Death Ship (1980) - Flawed, but fun

A passenger liner gets hit by a mysterious ship in the middle of the night and sinks.  The lifeboat full of survivors finds themselves unwitting 'passengers' about the 'Death Ship' which previous sunk them.  It's hardly a radically-different plot, but it's well executed.

First of all I was taken by the stunt work involved.  There are some pretty dangerous falls shot - seemingly - without the help of wires etc.  Plus the fact that this was made in 1980 means no slightly dodgy-looking computer generated effects - it's all practical sets and work - which certainly makes it look nice.  Also, there are some quite harrowing moments.  I don't know whether you'll call them 'horrific,' but there are bits that might make you a bit squeamish.

After a strong start the film does start to drag around the middle.  You have the survivors simply wandering round an empty ship.  Plus, seeing as the ship itself is sort of 'possessed' you don't have a physical antagonist to really be afraid of.  Scary/dangerous things just happen and it's a bit like a 'Final Destination' entry - but then that franchise was pretty successful, so I guess some may see this as a positive.

Plus the general cast are quite bland.  I didn't care much for any of them, but the children were actually not as annoying as kids generally are in this kind of film.  One of them constantly needing the toilet really was quite amusing.

Luckily, the film's final act picks up the pace again as we also get a physical antagonist as one of the crew becomes as possessed as the vessel itself, so at least there's now someone to fear - and run away from.

I'd never heard of this film until I stumbled across it, so perhaps it didn't perform that well in the eighties, but I actually found it quite watchable and may well be a bit of a hidden gem in the genre. 

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights