BA_Harrison A Nazi interrogation ship that has been circling the oceans for forty years deliberately rams into a cruise ship. A handful of survivors make their way onto the deserted German ship, unaware that an evil force is in control of the craft and that the vessel needs blood to survive.I really like the premise of this film (exploitation legend Jack Hill co-wrote the story), and the titular ship—dark, decaying and cobweb strewn—makes for a very atmospheric location for a horror. The film struggles to deliver the goods, however, director Alvin Rakoff opting for endless tedious shots of creepy corridors, the prow of the ship coursing through the waves, and pistons pumping in the engine room, rather than delivering genuine terror.Things pick up slightly for the obligatory shower scene (every horror film should have one!) in which Victoria Burgoyne as sexy survivor Lori is drenched in blood instead of water, and there is a delightfully disgusting moment when Lori's lover Nick (Nick Mancuso) falls into a net full of mouldy human remains—but the majority of the film is rather lame in terms of scares and remarkably light on gore.4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

Scott LeBrun In this okay horror picture, a luxury liner collides with an enormous, mysterious freighter. The next day, the handful of survivors from the liner come across the freighter, which is now anchored, and not knowing any better, board the strange vessel, thinking this will be their means of rescue. However, the "Death Ship" which they've boarded truly does have a life of its own, and the characters meet their demise one at a time, while grumpy Captain Ashland (George Kennedy) falls under the evil influence of this ship.Don't go into "Death Ship" expecting a lot of sense, as that doesn't seem to be the priority of the filmmakers, led by director Alvin Rakoff. They'd much rather wrap you in the ambiance of the Death Ship, falling back on shots of its inner workings on a regular basis. Unfortunately, the presentation is somewhat uninspired; there may be some decent atmosphere, but there are also no real scares. The movie is rough going for a while (and doesn't even show how this small group of people came to survive the collision), but eventually delivers some standout scenes, chief among them the fate of Sylvia (Kate Reid), whose face turns hideous, and the comeuppance of sexy young Lori (Victoria Burgoyne), who is drenched with blood while trying to take a shower.For the most part, the characters are ciphers, and the big name cast deliver we're-just-here-for-the-paycheck performances, especially Crenna. Kennedy tries but isn't that convincing here at playing evil and psychotic. Also among the cast are Sally Ann Howes as Crennas' wife, Nick Mancuso as a liner crewman, and Saul Rubinek who is at least pretty amusing as the bandleader who receives particularly rough treatment.Production design (by Chris Burke), cinematography (by Rene Verzier), and music (by Ivor Slaney) are all reasonably effective. Things pick up considerably in the final act when we get some horrific imagery in the form of a lot of dead bodies.Overall, this isn't very good, but isn't as bad as some reviews would have you believe, remaining watchable enough and clocking in at an acceptable running time of just over an hour and a half.Story credit goes to David P. Lewis and B movie icon Jack Hill.Six out of 10.

Sonoran-gem42 C'mon I mean how could you not love this movie? It delivers exactly what the title promises, it's a ghostly ship that just prowls around the Atlantic in aimless circles arbitrarily ramming other ships and trapping any survivors in a twisted maze of rust, fascism, and horror. It's the kind of movie you randomly stumble across on TV a stony Saturday afternoon when your like 15 and you and your friends are still laughing about it a full hour after it's over. Super low budge, bad acting, story gets a lil' patchy at times, basically so bad it's good. A movie really dose not need to be Oscar material to be entertaining. For what it is it's actually a great movie with some really scary scenes. The Nazi element in the story line makes for some really creepy stuff. If you like simplistic, cheesy 80's horror movies like Maximum Overdrive or Return of the Living Dead WATCH THIS MOVIE!

klavss I've just thrown 90 minutes of my life down the drain seeing this excuse for a movie and I'm still trying to think of some worse movie than this absurd and erratic waste of film but I'm just unable. It was so remarkably bad and talentless I just had to keep watching till the end. To be honest I didn't know "the kind of film" it was so I was expecting "something more" (anything,at least!!), and having George Kennedy and Richard Crenna leading the cast made me have some expectations.I'm not too keen on terror films and that's the perfect movie to reinforce me or anybody in that opinion. That's the kind of movie that keeps average terror cinema quality well below minimums.Well... maybe if you are one of those terror-film fans looking avidly for some cheap crap to worship as Cult Masterpiece no matter the ultra-low quality of every single aspect of the film this is the flick for you; if you are in the other 99.99% of the human race and are expecting for at least a minimum level of quality then you'll find this film is a real insult to Cinema and to the intelligence of the spectator.I'd like to comment the negative aspects of the film but as I said EVERYTHING is just appalling and done carelessly: From the minimal and unnatural dialogues, reactions and actions of the void characters to the Ed Wood-like sea scenes made against a still of the ship. The cruiser the characters are supposed to be on in the beginning is not seen in any moment from the outside!!, not even when it is sinking!!, except for a few distant lights in a night shot that could be anything. The whole part of the pleasure cruiser sinking is specially bad and confusing... the sinking is not seen AT ALL, just the ship collides (well, that's what we're told at least) and the next moment they are in a life raft in the middle of nowhere, apparently next morning because it's clear sunlight, and then the captain is found underwater - has he stayed there the whole night or what?? Then after being adrift for some hours... ta-dam! they're EXACTLY where the big still picture of the mysterious ship is in the background. (You can see pretty clear in the photo that it is moored - duh!).The plot or argument is so inexistent that in most parts of the film there isn't even any attempt to try to explain it - that why it seems fair to say it is an insult and done carelessly: The people just go from here to there without knowing why like lemmings, stone-faced and totally silent, with that sloooow-paced walk only terror-film directors love, and their only concern seems to be to get separated from all other people and into the isolated danger zones at any cost, with no reasons explained.It is amazing to see how the poor script (if any) and the apparently inexistent director can squeeze absolutely no juice at all out of good character actors like George Kennedy and Richard Crenna and make them look like the worse actors on Earth, and it is sad to see what some actors have to do to get a living.