Death Ship Movie Review 253

Death Ship is a 1980 horror movie directed by Alvin Rakoff and starring George Kennedy, Richard Crenna and Nick Mancuso.

A large black ship is on the water and is on a collision course with a cruise liner. Captain Ashland(Kennedy) is called and he sees that there is no way to avoid a collision with the black ship. Their cruiser is damaged and people are killed. A group of survivors are on a raft drifting. The Captain is rescued from the water. The black ship reappears. They call out but there is no answer. The find a way on board the ship.The ship starts to sail on its own. One of the survivors gets thrown off the boat in an apparent accident. He drowns in the sea. The others decide to explore the ship and they find that it is a German WWII vessel and that there is something very odd about it.

There is old music playing on the ship and doors slam shut on their own. Marshall(Crenna) has his wife and family on board and he looks around the ship and takes care of Ashland who is still injured. An officer called Nick(Mancuso) and Marshall get the feeling that something is very wrong on the ship and they decide that they need to get off it. They find a lifeboat and get it ready. Meanwhile, Ashland is getting a little weird and he is becoming possessed by the ship. The lifeboat floats away and they are stuck once again. More of the survivors are killed as Ashland loses the plot. Nick and Marshall find Nazi propaganda and a torture chamber. It was an interrogation ship.Nick gets killed when he falls into a trap. Marshall kills Ashland when he goes completely mad.It turns out that the ship needs blood to keep going. Marshall finds a rubber dinghy and life jackets so he and his family escape. They get rescued by a helicopter. The ship keeps on sailing, looking for new victims.

This movie is cheaply made, but it is entertaining. I liked the characters and the idea was a good one. It is a movie that I hadn't heard much about, but if you can dig it up, it is well worth a watch. It gets a 5/10.