Neil Welch A group of mature young people charter a yacht and pick up a mysterious stranger. He turns out to be hosting some ancient spirit who has been seeking to avoid paying the Ferryman to the Underworld for millenia, by means of shifting his spirit into the bodies of unwitting mariners by way of a sacrificial dagger. Cue bloody mayhem.A neat (but somewhat underdeveloped) idea, executed with a slow start but otherwise satisfactorily. It features a largely antipodean cast (including the pleasingly pneumatic Amber Sainsbury, more recently seen in 30 Days Of Night) with the mysterious stranger played by John Rhys-Davies, returning to mortgage-paying schlock after the glories of Lord Of The Rings. Clearly, he likes New Zealand! It's a shame the basic idea wasn't developed more fully, because the latter half - a "last man standing" bloodbath - has been seen many times, most recently in Donkey Punch, although Dead Calm is probably higher profile.

Claudio Carvalho In New Zealand, the couples Tate (Sally Stockwell) and Chris (Craig Hall) and Kathy (Amber Sainsbury) and Zane (Julian Arahanga) come to the yacht Dionysus to sail to Fiji Islands in a romantic trip. The skipper Big Dave (Tamer Hassan) and his girlfriend Suze (Kerry Fox) welcome the quartet with their beloved dog Rolex. On the second day, the Dionysus receives a distress signal in Morse code and Dave head to a mysterious fog to help the ship. They find a fishing boat adrift and Chris and Zane row a small boat to the vessel to avoid reefs. They find a crew member (John Rhys-Davies) near death and they bring him to Dionysus. Sooner they discover that the man is possessed of a demon and he uses a dagger to cheat death and switch bodies with his victims. "The Ferryman" is an underrated horror movie based on the legend of the Greek mythology of Charon or Kharon, the ferryman of Hades that carried the souls across the River Acheron to reach the world of the dead. His payment was a coin in or on the mouth of the dead person. In the introduction of "The Ferryman", there is a narration in off telling that "in ancient times there was the legend of the Ferryman. He took the dead to be judged into the afterlife and his prize was a coin in their mouth. If anyone tried to cheat death, they would also be cheating the Ferryman and they could never escape for the Ferryman would hunt them forever." The screenplay combines the foregoing legend with "Dead Calm" and "Fallen" and the result is a good gore film. In the end, I was surprised since I had the lowest expectations based on the IMDb Rating. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A Vingança do Demônio" ("The Revenge of the Demon")

terrible2 Psychological horror set adrift in a sea of uncertainty...Directed by Chris Graham and written by Matt Metcalfe and Nick Ward "The Ferryman" takes the viewer on a boat tour, filled with terror and mystery. However, the storyline is bit used by this time, and if you've ever seen "Shocker" or "Fallen", then chances are you know what this movie is about. Set (refreashingly) on a boat, "The Ferryman's" best weapon is it's isolation factor. These people are floating in a dark fog and have no sense of direction when the horror begins. This worked for me, as you begin to feel the dread of the characters and their plight for rescue. Solid performances from everyone involved, and it's always good to see John Rhys-Davies back in a horror film. The gore is present, but could have used more. My biggest issue with the film was the for-mentioned lack of originality, as this plot has been used too many times before.Certainly worth a viewing, or as an addition to a collection.

Nightmare-Maker I've had the DVD of THE FERRYMAN sitting in my pile of must sees for some time, for some unknown reason I've been putting it off. But finally got round to seeing it...and I really liked it! It's got a decent cast, the most familiar face to me was Tamer Hassan - from THE BUSINESS, and Julian Arahanga from ONCE WERE WARRIORS, but the acting was good all round I thought.The film itself was way above average for a DTV movie, it looked like it had a few quid chucked at it, and was extremely well made.It was quite creepy in parts, the setting on a yacht stuck in the fog in the middle of the ocean - at night, had the desired effect.I'm not going to go into to much detail about the synopsis (thats available at the top of the title page), but if I had to compare it to something I would say it reminded me of THE HIDDEN... on a boat! Im not sure of the UK release date, it was due out October time, but was withdrawn and hasn't had a re-release date, but keep an eye out for it.If you've had enough of the countless remakes and slasher flicks that keep getting churned out - give this a try, you will do a lot worse i guarantee it.