The Ferryman

Reasonably good and old-fashioned scary demonic horror from New Zealand, "The Ferryman" occasionally succeeds in combining the claustrophobic atmosphere of "Dead Calm" with the 'do not even trust your loved ones'-suspense factor of "The Shining". This film features one of the most solid basic horror-premises in years, as it revolves on the ancient Greek myth of the ferryman who – according to the legend – needs to be paid in order to guide newly deceased souls over to the other side. For centuries already, one man always managed to escape death by constantly shifting into the bodies of unsuspecting tourists and seamen crossing the waters surrounding the New Zealand islands. He uses an uncanny old dagger to transfer his spirit into a new host and his unfortunate victims die in the old body. When a tourist yacht with six passengers on board rescues and old and sickly man during a storm, they don't realize their lives are endangered as he now has six vital and healthy bodies to choose from. The first 40 minutes of "The Ferryman" are a bit slow and uneventful, mainly because director Chris Graham spends too much time on the overly detailed and slightly redundant character drawings. We're getting rather useless information regarding the three couples' backgrounds and history. A good thing, however, is that none of the characters is your average slasher-stereotype. They're all realistic and likable (at least, most of them) people and not just dumb high-school students on their way to an island-party, or something. As soon as the eerie old man – another great role for John Rhys-Davis – plants his dagger in the chest of his first victim, "The Ferryman" turns into an exciting and spectacular horror film. Some of the death sequences regretfully take place off screen, but others are pretty gruesome and cruel. The titular ferryman only appears briefly at the beginning and the end of the film, but he's a traditionally nasty-looking monster with a rotting face and a hoarse voice. The inescapable location of a yacht in the middle of the open sea and often stuck in thick fog banks adds a great deal the atmosphere and the photography is beautiful. The last sequences on board the yacht, and particularly the ingenious epilogue, will undoubtedly please even the most skeptical horror fan. Recommended.

OK well I was expecting a little bit of entertainment from this movie but not much because after all it is a straight to DVD horror film and I watch a lot of those and I am often disappointed all the same but I watch them anyways just to know if they are good or not. But this one was rather good compared to some of the other garbage that I have seen, I enjoyed the horror elements even though they were rather brutal and uncalled for at times. The ending was sort of confusing, but I liked seeing the face of the real ferryman rather than just a knife through the whole movie. Overall I gave it a 5 out of 10 because it was sort of entertaining, but some parts were just weird and unnecessary. I wouldn't recommend it, but if you're bored then go ahead.

Going out on a trip together, a group of friends takes a multi-day cruise from New Zealand where they learn they are the target of the Ferryman, a vicious supernatural killer collecting souls for the afterlife, and must resort to a never-ending series of tactics to outwit the body-hopping killer.

This here was a potentially interesting affair, as there was some good stuff here. One of the film's best features is the setup of the killer and his rules, which are quite new and original and really have something going for it. With the rules following along closely to the real-life persona it's based on, namely the reaping of souls for the underworld, gives it a nice touch that really makes it seem that much more like a legitimately imposing force. That there are also rules that go along with how to get possessed to what happens during that time and how to get rid of the force within works here by adding a really interesting twist on the slasher-among-a-group-of-friends that really scores well. The other likable feature here is that the setup also ends up giving the film some nice momentum at the end when it's revealed what's going on. After initially starting off as being obvious behavior differences no one else catches onto, the gradual reveal of the possession and body-hopping allows those scenes, which start off as backstory revelations but turn into big brawls, to be even more entertaining and exciting putting in a touch of energy missing from the rest of the film as well. The last plus here is the fact that the kills aren't that bad and quite bloody, which is a big plus. There are several beaten up and viciously bruised, an eyeball bludgeoned out, a beer bottle bashed against the head, a slit throat, and another is set on fire. These here are all that work right for this one. There were a couple of rather big flaws in this one. One of the main ones is that the film is just so utterly boring that it's quite impossible to make it through most of the beginning of the film. As it sets up the characters and their relationships with each other, it doesn't really start getting to business until an hour in, which is a criminal mistake that really takes its toll on the film. It sets up almost nothing as it's just random scenes of people acting mysteriously around each other and then everyone else trying to figure out what's going on, but none of this is done with any care towards making it interesting. They just go around talking about anything and everything, which is quite boring and makes for a dull time. This isn't helped by the fact that there's just a high level of confusion around the film, as hardly any of it makes any sense at all. There's very little reason given as to why the killer is going after any of the people here as it was given that there was a target which makes this all-around confusing. The scenes among the group earlier when trying to figure everything out are just as bad as they manage to just spout off anything that sounds logical and not really piecing anything together coherently, adding to the dullness and boredom that permeate the film. It's almost over before we get any kind of idea of what the official killer is, an explanation about it, or why it's important to the film, all of which come a little too late to be of much help and never really comes of anything. These here are the film's problems.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, and animal violence.

There are quite a few good ideas here and the actors involved must have a great time when they shot the movie. But that's not all I can review, otherwise the movie would have ranked higher. Talking about the actors: Although we have at least one great actor here, the overall performance is sometimes not really good. And by the way, any kind of nudity that might be or might not be in the movie, didn't make any difference in my rating/review. (a nod to a friend of mine, in case he's reading! ;o)

But apart from the (sometimes) overacting, the other two flaws are the (holes in the) script and the odd editing! So it's not too bad (there a few really good scares here), but overall it's not more than mediocre!

This was a strange flick to watch. It all started as a normal flick and it really took a while before things go wrong. Even when the fog comes in you have to wait a bit before the 'knife' will do what it does, killing.

It's not a common horror because it contains all kind of stories. We do have a part of possession and we do have some supernatural stuff going on. In the beginning I was a bit confused what was going on but once you know what the knife does due watching closely to the tattoo you will get it and rather enjoy it. The acting was believable but I must say that John Rhys-Davies (The Greek) wasn't convincing at all.

But it's the creepy atmosphere in the last half hour that keep you watching and you want to know what is going to happen next. It isn't gory or messy but the red stuff do flows a few times.

A bit confusing the first 40 minutes but keep watching until the end for the reason already explained and for nudity you just couldn't see coming.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5