Thursday, October 28, 2021

Ghost Boat (2014)

Aka Alarmed

After being acquitted of murdering her family, Sam goes out on the family yacht with her ex boyfriend Mark and a couple of friends. An accident leads the others to seek help leaving just Mark and Sam on the boat. Things get weird because Sam starts seeing a ghost girl in the hallway, the doors lock with Mark stuck outside on the deck, and a mystery voice regularly commands Sam to mutilate herself. And if she doesn’t, an unseen force makes her do it anyway.

This has a Groundhog Day quality in that she wakes up each day with every injury healed, other than bruising or scarring. Cut off a hand? It’s back in place when she wakes up. But to what end?  There are flashbacks to family parties, the murder, the trial, jail, and visits with a psychiatrist. There are jumps in time and you start wondering if her time on the boat is actually the present or another flashback.  The problem is it’s not that interesting.

Although it takes place on a boat, it could have taken place anywhere, as long as they were isolated enough that they couldn’t get help.  And since it’s supernatural, it even could have taken place in a high rise where Mark got stuck on the balcony.  

There is a strange man in a boat who rides by and stares at them but doesn’t help them.  He seems to be a supernatural douche in a fedora. I never figured out who he was or why he kept driving by them. There also isn’t much ghost action in this. It’s mostly a disembodied voice commanding her to cut pieces of her body off. Again, it sounds much more horrible and suspenseful than it is.

No comments: