Haunting of the Mary Celeste

I've been in an indie/low budget movie kick for a bit, and this one qualifies. a group of investigators goes with a doubting sea captain (a wonderful turn by the great richard roundtree) to attempt to make contact with the mary celeste and/or the "realm" in which the crew of that ship has supposedly been taken to. it's moody and claustrophobic, since it mostly takes place on a small ship at sea surrounded by fog. they do make an attempt to explain what they're doing, but it seemed like a lot of gobbledygook.

also not sure about the types of comments people are leaving for movies like this. almost every one is just "worst movie i've ever seen". how is that helpful for anyone wanting some information before committing to a film? people should be understanding how to review a film before doing it, otherwise, what's the point? you really want to see the worst movie ever made? there's quite a few. "santa claus and the ice cream bunny" comes to mind as a good one to pick, but i'll be damned if it wasn't enjoyable on a certain level.

I know this is not a success. It was almost there. The intimate setting is great. Acting is quite passable. The build of terror via the music is nice.

All of the elements are there, but it just doesn't deliver on scare.

One other thing, for me, is that it is a nice short film...I am so tired of 3 hour films!

This is fun, though..I would love to have been able to edit this....all of the pieces to the puzzle of scare are in place, some rearranging could have made this GREAT!

... for such a little project and, I assume, such a little budget, but the narrative is disjointed, the acting is stiff and the characters kind of annoying. Sadly, I would not recommend it.

Ultimately this is an enjoyably mild and atmospheric horror film if you get past the slightly dull first half. It has the production values of a TV Movie, but is atmospherically shot with a nice line in melancholy.

The acting is convincing throughout, even during the talky scenes set in featureless cabins. A slow burner for sure, but not bad. My score is 6 out of 10.

Congratulations to Shana Betts, Jerome Olivier, and David Ross. You managed to put together the most boring horror movie that I've ever seen, and if that wasn't enough, you capped this "achievement" with an idiotic ending.

Ordinarily, if I see a particularly bad horror movie, I'll take the time to write a fairly detailed review. This one isn't worth the effort. Do yourself a favor and pass on this cinematic cure for insomnia. Then again, if you're in dire need of sleep, this yawnfest might just be the cure for what ails you.