Lost Voyage

If you don't go into it with overly high expectations, nor expect there to be a particularly rigorous logic to what unfolds, this reasonably entertaining five or six star flick is worth a look, especially for fans of the Bermuda Triangle sub-genre of supernatural thrillers.

I rented this unsure of what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. The movie flows well enough and has enough creep factor to satisfy a small craving. The basic premise involves a young man named Aaron whose father and step-mother disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle. When the ship suddenly reappears twenty-five years later, Aaron is intrigued as to what happened and ventures out to the Triangle to investigate. Lance Henricksen and Judd Nelson are standouts in the movie and are quite good. The rest of the cast are unexceptional and competent at best. My only real gripe with the movie is with the big ending scene. It's over-the-top and a case of a good idea with poor execution. Overall, not bad, but I really only recommend it for those without really high expectations that are only looking for a little mindless creepiness.

It must be harder than it looks to make a movie set aboard an ocean liner. Gritty dramas ("Souls at Sea"), thrillers ("Across the Pacific") or oceanic tearjerkers ("Titanic" & its predecessors") have scored, but among ghost stories set aboard ship, the nearest to the mark have been "The Wreck of the Mary Deare" & "Pirates of the Caribbean"--and it's generous to count either one of them. "Lost Voyage" doesn't really try very hard but is simply another installment in the Bermuda Triangle genre. Florida paranormal researcher Aaron (Nelson) learns that the cruise ship Corona Queen, which vanished in 1979 with his father & new stepmother--inspiring him to become a ghosthunter--has reappeared in the Triangle. She's in the middle of a growing tropical storm, of course, which may sink her at any time. Though proclaiming his reluctance, he inevitably brings his ectospotting-gear (once again, Man bites God with Gear) on a salvage mission. They're led by veteran, no-nonsense seascrounger Shaw (Henriksen) & backed by a TV station that sends both washed-up anchor Dana (Janet Gunn) & catty star reporter Julie (Chorvat), with nervous cameraman Randall (Richard Gunn) caught between the rivals. Hard-edged, good-hearted sea mechanics Dazinger (Kober) & Fields (Sheppard) round out the fateful team with occasional but much-needed comic relief. Of course the Corona Queen is just as she was before but passengers & crew are gone--or are they? Will the team find its answers, prevail or escape before the intense storm overcomes the drifting liner? Or will their own personal demons & rivalries tear them apart? The carelessness & cheapness that plague most SciFi Channel originals are largely absent from "Lost Voyage," which features a story of unusual depth (the characters must each face personal demons as well as supernatural foes & their own rivalries) even if it is predictable. A competent cast helps, too. Nelson's Aaron is a driven, fearless nerd, not unlike Richard Dreyfuss's Hooper in "Jaws," but more suitably somber here. Henriksen, the greatest sci-fi/action character actor since Harry Dean Stanton, is as solid as ever, bringing both believability & color to the tale. Stuntwoman Gunn is capable enough as the alternately bitter & optimistic TV reporter whose devotion to her craft usually overcomes her selfish ambition. The effects are pretty good, not spectacular enough to overwhelm the story & actors, used sparingly enough to enhance rather than distract. If you've never, ever heard of the Flying Dutchman, the Marie Celeste or the Bermuda Triangle, you'll find this movie enjoyable enough as a ghost thriller. Otherwise it's crushingly predictable, offering absolutely nothing that hasn't been done many, many times before in literature & film. "Lost Voyage" teases us early on with parapsychological mumbo-jumbo but that part of the story trails off into nothing. Even the great spooky-spoof "Ghostbusters" helped us out with that ("That's a BIG Twinkie"). There's an inherent pathos to ships, especially big ones, a sense that they're irrevocably tied to the times in which they sailed. They are machines yet somehow alive, servants yet grandly awesome. "Titanic" made so much money because it captured that theme & used it well. A pity that no nautical ghost story has yet been able to do the same.

I am surprised. I caught this on a recent trip to London, and was half asleep one night and turned the TV on. My heart sank when the only movie on was this, however, because I saw the UFO logo up front and am familiar with their brand of crap. Imagine my surprise when I began watching it anyway and found that it was actually a GOOD movie.

Judd Nelson plays Aaron, whose parent were lost on a cruise ship back in the 1970's, somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle. He has weird dreams about it, apparently, and seems to be involved in researching the paranormal (this was a bit unclear). The ship (SURPRISE!) returns, and a spunky reporter (Janet Gunn) named Dana, who works for a trashy paranormal TV show, decides to go out to the ship and get an exclusive story. She tries to get Judd to go along, but he's (understandably) upset about his missing parents, and her desire to make it all into a sideshow.

Now, it begins to get interesting. Dana has hired a sort of motley crew of salvage operators, led by the wonderful Lance Henriksen as Shaw. He's crabby, craggy, and so are his two helpers. They are about to fly out to the ship, and (of course) Judd shows up in the nick of time. CGI shots of the helicopter and the ship follow (looks good, overall). Once onboard the ship, nasty things start to happen. The interesting thing about this movie is that much of what happens is psychological, instead of overtly "spooky". The director, (Christian McIntire, who also co-wrote this), sets up a tension and weird atmosphere, although some gags don't pay off. One by one, the members of the team are bumped off, but the characters respond in a somewhat realistic fashion to the weirdness and the deaths. There is a wonderful scene showing what panic and tension can do to two people when Lance and another salvage operator (Jeff Kober) get into an argument.

So, the film builds toward the inevitible conclusion, but it is an entertaining ride getting there. Scarlett Chorvat is stunning, as is Janet Gunn, and ALL of the acting is very good. The script seems a little rushed, but it seems that this is a director to watch for in the future. In conclusion, then, a low budget thriller that is well shot, well paced, well directed and acted and a pleasantly spooky diversion.

Still surprised it's from UFO...

well, rent this film only after you've seen every other horror film in your video store. even then, consider expanding your tastes to as many other genres as you can before returning to lost voyage. still tempted? how about picking up a nice book, or going out with your friends, or perhaps simply hammering your genitals to a board with an old nail?

why do i do this to myself? why did i think that anything good could come out of a made-for-the-tube film about a ghost ship starring judd "washed-up-since-1985" nelson? you know why? session 9. i blame session 9. every now and then, after sifting through the ever-thinning ranks of my olde video store i decide to rent a movie that screams "complete loser" in hopes that it turns out to be somewhere between "mildly loserish" and "ok". and sometimes, just sometimes, one of these low expectation picks turns out to be a bit of a winner, like session 9. well, the makers of this film (and my video store) can thank david caruso's scrawny white ass, because session 9 restored my faith that not all obscure low-budget horror films are stupid and brainless despite all the alarm bells that sound when you read the box.

unfortunately lost voyage IS stupid and brainless, a cheeseball excuse for a bunch of roughly sketched characters to run around the corridors of a ship accompanied by a relentless horror movie soundtrack. sure, it's got its jump-out-at-ya moments, but so does my fridge after i forget about a half-eaten ham-n-cheese sandwich that's been sitting in the back for a week or three.

it's just that the plot is so lazy. there is so much that could have been done with the bermuda triangle yet they way lamed out. um, so, mr. writer-directory-guy, what's your theory on the triangle? "well, it's a gateway to HELL!" so, where have all the people on the ship gone... "well, they've been sucked into HELL"! so, um, why has the ship reappeared? "well, there was this storm, just like when it disappeared, so it came back... back from HELL"! alright, but why is the ship trying to off all these weak-ass characters now it's returned? "well, it's collected all this evil energy because, well because, well, of course it wants to off everybody it's been in HELL"!

damn i wish i could get a few paycheques for coming up with brilliant plotting like that.

ok, vented enough. goodnight.