The Ferryman (2007)

Acting:		Partying:		Girls:
Blood:		Language:		Gore:
Violence:		Humor:		Sexuality:
Torture:		Predictability:		Overall:

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 ...

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