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While on their
way to Fiji by yacht, a couple of friends
run into some trouble when they help a man who's gotten
lost in the fog. What they don't know is that the man
is actually very dangerous and has been waiting for
someone to come along and "rescue" him. He starts to
kill the friends one by one, while his spirit shifts
body from time to time. Now, no one can be trusted,
and no one is safe from the ferryman.
THIS IS IT? This is what we've all been dying to see?
Well, I've got to tell you, I'm a little bit disappointed.
Sure, it's a decent movie but this is DTV-material,
no doubt about it. The Ferryman isn't a slasher flick
as we've been led to believe. In fact, it's about a
demon who goes from body to body while killing people.
That's right - it's yet another demon body shifter
movie with an ultra-confusing plot. And to make it
even more confusing, the victims don't die after the
spirit has left the body, they get transferred into
the previous victims body. Confusing? I'll say!
The movie starts out very generic with two couples
who have hired a yacht to drive them to Fiji from
New Zealand. A nice couple has offered to take them
there and it seems as if this is going to be the
vacation of their lives. Indeed, very generic. Soon
enough they run into a deep fog where a man has been
stuck in his fishing boat for ages. They decide to
help him out, but soon realize that this was a very
bad idea as he stabs one of the passengers with a
dagger. They throw the man overboard, unknowing that
the passenger that was just stabbed is now inside the
old man's body, while the demented serial killer is
inside the passengers body. It goes on and on like
that until the very ending, and yes people do actually
die - somehow... I'm not really sure how for most of
the time to be brutally honest with you. It seemed as
if one of the victims died from an orgasm, but again,
I'm not quite sure.
Once you've managed to grasp the concept of the movie
however, it gets easier to follow, there's just a
tricky part to get through to get to the good stuff.
The director also wastes a whole lot of energy on
building up the characters - which really doesn't add
much to the movie as, even though the characters are
for most part likeable, you still never really root
for them. The character build-ups just weren't
interesting enough. I'm sure that the director was
trying to make the characters realistic, but perhaps
they ended up being a bit too realistic if you get
what I mean. They're just not interesting people.
I know I'm bashing this movie in even though this is
meant to be a somewhat positive review but I have to
bash it in just a little more anyway. The animal
torture was just unnecessary and difficult to watch.
I hate animal torture, and I literarily wanted to
shut it off when the poor dog got its legs broken.
They just took that too far if you ask me. Now it's
time to get to the good stuff though.
As I said before, once you manage to get into the plot,
it's actually not that bad, and the final thirty minutes
of the movie are really enjoyable, if a bit predictable.
The movie is very nicely shot and once the movie gets
going, it's got a great pace, despite the fact that
the entire movie takes place on a yacht. The acting is
top-notch and I was severely impressed by Amber Sainsbury
who gave us a brilliant performance. I also enjoyed
seeing John Rhys-Davies back on the big screen as
that's where he deserves to be.
Ultimately, The Ferryman has a lot of things against it
and just barely manages to get a 3/5 from me. It's not
a hit and miss but it's not quite a homerun either.
It's a decent horror movie but for those of you
expecting a slasher flick, you will be disappointed.
I know I was. Don't expect anything much from this
as it's average DTV horror, nothing more, nothing less.
Lots of blood splatter but not enough gore if you ask
me. We get a harpoon in the stomach, several stabbings,
some severed body parts, a slashed throat and some more.
Very strong soundtrack with high quality pop and rock
music and a surprisingly decent suspense score.
I'm honestly a bit disappointed as I had big expectations
for this movie, which it did not live up to. In fact,
it didn't even come close. The Ferryman is a somewhat
confusing and relatively generic horror movie which
just doesn't add much to the concept. It's been done
before and it's just not that entertaining. It also
has several flaws that I found hard to overcome. It's
a decent movie though but it does indeed belong on
the DVD shelf - not in cinemas.
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