by: KFear
Posted on 11.10.09 in All Horror Films
Release Date: 2007

When the plot of a film rests entirely on a small group of young sea goers, of whom just happen to stumble upon a supposedly haunted and abandoned ship, a big red flag waves frantically in front of the movie’s display cover that usually reads…”YYYar, stay far away lad!” Maybe abandoned ships and ghost pirates belong in Scooby Doo and not at home on my DVD rack…but who know? I just think you’d be better off renting Dead Calm or even Jaws for that matter because writers, and directors especially, have never pulled off an effective horror film at sea. Ghost Rig, Virus, and Ghost Ship are all rather dull films that feel more uncomfortably claustrophobic than at all scary, so I suspected that The Ferryman, despite some of the more positive things that I’ve heard surrounding the film, would be that much more of the same. But on the contraire! The Ferryman, once the film gets rolling, delivers an exciting and thrilling spin on a plot that has been long over done throughout the last decade and a half, at least. What’s the structure you might ask? Well…think of the movie Fallen with Denzel Washington. Now put that on a boat. Need I say more?

Now, before you completely lose interest in this film, let me tell you about some of the things that The Ferryman does fantastically well. In The Ferryman’s case, or with any film that entails a demon or murderous soul who shifts between the bodies of a set group of characters, the actors themselves must then pretend they are now in fact that wicked soul or other relevant character. The seven actors in this film all do a marvelous job at portraying not only their own characters, but when the film calls for another soul switch; the actors do an even more spectacular job at pretending they are each another. Without these fine talents, The Ferryman would have fallen flat on its face but it’s because of this talent that you will more than likely be fully entertained throughout this thrilling tale set at sea.

The Ferryman also takes place entirely on a yacht, and Chris Graham, the film’s director, does a fantastic job at making use of such enclosed spaces. In retrospect, the actors might as well have been on a ship five times its size because the scenes never seem overly repetitive do to the lack of a more diverse set. Fog and other lighting effects are also used brilliantly to cast a much more eerie setting over an already immediately frightening scenario, and even though you might feel a tad claustrophobic at times by watching so closely, Graham once again uses the fog to make it seem as if the deck of the ship is endless in length.

Chris Graham also does an amazing job using the soundtrack of this film as an additive to its overall presentation. The style points (mostly slow motion in foggy settings) are welcomed to the feature. Toward the end of the film, and certainly during a brutal fight between two of our main characters, as the soundtrack booms and the camera effects begin to shine through, you’d swear that Guy Ritchie or other comparable company suddenly filched hold of the camera and crew. The visualizations manage to come across surprisingly fresh, and in The Ferryman these style points are sparse but welcomed. This kind of eye candy will really inspire you to keep your eyes out for this director. He might just have something else just as nifty up his sleeve!

Towards the beginning and end of the film, when the actual story behind The Ferryman and his haunting tale begin to unfold, the film tends to stumble a bit with what is actually the entire back story behind all the reasons to why our characters were ever in this predicament to begin with. We’ll all hear the stories at sea that deal with sunken treasure and ghost pirates but nothing is as incredibly lame as the basis behind this particular film. You’d be better off with making the tooth fairly an evil spirit. It would….er, did…make a much more interesting premise than this tacked on tale. Luckily, Graham does a fantastic job at making everything else in the film seem very fresh. Throughout the middle of the movie you’ll completely forget as to why the demon is shifting bodies to begin with. You’ll be too caught up in everything else that’s going on in front of you. It is quite the ride! I just wished they used ghost pirates instead!

I was quite surprised by The Ferryman. The gore is all done very well and the lighting effects are simply fantastic. Once you hit the halfway point of the film it’s all very much like one giant roller coaster ride and in the end, when yet another curve ball in the form of irony is thrown, you’ll realize that this film really does a remarkable job at taking a simple possession plot one step further. It is by far one of the most entertaining and frightening films to set sail at seal. Recommended.

* Acting – 4
* Blood – 4
* Violence – 4
* Partying – 3
* Language – 4
* Humor – 2
* Predictability – 2
* Girls – 3
* Gore – 4
* Sexuality – 4
* Torture – 3
* Overall – 3

• ★★★★★

  Acting:

• ★★★★★

  Blood:

• ★★★★★

  Violence:

• ★★★★★

  Partying:

• ★★★★★

  Language:

• ★★★★★

  Humor:

• ★★★★★

  Predictable:

• ★★★★★

  Girls:

• ★★★★★

  Gore:

• ★★★★★

  Sexuality:

• ★★★★★

  Torture:

• ★★★★★

  Overall: