Lost Voyage

Not the Most Interesting of Cruises

Main Cast: Judd Nelson, Janet Gunn, Richard Gunn, Scarlett Chorvat

Director: Christian McIntire

Plot Summary: In the early 1960s a cruise ship disappears off the Bermuda coast. Thirty years later it returns, filled with evil spirits who bedevil the crew sent to salvage it.

I would classify this movie as horror-lite, mostly dramatic with scenes of blood and mayhem tossed in. The plot? Well, the star is Aaron Roberts (Nelson), a young man who studies the paranormal, perhaps because of the disappearance of his father and step-mother when he was a kid. They set sail on the “SS Corona Queen”, a cruise ship in the ’60s. This ship disappeared without a trace, and all were presumed dead.

But now the ship has mysteriously returned. That prompts a journalist named Dana Elway (Janet Gunn), also focused on the paranormal, to head out to the ship. She needs Roberts for his expertise and also his connection with the ship, as it makes good story. She takes along her cameraman (Richard Gunn) and an ambitious young reporter (Chorvat).

They all are led by the gruff company man and his two workers, who may have a hidden agenda about the ship and its recovery. All arrive on board to sufficiently spooky music and begin to explore its depths. We know something did go bad on the ship from an early scene, and it’s not long before the evil spirits are toying with the intruders, knocking them off one by one.

This isn’t a horrible movie, just bland to mediocre. Definitely clichéd as horror flicks go, any lover of such can pretty much guess who is going to get the ax, and when. The acting is serviceable but not stellar, and the special effects are mostly saved until the very end, which is wise on a tight budget. In fact it was a made-for TV movie, and in that sense this is a good one of that venue. Just don’t expect anything flashy or new, just a solid and suspenseful tale told moderately well.