Sat 1 Jun 2019
MY TV DIARY February 1981: Part Seven.
Posted by Steve under Horror movies , Reviews , TV Diary[13] Comments
Tuesday, February 10.
DEATH SHIP. AVCO Embassy Pictures, 1980. George Kennedy, Richard Crenna, Nick Mancuso, Sally Ann Howes, Kate Reid. Director: Alvin Rakoff. [Watched on HBO.]
I’m not too sure why I watched this. It’s not the sort of thing I am usually interested in at all. Maybe it’s because I like to warch George Kennedy in action as an actor.
He’s in top form in this one. He plays a cruise ship capyain on his last voyage before being forcibly retired. He doesn’t get on at all well with either passengers or crew.
But then the cruise liner is attacked and sunk by a huge hulk of a ship running circular patterns in the Atlantic totally unmanned — this is the “death ship.” Kennedy, plus his soon-to-be replacement (Richard Crenna) and a few others, including Crenna’s wife and two young children, are rescued, is that’s the word, by the killer ship.
The movie is scary, all right, but it helps that the new passengers are dumber than you can possibly imagine. Even after two of the party have been killed off, in fairly gruesome fashion, they allow themselves to become separated and even easier prey.
Eventually they discover that the boat had been a Nazi (of course) interrogation ship, and it is full of torture rooms, corpses, some complete, some not; only pieces of bodies, and lots and lots of cobwebs.
Kennedy makes a fine Nazi. Why the ship turns against him and allows Crenna and his family to escape is not explained. For that matter, nothing is explained.
Rated R, and if you don’t know why, you haven’t been paying attention. There is some nudity as well, but if you were to watch this movie and found it sexually stimulating, I would really prefer not to know you.
Coming up on HBO this month are some more of the same: Humanoids from the Deep, The Legacy, Thirst (about vampires) and Silent Scream. I don’t plan on watching any of them [Nor did I.]
June 1st, 2019 at 7:34 pm
Decent idea and cast sacrificed to exploitation and cheap “horror” with no real plot, expiation, interesting characters, or reason to exist other some crude nudity and unconvincing S&M trappings.
Not really shocking from Avco Embassy of this period.
They would have been better off to film the B. Traven novel of the same name.
Kennedy’s cruise ship Captain devolving into a sadistic Nazi though gives a whole new aspect to old reruns of the LOVE BOAT.
June 1st, 2019 at 7:57 pm
Ha! Wouldn’t that have been something?
Was there anyone better with a sneer than George Kennedy?
June 1st, 2019 at 10:59 pm
Avco Embassy for all their shortcomings was the sales agency for this awful picture. The culprits are the Canadian film industry, promoted as Hollywood North. Harold Greenberg, a producer of many mediocre pictures was headquartered in Montreal and Alvin Rakoff, a Canadian director who had relocated in Britain.
June 2nd, 2019 at 7:07 am
Now you’re getting to the good stuff at last – HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP. And they want to mate with human women!
June 2nd, 2019 at 10:24 am
Better you than me, Jeff!
June 2nd, 2019 at 10:30 am
DEATH SHIP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7cFg5cmdaA
June 2nd, 2019 at 10:47 am
A quick skim suggests this is one of the most inept horror films I’ve seen which was made by professionals. HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP might be a step up.
June 2nd, 2019 at 11:14 am
Well, no, as another skim demonstrates. Less lethargic than DEATH SHIP. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTUd5nJ_B7g
June 2nd, 2019 at 11:44 am
Thanks for the videos, Todd. I know we’re evaluating and comparing different levels of cr*p, but now everyone can judge for themselves.
PS. I love your preliminary judgment of DEATH SHIP as “the most inept horror films I’ve seen which was made by professionals.”
June 2nd, 2019 at 2:27 pm
Oh, definitely One of the worst…I’ve seen such supremely inept items as THE FOOD OF THE GODS and CHUCKY and MARK OF THE VAMPIRE and several of Eli Roths’s droppings, though the latter usually only in part…and they only occasionally qualify as inept horror vs. inept suspense films.
June 3rd, 2019 at 10:41 am
Roth’s, even.
June 11th, 2019 at 12:44 pm
I’m a longtime fan of well-written supernatural sea-tales. ‘Flying Dutchman’ type tales have a unique flair and have made for some wonderful movie experiences –at least as far as I am concerned. Now while I wouldn’t myself consider this specific movie worth seeking out for re-watching, I do admire that even at the late date when this flick was made (so long after WWII), there were writers and producers still taking the time-hallowed tradition of ‘ghost ship’ stories and giving one a whirl–in this case with a Nazi flourish. It calls another to mind: John Carradine and Peter Cushing in ‘Shock Wave’.
Anyway I think the world would be a better place if we had some more genuinely scary stories kept fresh for us like this movie was intended to do. Maybe what I like about it is that the elements are so simple. Haunted ship. Its not a computer menace or an alien virus; spooky ships are older than Phoenicia.
‘Plague ship’ is another fun wrinkle, and ‘drifting ship filled with ravenous rats’ (as done by EA Poe, Robert Bloch, or Norm Macdonnell / Vincent Price) ratchets things up even more. Burrr! Rats!
Final remark here on the rest of the titles listed on that HBO slate: ‘Legacy’ with Sam Elliott/Katherine Ross is a very fun flick (I wish there were more horror movies done in that sumptuous style) and especial esteem goes to the Australian vampire romp, ‘Thirst’ starring David Hemmings.
My on-line opinions never count for much, I’m sure; but I really consider that an exceptional flick for its type; and I’m glad to say so. A vampire story updated for the modern corporate sector –I found it ingenious, and not for the least of which reason, there is one sequence which harkens directly back to ‘The Haunting’ (1965). A ‘must-see’ for fans of that classic.
June 11th, 2019 at 12:56 pm
Lazy
You are quite right. Not being a big fan of horror movies, I may have given the ones I said I didn’t watch (and haven'[t yet) too quick a dismissal. Thanks for speaking up about them!