La malédiction du Queen Mary

If somebody asked me what this movie was about, I could not tell them. I did not understand anything. I did not understand the story, I did not understand the going back-and-forth, I did not understand why the new captain collapsed when they broke down the wall, I did not understand why the little boy was out on the ledge, I did not understand why the woman stuck a pen through her hand and they just never followed up about it, I didn't understand the purpose of Fred Astaire and the girl tap dancing, I did not understand why the guy had half of his face missing, I did not understand why they were staying overnight, I did not understand the old man in the bathtub that he shot, I didn't understand all the flashing of the lights on the camera... one big mess of scenes with no plot or objective. Oh, and the tarot cards? I could go on and on, but I still would not understand it.

The Haunting Of The Queen Mary is a bizarrely grandiose, intensely eccentric, grand old horror spectacle that unfolds in two timelines about a hundred years apart and while I have to say that it's not much of a coherent beast in terms of storyline, it's one of the most visually stylish, atmospherically engaging films I've seen this year. In 1938 the Queen Mary steamship makes a special, no expenses spared Halloween voyage across the Atlantic and one ill fated family of carny stowaways has an increasingly dangerous encounter with... something supernatural. In present day a young woman (Alice Eve) tours the now dormant ship and tries to convince the slightly shady duty captain to let her include footage of it in her upcoming podcast but it soon becomes clear that the supernatural element might be still hanging around. Well, not that clear but that's the best I can surmise it. I'll be totally honest with you: the writer and editor of this thing may have had a few too many while working on this because the plot just... careens around wildly making not much sense, the transitions from time period are loose and undefined and the core elements of the story are buried in pacing pandemonium. Having said that, the director and cinematographer seem to have had just the right amount because this is one of the most beautiful looking horror pictures I've seen in some time, an opulently lit, complexly structured palette full of striking costume choices, clanking steampunk viscera below deck and some of the most flat-out gruesome murder scenes committed to celluloid involving an axe swung just about as furiously as possible into people's faces. The 1938 sequences are breathtaking in period detail, dialogue and song/dance numbers as the ship hosts celebrities like Fred Astaire himself, among others. This is a big, loud, immersive and hectic experience that's reminiscent of the early 2000's Dark Castle horror films like Thirteen Ghosts, Ghost Ship, Gothika and House On Haunted Hill. These type of films are absolutely dripping in the style, production design and visual artistic aspects even if story and logic don't quite fall into step. That's a great way to describe this one, a big ol' ghost story you just sort of surrender to like a runaway theme park ride, it's so much fun.

When I sat down here in 2023 to watch the movie "Haunting of the Queen Mary", I had never actually heard about it. But I have to admit that I was immediately drawn in by the movie's cover/poster art, and the fact that it was a horror movie that I hadn't already seen.

Writers Gary Shore and Tom Vaughan, however, failed miserably to concoct a script and storyline that appealed much to me. The narrative in "Haunting of the Queen Mary" jumps back and forth between 1938 and the current day, however it utterly failed to make either of the two periods particularly interesting for the viewer. And the movie suffered terribly from an interior script and having characters that were as bland as tap water.

The jumping back and forth is done without much of any grace, and the end result is a rather confusing and messy heap of a narrative, and that ultimately made my interest in the movie wane with each passing minute. I have to say that I didn't figure out if there was a point to the narrative or not, and I ended up giving up on the ordeal before anything could be revealed; not that it mattered at that point.

The acting performances in "Haunting of the Queen Mary" were adequate, taking into consideration that the actors and actresses virtually had nothing worthwhile to work with and bring to the screen in terms of characters, dialogue and narrative contents.

Visually then "Haunting of the Queen Mary" was okay. I wasn't impressed with anything in particular, but the special effects were fair enough. And the few scenes of gore and mayhem made it semi-durable to sit through the boredom that is "Haunting of the Queen Mary". The ship itself and the interior of the vessel was actually quite nice, and that does count for something.

I gave up on the movie with just 30 minutes left to watch. But by then I just couldn't take any more of the boredom that directors Gary Shore and Rebecca Harris were bringing to the screen. And this is definitely not a movie that I will return to for a second time in order to finish watching it. I just simply don't care about the narrative or the characters in the movie.

My rating of "Haunting of the Queen Mary" lands on a three out of ten stars.

The film is beautifully shot with great production design and atmosphere. The cinematography is excellent in places and you have to give them credit for sheer ambition. But that's where the positives end.

The screenplay is incredibly muddled and confusing and the story just fails to make any sense.

They try to weave in the past and present storylines together in a manner that they think is very clever but the two plot lines never mesh together and the end product is an incoherent mess.

Overall , the movie was like a fever dream where I was left admiring the beauty on the screen but scratching my head wondering what the hell is happening.

First off, the plot makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I found the character motivations to be unbelievable. I still have no idea why any of the characters were on the ship in the first place and what exactly they were trying to accomplish. The film kept jumping between two storylines, one in 1938 and one in the present. There wasn't enough character development to really make the audience care about the fate of any of the main protagonists/antagonists in either narrative. By the end, it isn't clear how the two stories are supposed to be connected.

Obviously the films' writers were banking on the established ghost stories surrounding the Queen Mary (the lady in white, Jackie, the 1st class swimming pool, the HMS Curacoa, B-474 murder) but the problem is the depiction/references to these in the film do nothing to advance the plot.

I will give the film two stars for great cinematography, lighting, and visuals. There are a few nicely shot scenes showcasing interior spaces on the ship as well as a couple references to historical events involving the Queen Mary, but that doesn't make up for the really poor dialogue, incoherent narrative structure, and lack of character development.