Death Ship [1980]

Country of Origin: UK / Canada
Year of Production: 1979
Running Times: 91 mins
Format: colour     35mm
Ratio:
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Artemis Films / Astral Bellevue Pathé / Astral Films / Bloodstar Films (ABP) Ltd / The Canadian Film Development Corporation
Production Executive: Don Carmody
Executive Producer: Sandy Howard
Producers: Derek Gibson, Harold Greenberg
Associate Producer: Adrian Hughes
Production Manager: Roger Héroux
Production Supervisor: Adrian Hughes
Unit Manager [USA]: Michael Bennett

SCRIPT
Script: John Robins
Story: Jack Hill, David D. Lewis

DIRECTION
Direcor: Alvin Rakoff
1st Assistant Director: Charles Braive
2nd Assistant Director: Pedro Gandol

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: René Verzier
2nd Unit Photographer: Peter Benison
Camera Operators: Frank Lenk, John Palmer
Assistant Camera: Denis Gingras, Paul Gravel
Gaffer: Michel Paul Bélisle
Best Boy: Greg Daniels
Key Grip: Norman Smith [uncredited]
Camera Grip: André Ouellette
Stills: Frank Connor
Panaflex Cameras and Lenses: Panavision
Laboratory: Bellevue Pathé Quebec Inc, Canada

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Mike Campbell
Editing Assistants: Greg Glynn, Jean-Pol Passet, Yurij Luhovy

MUSIC
Music: Ivor Slaney
Music Recording: Anvil Studios, Denham, England, UK

SOUND
Sound Mixer: Henri Blondeau
Boom Operator: Normand Mercier
Re-Recording Mixers: Austin Grimaldi, David Appleby
Post-Synchronisation Sound Effects: Andy Malcolm, Terry Burke
Sound Effects Editor: William Trent
Sound Effects Assistants: Michele Moses, Steve Cole
Sound Facilities: Pathé Sound and Post Production Center

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Joan Isaacson
Hair: Pierre David, Huguette Roy
Costumers: Gaudeline Sauriol, Paul-André Guérin

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Michael Albrechtsen, Peter Hughes

VISUAL EFFECTS
Opticals: Films Opticals [Quebec] Ltee

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Chris Burke
Art Director: Michel Proulx
Assistant Art Director: Pierre Gelinas
Property Master: Norman Simpson
Property Buyers: Frances Calder, Jim Hodgson
Props: David Phillips

MISCELLANEOUS
Script Supervisor: June Randall
Production Accountants: Linda Gregory, Shirley Gill
Production Assistants: Micheline D'Andre, Monique Brasseur
Production Assistants [USA]: Nancy Mayer, Victoria Barney
Publicity: The Michael Dalling Company
Unit Publicists: David Novek, Joy Berger, Michael Dalling
Technical Advisors: Captain Pelletier, Jacques Vezina, Jean Louis Bibeau, Leon Vezina
German Memorabilia Advisor: Andre Genest

LOCATIONS
Locations: Dauphin Island, Alabama, USA; Mobile, Alabama, USA; Gulf of Mexico, Mexico; Québec City, Québec, Canada
Location Manager [USA]: Todd Allan

CASTING
Casting [UK]: Anna St Johns, Sue Stone
Casting [Canada]: Ingrid Fischer, Victoria Mitchell

STUNTS
Stunt Coordinator: Grant Page

CAST
George Kennedy [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]
Saul Rubinek [Jackie]
Murray Cruchley [Parsons]
Doug Smith [seaman 1]
Tony Sherwood [seaman 2]

During the Second World War, the Nazis created a floating torture chamber which, thirty-five years later is still roaming around the Caribbean steered by the sadistic ghosts of its former crewmen. Nine survivors of a pleasure cruiser rammed by the death ship find themselves stranded aboard the vessel and Captain Ashland becomes possessed by the malignant spirits stalking the ship and orchestrates the killings of the rest of the survivors.

Essentially a stalk and slash movie mixed up with the sporadically popular Nazi horror sub-genre and with a hint of the old-dark-house perennial, Death Ship adheres too closely to the slasher movie formula for it to really be seen as much else. Only its setting differentiates it from so many similar films that had gone before and indeed were still popular. The real problem here is that, for all its appalling history, the death ship itself is simply not scary and try as he might Rakoff can do nothing to make it seem like anything other than a rusty of relic heading for a watery grave. Casting Kennedy as the arbiter of evil was a major miscalculation as he simply cannot pull it off, and the rest of the cast are required to do nothing but ask stupid questions, scream a lot, then die when the script calls for something to happen. A very poor effort indeed and a tragic waste of what is at heart a rather neat idea.

Canada
Theatrical Distributors: Astral Films / International Film Distributors

Germany
Video Distributor: VPS Video

UK
Video Distributor: Thorn-EMI

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Avco Embassy Pictures
Video Distributors: Embassy Home Entertainment; New Line Home Video; Roadshow Home Video

Australia
Rating: M

Germany
Rating: 0

UK
Rating: 18

USA
Rating: R

1979
June
4: Canada - filming begins

July
16: Canada - filming ends

1980
March
7: USA - theatrical release

April
4: Canada - theatrical release

Those who survive the ghost ship are better off dead!

Out Of A Sea Of Endless Terror... Into A World Of Eternal Damnation.

El barco de la muerte - Spanish title
Le bateau de la mort - French title
Cauchemar nazi - French title
Das Todesschiff - German title
Wyscig smierci - Polish title

MAGAZINES

The Dark Side June 1995 p.20 [UK]
review

Screen International 7 July 1979 p.12 [UK]
review

Video Viewer June 1983 [UK]
review

BOOKS

Hoffman's Guide to SF, Horror and Fantasy Movies 1991 - 1992 p.95
credits, review

ghost ships, ghosts, ships, nazis, the ocean, possession, shipwrecks

Last Updated: 6 March, 2007