Dead Calm(1989)

This movie may not be well-known but it is a great thriller starring Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill and a young Billy Zane. It is based on a novel of the same name written by Charles Williams and it is directed by Aussie Phillip Noyce.

John Ingram(Sam Neill) and his wife Rae(Nicole Kidman) are taking a break on their yacht after a terrible car accident in which their son was killed. They are both devastated and John thinks that a break will help Rae come to terms with it. They are very susrprised to see a man who sails up to them and tells them that all of his co-workers on a ship came down with food poisioning and that he is the only survivor left. He is Hughie Warriner(Billy Zane) and he seems sincere. The couple agree to help him and he climbs on board.

John has reservations about this guy and he asks him about the ship and what happened. He asks Hughie to go back to the ship with him and see if everyone is dead and if there is anything useful left on board. Hughie doesn't want to go abck and that makes John wonder about the young man. He decides to take a look while Hughie is asleep. He looks around the boat and he sees that the young man was lying. The men and women on the boat were murdered. He finds out that Hughie was a cameraman on the ship and that he decided to kill the others on the boat. He tries to get back to his yacht, but Hughie has taken over and he has knocked Rae out. He sails away from John. John has no choice to but to go back to the other boat and try and follow them.

Rae is left alone with Hughie and she tries to reason with him and get him to go back for John, but he isn't going to. She tries to charm him and she can see that he wants sex. She pretneds to go to the bathroom but instead she gets a gun and loads it. He catches her and she has no choice but to give in to him. John is still trying to catch up to them and he sets the boat on fire to get some attention. Rae tries to drug Hughie and she shoots at him with a harpoon but kills the dog instead. Hughie tries to kill her when he realises that she is just pretending to like him. I won't spoil the ending, but it is very good.This is a very good movie with good acting and story. I am going to give it an 8.5/10.