Ship of the Damned (2024) - Horror Film Review

As soon as I saw that Steve Lawson (Wrath of Dracula, The Mummy: Resurrection)  was the writer and director on Ship of the Damned I knew exactly what to expect. I know this indie director for horror films that feature plenty of talking and not much action, and which take place almost exclusively in sparsely decorated interior locations. In that respect this didn't contain any surprises, but any film of his I see nowadays that isn't set in Victorian London (a regular haunting place of his movies) is fine by me.

An apparent five hundred year old ship is discovered floating abandoned out in the sea off the coast of England and is towed to land by the coast guards. Elena (Hannaj Bang Bendz - Wrath of Dracula, Dead Island 2 video game voice work), an expert of ships from that era is called in by her coastal worker ex-boyfriend Michael (Jacob Anderton - Ripper Untold) to verify that the ship is as old as it appears to be. Fascinated by the ship, she convinces Michael to give her access to explore it, so together they head off to have a look. Upon going below decks however they discover a crew of pirates who swiftly take them prisoner before setting sail. They learn that these are the original crew members of the ship, cursed with immortality, who are forced to forever roam the seas, able to only exist on human flesh and unable to ever leave their vessel. The captain, Jacob (Ben Manning - The Snarling, Cleavers: Killer Clowns) believes that the only way to break the curse he is under is to create life on the ship, and for that he needs Elena...

It was both a blessing and a curse itself to see Lawson was the director on this. I was well in the mood for a pirate based horror film, but I knew that his involvement would lead to only claustrophobic dimly lit interior shots. The pirate side of things was fantastic, the pirate crew are as generic and as stereotypical as they come, but this is exactly what I want my pirates to be like. It at times felt like a more horror focussed version of Pirates of the Caribbean, with the crew members being a highlight. Jacob was a great antagonist, while a bad person, he has elements to his character that makes you ever so slightly pity him. I thought Bang Bendz was great in Wrath of Dracula, and here, she pretty much plays the same headstrong powerful character she did there, though this time in a modern day setting. This of course was a good thing, she made for an enjoyable protagonist. The cowardly Michael was probably the weakest link here, playing a bit of a comedic awkward character that didn't lead to me having much time for him.

The film mainly takes place in narrow wooden corridors, but to be fair there are plenty of sound effects of creaking wood and outside waves to simulate the feeling of being on a ship and not a static set. Less impressive are the exterior shots of an obviously computer generated ship, which even led to me initially thinking this was going to be a CG film entirely. There are a few action sequences that were entertaining to watch, leading to some unexpectedly violent moments, typically involving a large dagger prop. When it comes down to it, this is far more content for long scenes of characters talking, but I didn't mind this, and I thought the mid-film exposition of exactly what had happened to the crew was fun. With how easily the cursed pirates are able to die, it did make me wonder how they had lasted over four hundred years, surely they would have all killed themselves or each other by that point as they don't appear to have any more vitality than a regular person.
Throughout there is a perfectly suited soundtrack that was at once both generic and exciting in a swashbuckling way.

Ship of the Damned may not be high art, but it was fun and exciting, helped by a good choice of characters on the whole. I felt engaged with the protagonist's plight, thought Manning made for a compelling (if stereotypical) antagonist, and really liked how the film ended.

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