Ghost Ship

The lovingly detailed design work is the best thing about this gruesome maritime shocker. When salvage expert Byrne and his crew board the Italian oceanliner Antonia Graza in the Bering Sea, they step on to a modern day Marie Celeste, a deserted floating palace reported missing four decades ago in the North Atlantic. The splendid sets certainly look the part, combining rusted grandeur with numerous shadowy companionways, and they're creepy enough to keep the audience on edge after the opening flashback's grandiose carnage. The mystery of how the ship negotiated the Panama Canal should be enough on its own to have the treasure seeking interlopers asking questions, but soon diver Margulies isn't the only one hearing spooky voices from below deck. Echoes of Alien and The Shining abound, yet the movie's much stronger on suggestive build-up than bringing its secrets into the open. For the most part, it's efficient enough, but it's hard to escape the feeling that the material isn't really worth the lavished craftsmanship, especially when the final reel plots a course smack between predictable and sheer idiocy.