kcmsterpce

I really don't know how to encapsulate how effective this movie was as a work of competence. Over the last several years, movies seem to waddle along, covering the dramatic story beats, and doing what's expected to appease the masses.

It's been quite a while since - for me, at least - a horror movie establishes the foundational logic of the "supernatural" elements that take place; sets up a lack of trust between each characters' motivations to keep the viewers guessing... and then follows through by masterfully revealing plot elements in small bites (literally and figuratively), and following through with the setups in a way that excels the end product to a level that makes it something more than just "brainless entertainment".

It's not just "gory glee", which this movie doesn't shy away from. It is also not a story that tries to simplify the main themes - instead, it starts with hints of something more, but manages to ALSO follow through by compounding those themes to levels and dimensions that exceed the typical horror movie tropes of modern times.

If you like gore, you get that. If you want thematic elements drenched in misery and sadness of familial loss; that's here, too. But, do you prefer character development and emotional investment in these people? Well, you get THAT, too!

The three younger actors knocked it out of the park. I can't believe they had to be a part of such harsh and disturbing material, but they came through in spades.

Music, editing, cinematography... all of this put together presents a classic horror movie that should be appreciated for years.

It's not often that I wholeheartedly recommend something these days (15+ years), but this is one of them.

Give this a chance. It is a masterclass in horror drama.

I was curious to learn about what the goings-ons were of this incident, but after 10 minutes I realized that this documentary is just a low-rent, lazy, terribly uninteresting "documentary" that covers almost nothing of interest.

The Incident: A cruise ship from Texas to Mexico that takes about 2 days to get to, then 2 days to return goes awry when a fire destroys the wiring for all the electrical wiring on the ship. So they go adrift for four days with no power, and the issue of peoples' need to pee and poop ends up being the focus of the story. The end.

The Documentary Itself: Well, the interviewees that were part of the ship are all uninteresting, completely self-absorbed, entitled, narcissistic people that I immediately felt no emotional connection to. It only got worse when once they start recalling the ship losing power, they talk about how horrendous it was that they had the indignity to have to poop into a plastic bag. "This is a pleasure cruise, and I shouldn't have to do that!" is a paraphrased comment from one of the obnoxious ladies that were part of a bridesmaids party on the ship.

Also, this was a cruise that was full of loud and obnoxious partygoers who want to drink themselves to death and "live the vida loca".

When day three of the delayed return ship led to the moronic choice to allow unlimited and free drinks on the cruise - to "appease" people that went on a cruise focused on the most brash, thoughtless, self-centered excesses of feeling like they are there to party down, no matter what - who would not think that bedlam would ensue?

Sadly, during this moment, the bridesmaids ladies reminisced about how they finally felt like they were getting their money's worth again once they got blattoed on a ship that was filled with leaking biofluid excess. Yes, the highest priority at this point is not to be rational and think about sustaining yourself SAFELY in pseudo-isolation, completely sober until help arrives. No, the highlight of the trip was that during this health hazard event that isn't too far from help, they happily talk about free drinks on the cruise and getting wasted.

Wow.

Oh, and there's the "reporter" for CNN that starts bragging in the beginning that it was a "nothing-burger" story to cover. But then, once Twitter started buzzing it became a national sensation.

*Cringe*

Then, near the end we meet up with the "maritime lawyer" in bluejeans, a denim shirt, badly mismatched tie with an expensive suit jacket while slowly showing off how he can munch and light up an oversized cigar... he will top this documentary off with a self-absorbed recall of how much he paid attention to this, obviously rubbing his hands with glee at the dollars he'll get suing the cruiseliner.

Is there not ONE redeemable character to give hope in enjoying this pointless documentary?

Spoiler alert: Nope. No. Not at all.

Skip this. It stinks.

The editing on this is ADHD quick-cuts of news articles that really annoys me. The interviews should have been more interesting, but I felt detached, and unengaged.

The story itself, though, is amazing. If you read the book.

I feel bad that this is just a poorly edited, lazily executed breakdown of one of the most fascinating descents into the madness of "finding the truth" that investigative reporting can drive a person into becoming.

I like that there are video snippets and pictures of what was covered in the book, but I was never once engaged, and had to stop watching halfway through.

An amazing deep-dive into compelling evidence, but presented in a way that saps interest for the viewer.