net full of corpses, Nazi torture chambers, and good old Captain Ashland getting possessed. None of this is good, exactly, but it is definitely a lot more fun than the first half.
The film was initially scripted by the great Jack Hill, who is better known for a series of exploitation flicks like Spider Baby and Coffy. It apparently had a lot more of the characters getting possessed by the Nazi ghosts, or maybe their victims looking for revenge. The powers that be weren’t too keen on that, and John Robins gave it a major overhaul.
The filmmaking gives us lots of skewed angles down lonely corridors, and it really does love that engine room with all its moving parts. At some point, you just know someone is going to get smashed up in those gears. The bloody shower scene is terrific. The pretty girl gets in, taking a normal shower. Then the water turns to blood, and she can’t get out. It no doubt exists to give this 1980s movie some gratuitous nudity (and there are plenty of close-ups granting us exactly that), but some of it is filmed from above the shower, framed like an inescapable box, bright red blood raining down on this poor woman thrashing about. It is all quite effective.
I wish the rest of the movie was as good. That first half really is a slog. The second half is better, but it’s still choppily done. You could make a pretty great 20-minute edit of all the good stuff. I’d watch that again. But the rest of it never lives up to its great title.
If you like this film, though, this release is for you. Kino Lorber has given it a nice UHD upgrade and loaded it with extras. There’s also an extended cut, but really that only adds about three minutes, and that just expands upon Captain Ashland’s possession and the nature of the ship.
DISC ONE – 4K UHD
- 4K restoration of the theatrical cut from the original camera negative.
- Audio Commentary for the Theatrical Cut by Paul Corupe of Canuxploitation.com and Film Historian Jason Pichonsky
- Audio Commentaries for Both Cuts by Film Historians Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson
DISC TWO – BLU-RAY
- 4K restoration of the theatrical cut from the original camera negative.
- Extended cut of the film
- Audio Commentary for the Theatrical Cut by Paul Corupe of Canuxploitation.com and Film Historian Jason Pichonsky
- Audio Commentary for the Theatrical Cut by Film Historians Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson
- Audio Commentary for the Extended Cut by Film Historians Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson
- Audio Commentary for the Extended Cut by Director Alvin Rakoff, Moderated by Jonathan Rigby
- Isolated Score for the Extended Cut by Composer Ivor Slaney
- Stormy Seas – The Voyage from Bloodstar to Death Ship: Documentary
- What Is the Ship Saying: Featurette with Katarina Severen of Katharina’s Nightmare Theater
- Bloodstar Short Story Script by Jack Hill
- 2 Theatrical Trailers
- Optional English Subtitles
- Limited Edition O-Card Slipcase
