O Cruzeiro do Terror

In CRUISE INTO TERROR, an "all-star cast" sets off on a cruise through the Gulf of Mexico, only to be thrust into a life-threatening adventure into the unknown. Strange, near-fatal "coincidences" start happening.

Then, a cranky anthropologist (Ray Milland) wants to investigate a sacred tomb at the bottom of the Gulf, and the game is on! Things go from bad to worse, with supernatural occurrences aplenty. Annnd, there's a gale on the way!

Sort of like a haunted version of LOVE BOAT, this movie is a soggy cousin of HORROR AT 37,000 FEET. John Forsythe looks very stern and rants a lot as a preacher, while the beautiful Lee Meriwether tries her best to look frumpy as his frustrated wife. Christopher and Lynda Day George are also on board as a struggling married couple. The stunning Stella Stevens is a psychic divorcee, and Dirk Benedict is the First Mate.

This is guaranteed, top-of-the-line made-for-TV entertainment! Just make sure you watch out for that darned black cat!...

Seeing so many future and past TV and movie stars in this movie is a guilty pleasure at it's worst and an enjoyable nostalgic romp at it's best. With such TV icons as John Forsythe, Stella Stevens, Lee Meriwether, Hugh O'Brian adding to an all star cast that includes Ray Milland one would think the story would get lost in all that talent. Ok, it sort of does but let's face it, this is basically a 1/2 season's worth of "Love Boat" guests in a TV movie and not serious film by any stretch of the imagination. Regardless of how seriously one does take this movie it's still fun to see what was supposed to be serious horror turn into another episode of "Satan's Love Boat"! Enjoy!

A handful of passengers and crew aboard a one-engine vessel in waters off the Gulf of Mexico are bedeviled by a cursed 2000-year old Egyptian sarcophagus brought up from a sunken pyramid in the depths. A resigned, somewhat beleaguered cast of old pros (including Hugh O'Brian, Lee Meriwether, Stella Stevens in a brunette wig, Ray Milland, John Forsythe as a priest, and the Georges--Christopher and Lynda Day) manage to get through the preliminaries and "Poseidon Adventure"-like character introductions without embarrassing themselves, but the underwater shots of swimmers combined with the "Jaws"-like music cues turns this TV-movie into instant camp. Aaron Spelling co-produced, perhaps as an antidote to his sticky-sweet "Love Boat" series.

I was expecting this TV movie to be another whodunit on the sea, but instead it's a bonkers mash-up of Love Boat, The Omen, and the Curse of King Tut's Tomb. Boat captain Hugh O'Brian takes a small assembly of passengers on a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico, only for things to go wrong when they dredge up a small, golden Egyptian sarcophagus from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

It seems that the sarcophagus contains the body of the Antichrist, born on the same day as Jesus nearly 2000 years ago, and left dormant by Egyptian sailors in Caribbean waters. Now the Antichrist is awakening, and all aboard the ship, and perhaps the entire world, are doomed! Featuring Ray Milland as an archaeologist, John Forsythe and Lee Meriwether as a minister and his wife, Frank Converse as a physicist, and Dirk Benedict as the ship's second mate.

The movie is unfortunately not nearly as fun as the description makes it out to be, although there are some good unintentional laughs to be had.

This was decent. Approximately ten or twelve people are on a cruise, a varied group, when the sarcophagus is found on board. I don't think they dragged it up from the ocean depths. Tragedy ensues. Among those on board are Forsythe and Lee Meriwether, rather interesting as a minister and his wife. Two women are also on board, one rather carefree, the other a bit bookwormish. The sarcophagus contains the offspring of the devil and breathes at the most inopportune moments. Forsythe reveals that when the son of the devil returns to the Earth, there will be ten to witness it. "But there are eleven of us here now," someone says. Exactly, the ten witnesses, . . . and the guardian of the child. Which one is it? Possessions are subtle, the destruction of the vessel is imminent and the survivors are racing for the lifeboat. Forsythe and Meriwether are a scream here as the ship sinks, and keep an eye out for the cat. Rather a change from usual movie animals. Haven't seen this in a while. Instead of John Forsythe, I thought the reverend was Harold Gould, who played Rhoda Morganstern's father on television's "Rhoda", but I knew Lee Meriwether was the reverend's wife.