Death Ship (1980)

Director:

Alvin Rakoff

Writers:

Jack Hill (story)
David P. Lewis (story)
(more)

Release Date:

7 March 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Those who survive the ghost ship are better off dead!

Plot:

Survivors of a tragic shipping collision are rescued by a mysterious black ship which appears out of the fog...

Plot Keywords:

Ship | Nazi | Survivor | Ghost Ship | Boat

Cast

George Kennedy	...	Captain Ashland
Richard Crenna	...	Trevor Marshall
Nick Mancuso	...	Nick
Sally Ann Howes	...	Margaret Marshall
Kate Reid	...	Sylvia
Victoria Burgoyne	...	Lori
Jennifer McKinney	...	Robin Marshall
Danny Higham	...	Ben Marshall
Saul Rubinek	...	Jackie
Murray Cruchley	...	Parsons
Doug Smith	...	Seaman No. 1
Tony Sherwood	...	Seaman No. 2
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Andrew Semple	...	Strangled Sailor (uncredited)

Directed by
Alvin Rakoff

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jack Hill		story
David P. Lewis		story
John Robins		writer

Produced by
Derek Gibson	....	producer
Harold Greenberg	....	producer
Larry Nesis	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Ivor Slaney

Cinematography by
René Verzier

Film Editing by
Mike Campbell

Production Design by
Chris Burke

Art Direction by
Michel Proulx

Makeup Department
Pierre David	....	hair stylist
Joan Isaacson	....	makeup artist
Huguette Roy	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Michael Bennett	....	unit manager: USA
Roger Héroux	....	production manager
Adrian Hughes	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Charles Braive	....	assistant director
Pedro Gandol	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Frances Calder	....	property buyer
Pierre Gelinas	....	assistant art director
Jim Hodgson	....	property buyer
David Phillips	....	props
Norman Simpson	....	property master
Andre Brochu	....	construction supervisor (uncredited)

Sound Department
David Appleby	....	sound re-recording mixer
Henri Blondeau	....	sound mixer
Terry Burke	....	post-synchronisation sound effects
Steven Cole	....	sound effects assistant (as Steve Cole)
Austin Grimaldi	....	sound re-recording mixer
Andy Malcolm	....	post-synchronisation sound effects
Normand Mercier	....	boom operator
Michele Moses	....	sound effects assistant
William Trent	....	sound effects editor
Don White	....	foley recording mixer (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Michael Albrechtsen	....	special effects
Peter Hughes	....	special effects

Stunts
Grant Page	....	stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Michel Paul Bélisle	....	gaffer
Peter Benison	....	photographer: second unit
Frank Connor	....	still photographer
Greg Daniels	....	best boy
Denis Gingras	....	assistant camera
Paul Gravel	....	assistant camera
Frank Lenk	....	camera operator
André Ouellette	....	camera grip
John Palmer	....	camera operator
Norman Smith	....	key grip (uncredited)

Casting Department
Ingrid Fischer	....	casting: Canada
Victoria Mitchell	....	casting: Canada
Anna St. Johns	....	casting: U.K.
Sue Stone	....	casting: U.K.

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Paul-André Guérin	....	costumer
Gaudeline Sauriol	....	costumer

Editorial Department
Greg Glynn	....	assistant editor
Yurij Luhovy	....	assistant editor
Jean-Pol Passet	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Todd Allan	....	location manager: USA
Victoria Barney	....	production assistant: USA
Joy Berger	....	unit publicist
Jean Louis Bibeau	....	technical advisor
Monique Brasseur	....	production assistant
Don Carmody	....	production executive
Michael Dalling	....	unit publicist
Micheline D'Andre	....	production assistant
Andre Genest	....	advisor: German memorabilia
Shirley Gill	....	production accountant
Linda Gregory	....	production accountant
Nancy Mayer	....	production assistant: USA
David Novek	....	unit publicist
Captain Pelletier	....	technical advisor
June Randall	....	script supervisor
Jacques Vezina	....	technical advisor
Leon Vezina	....	technical advisor
Linda Browne	....	script supervisor trainee (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Artemis Films
• Astral Bellevue Pathé
• Bloodstar Productions
• Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC)

Distributors

• Astral Films (1980) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Scotia-Barber (1980) (UK) (theatrical)
• AVCO Embassy Pictures (1980) (USA) (theatrical)
• Astral Video (1982) (Canada) (VHS)
• Cannon Video (1987) (UK) (VHS)
• Creative Films (2009) (Spain) (DVD)
• Embassy Home Entertainment (video)
• New Line Home Video (video)
• Nucleus Films (2006) (UK) (DVD)
• Roadshow Home Video (video)

Other Companies

• Anvil Studios  music recording
• Films Opticals (Quebec) Ltee  opticals
• Michael Dalling Co.  unit publicity
• Pathé Sound and Post Production Center  sound facilities

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

UK | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:18 (video premiere) | Germany:18 | France:-12 | Finland:(Banned) (1980) | Australia:M | Finland:K-18 (1988) | UK:18 (video rating) (1987) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:R | Norway:(Banned) (1980-2003) (cinema release)

Filming Locations:

Dauphin Island, Alabama, USA

Company:

Artemis Films

Trivia:

The footage showing the movement of the Death Ship was the result of filming from a small boat moving around the Death Ship. The crew shot for about an hour before the 'Death Ship' broke down. The rest of the required shots were achieved by faking movement, as the broken vessel was anchored and stationary.

Quotes:

Trevor Marshall): Where do you plan to sail her?
Ashland: Into eternity, Marshall. Eternity.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Svengoolie: Death Ship" (2000)

Under appreciated classic horror film was one of the last to put mood before blood.

This is a 1980's video and cable classic. Many was the night that this played on HBO and other pay services that I stayed up late to watch. It was also a perennial renter. Working at a video store in the late 80's I saw this film rent better than many "better" films. However as time has passed, the screenings have been reduced to odd ball commercial TV screenings, if its screened at all. People have all but forgotten it. I recently broke down and picked up a really neat UK release on DVD and so got my first look at the film in a decade or so.

The plot of the film has a cruise ship collide with a dark shadowy ship somewhere along its trip to nowhere. The few survivors make their way on board the new ship, only to find it empty. Well not really empty, it does have the ghosts of its Nazi crew on board and they begin to pick off the survivors. (okay maybe its not the crew but the twisted spirit of the ship, either way its haunted). Things get more complicated when George Kennedy, the Captain of the cruise ship, falls under the spell of the ship and begins to take out his frustrations on Richard Crenna, the man who was going to replace him.

Not very gory, but with mood to spare this is a film that works on a visceral level. To be certain the film doesn't make a great deal of sense, but at the same time there is enough of a dream logic to carry it along. We can almost buy that this ship has been wandering the seas for decades, even if we're forced to wonder what happened to everyone else who was on the cruise ship.How do people find each other when there is no way they could have heard each other? These things just sort of happen. And then there are the mistakes that work to the films advantage, the ship is suppose to be empty, but more than once we see an arm or some part of a person opening or closing a window, its a fleeting glimpse that some how helps ratchet up the tension.(maybe the dead do walk especially since we see so many corpses). Its the small moments of implication that freak you out, not the showers of blood.

Shot so that you not only have a real sense of place, you are on a ship at sea, but also to express a mood of dread, this is a rotten and decaying place and you don't want to be there. What amazed me was seeing the film in widescreen for the first time I was struck by just how good the compositions are. Watch how the survivors move across an empty deck so that they seem to be in a vast expanse of nothing, or how the increasingly insane George Kennedy storms down a hall way almost completely filling it. Its a text book example of how to shoot a horror film and have it give you a mood before anything ever happens. What I wouldn't give to see a film maker today shoot a film like this where the pictures on the screen are more than razzle dazzle. Honestly this is one of the best looking films I've seen. I'm not saying that lightly, since I realize that with a film beautiful sunsets and picture perfect moments do not result in a scary horror film.

If you can take the film for what it is, a real exploitation horror film with its own logic and made before effects and gallons of blood, then you're going to have a good time. if you want logic and reason and gore, look elsewhere.

But what ever you do don't watch this alone at night with the lights off.