The NUCLEUS FILMS thread - Page 71

Demdike@Cult Labs · #**701** 11th April 2020, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin101

Never seen Death Ship, but I have always been curious, so now is the perfect time!

I really like it. It's quite slow moving but atmospheric as hell.

The best horror film set on a ship to date in my opinion.

Demdike@Cult Labs · #**702** 11th April 2020, 12:28 PM

Here's my review from 2016.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Death Ship (1980)

Films about haunted or possessed boats must be incredibly difficult to make as there isn't one that's totally successful. Val Lewton's The Ghost Ship (1943) goes down the mad captain route, whereas Venon Sewell's 1952 effort Ghost Ship features an actual haunted boat. The 2002 effort of the same name is a largely pointless time waster with one great prologue sequence.

Alvin Rakoff's Death Ship wisely uses the best of both worlds - a haunted vessel and possessed captain to come up with the best of the bunch. The basic plot is straightforward but ambitious. A mysterious black freighter hits an ocean liner causing it to sink. A small band of survivors including captain George Kennedy, Richard Crenna and Saul Rubinek, manage to board the deserted vessel . Once aboard they discover the ship seemingly abandoned has been sailing the seas ever since the Second World War with it's long dead German crew always on the look out for Allied boats to sink.

Death Ship is quite a lot of fun. It features some rather nifty set pieces. Saul Rubinek's early death is beautifully suspenseful and Victoria Burgoyne's shower sequence the film's stand out memorable moment. Captain George Kennedy's descent into madness and possession is also well done. The revelation that the ship was a Kriegsmarine prison ship, and the ghosts of its inmates and crew are still aboard adds a welcome air of absurd creepiness to it all.

What doesn't work so well are the endless shots of the boats engines and order telegraphs which often only serve to break tension, yet also add a certain something to the whole thing, a calmness, a hypnotic suggestion that only dares to break out of films of this ilk.

Whilst Death Ship isn't the best horror film of the 80's it does stand out thanks to it's ambition, filming on an actual old ship out at sea definitely gives this film an atmosphere which i doubt could be created in 2016.

Susan Foreman · #**703** 12th April 2020, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephen@Cult Labs

Coming June 22nd......Death Ship

Attachment 223645

5.1 dts
2.0 dts
Audio Commentary with Director Alvin Rakoff and Jonathan Rigby
Isolated Score dts
Optional SDH English Subtitles (with additional German Translations)

Stormy Seas Redux - Remastered in HD
6 Theatrical Trailers
2 Deleted Scenes from TV version
Shower Scene Comparison with TV version
Alvin Rakoff Director's Trailer Reel
Howard Greenberg Producer's Trailer Reel
Jack Hill Co-Writer's Trailers Reel
Bloodstar - Selected Pages from Jack Hill's Original Script
Image Gallery (Posters, Stills, Press Books, Video Art)

Pre-order available from Nucleus FIlms direct - £17.99

"The Video Rental Blockbuster of 1983 arrives on Blu-ray, remastered from original vault elements and packed with extras!

Unbeknown to the passengers on board a cruise ship in the Caribbean, a mysterious vessel is approaching - on a collision course! Despite the attempts of the crew to avert disaster, the liner is lost with all hands down, except for seven survivors. They are saved when they clamber aboard a ghostly freighter, where they discover an even worse fate. They are now prisoners on a former wartime vessel. As this ship speeds towards an unknown destination, they realise that something is intent on destroying each one of them in a grusesome and terrifying way... It's not a ship, it's a killing machine!

From an original story by Hollywood legend Jack Hill (COFFY, FOXY BROWN, SWITCHBLADE SISTERS) and starring none other than George Kennedy (COOL HAND LUKE, THE DIRTY DOZEN) and Richard Crenna (RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD) comes the long-awaited UK Blu-ray premiere of DEATH SHIP. This deranged horror film is now widely regarded as a must-see cult classic!

Extended, remastered version featuring a scene not included in the theatrical cut but added to the television version"