THE FERRYMAN

Directed by Chris Graham
Written by Nick Ward
Produced by Matthew Metcalfe and Alan Harris
Director of Photography Aaron Morton
Music by Haim Frank Ilfman
Cast: John Rhys-Davies, Tamer Hassan, Craig Hall, Kerry Fox

2007/100 min./Color/5.1 Dolby Digital Surround
1.78:1 Widescreen/English/USA/NTSC Region 1

Review from the First Look Home Entertainment DVD

Two couples on vacation board a yacht for Fiji thinking they will have the time of their lives. As they drift out to sea, they receive a distress signal on the radio. When they stumble upon a nearly deserted boat, they find the signal came from the lone survivor, a man called THE GREEK. They take the Greek aboard the yacht and nurse him back to health. However, when the Greek discovers his body has cancer and could die, he grabs his ancient knife and plunges it into one of the men on the yacht. The Greek’s soul transports into the body of the man’s. Soon a bloody outbreak explodes as the Greek jumps from one body to the next trying to cheat death, THE FERRYMAN. The passengers’ only chance of survival is to find a way to kill a soul that has been alive for hundreds of years before each one of them becomes another victim.

THE FERRYMAN does have its faults, but for it is, the film puts forth a halfway original story with a few descent scares. Reminiscent of THE FOG, the film manages to establish a creepy atmosphere using fog and a claustrophobic setting with the yacht. The fog not only creates a sense of mystery, but also a pivotal obstacle for the characters. The crew refuses to sail through the fog, essentially trapping themselves on the ocean. Similar to THE FOG, the Ferryman lingers in the background, watching over the yacht like a hawk. The claustrophobia, a staple of horror movies, provides more tension for the characters and little room to escape from the crazed Greek.

The major fault with this film is the fact that little is seen or said about The Ferryman. He’s not even the main villain in the movie, since the Greek is the one attacking the other passengers. Little is said about how the Greek managed to escape the Ferryman over the past few hundred years, or why the Greek wants to elude death. The Ferryman, when eventually seen, is a frightening character and should have been used more throughout the film.

Another area that hinders the movie is the cardboard clichés characters. There is the whiny, self-centered blonde and her dorky, delicate boyfriend, the friendly, good-hearted nurse, the tough captain, and so on. Each character serves a purpose in the story and has their own function, but different character types with some backstory would have helped. Of course, this is a rarity to find in most horror films and they usually don’t want the audience to become too attached to the characters before they’re killed off.

The film starts out slow and drags in the middle. Luckily, it picks up shortly after the crew picks up the Greek and he starts switching bodies. From that point, the pacing moves really quickly and the body count starts to rise. Unfortunately, it still doesn’t deliver much with the scares since the Ferryman is underused and hardly seen.

The First Look Home Entertainment DVD has a nice transfer. The picture is clear with no real grain and is presented in 1.78:1 Widescreen. The 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround has little distortion and picks up the off-screen sound of the Ferryman’s ship clearly.

The DVD contains few features. It includes trailers for the films THE FERRYMAN, THE BREED, THE KOVAK BOX, DANIKA, and THE PUMPKIN KARVER.

Image:

Audio:

Extras:

Packaging:

This Film Features:

Review by Terry Westhoff. All Right Reserved. 2007. ©

You can purchase this DVD at our official sponser by clicking on the image above.