The Ship - Das Böse lauert unter der Oberfläche

Greetings from Lithuania.

"Mary" (2019) is a disappointing horror flick, even if i did not expected anyting from it. I saw at the movie theater, without knowing anything about it, were it was shown without any advertisement or anything like that - and i do understand why - because it was so poor.

Although it has an OK premise which could have turned into a good movie, unfortunately it was the writing which derailed this flick. It even stars Gary Oldman in a "give me that paycheck" role, and he was good in this film, given the material.

Overall, a nice premise couldn't save this flick from being blow average. Its not terrible, but its a poor one.

It's actually not so much the ability of the actors to act (I don't think anybody will see Gary Oldman and doubt he can act), but it is the script and the horror movie cliches/tropes that will likely get you quite upset. To say the least. And you also have other people in here (Emily Mortimer), who are way above anything in depth, that the movie can offer them.

Having said all that and all the things that are predictable, the movie can still be enjoyable to a certain degree/level. You have to be a fan and not mind the flaws that are littered throughout the running time.

Gary Oldman what ya doing? I watched this because of you.

Okay, so there's nothing new here, or particularly original, but from the get go at least there are characters on display and they are behaving believably. Makes you a little more vested in the situation as it unfolds. I don't know that the flashback structure of it helped any, but what most folks want to know is "was it scary?" or "was it stupid?" For my tastes it was involving enough, with a few creepy vibes but nothing really exceptional. I could have done without the lazy go to of repeated nightmares in order to have something unnerving happen. Make the shocks part of the story! Make them part of the situation! We lose investment if we expect every unusual occurrence to just be a harmless dream. But that being said, at least it wasn't stupid the rest of the time and I never had the urge to fast forward thru it. Entirely acceptable. But I doubt I'll ever watch it again. There needs to be an option with the streaming services between "liked" and "disliked".

Mary is one of those films that sets sail but has no real sense of direction. Its biggest short coming in my opinion is the premise is sound but the setting is wrong.

A modestly sized family yacht, simply doesn't provide enough physical space and as a consequence scope, to meet the expectations, this horror aspires to. Its as if, for example, Friday the 13th, was set in a phone booth. its far too constrained and has to fall back on drawn out physiological tension, in a vain attempt, to compensate.

The result is a slow, predictable and ultimately, rather anti climatic film, that takes the viewer nowhere interesting. That's in spite of a strong cast, quality acting and decent cinematography.

Marginally watchable but that said, there are far better horror films with a nautical bent on offer, like 80's classic, The Fog. 5/10 from me.