Directed by Alvin Rakoff
Survivors of a tragic shipping collision are rescued by a mysterious black ship which appears out of the fog. Little do they realise that the ship is actually a Nazi torture ship which has sailed the seas for years, luring unsuspecting sailors aboard and killing them off one by one.
El barco de la muerte, Navio da Morte, O Navio Assassino, Das Todesschiff, La nave fantasma, Le bateau de la mort, Το Πλοίο Φάντασμα, Halálhajó, 데드 쉽, Корабль смерти, 死亡船, Statek śmierci, Brod smrti
USAR 
Canada18A 
Australia 
France12 
Colombia 
South Korea 
Portugal 
Japan 
Sweden 
MexicoC 
Netherlands 
Spain 
Turkey 
Denmark 
Germany16 Australia Canada Colombia Denmark France Germany Japan Mexico Netherlands Portugal South Korea Spain Sweden Turkey USA 
Low key, Jack Hill penned haunted Nazi death ship jam lives on atmosphere, odd angled corridor shots, and grinding engine room mechanisms pumping. Not a lot of death, but there’s a blood shower, fishing net death, Captain George Kennedy’s mind goes AWOL, and there’s some neat editing going on here as well. Everyone plays it straight, which I love, and ships are one of my absolute favorite settings—especially haunted ships with a death destination
The deliberate pacing can definitely be a turn off for many... but for me? I love isolated, slow breathing atmosphere genre pictures from this era—none of this is tedious or boring for me, and you can’t go wrong with George Kennedy. Definitely a gem for me.
Daily Horror Scavenger Hunt - July 2018
2. A movie with cool poster art.
And it is some amazing poster art, right? I remember that bad boy sitting on the shelf at the video store just staring at me every time I walked down the aisle and hey, it turns out the actual movie is pretty good too!
The death ship is full of Nazi ghosts who go around sinking cruise ships and luring the survivors onto their own vessel. It’s silly, but it has some really great atmosphere so I dug it. I honestly couldn’t tell if the editing was on purpose or just really bad, but either way it works because it makes everything very surreal. The camerawork was…
Man this movie had so many annoying noises in it. Really was testing my endurance in parts because of it.
When there was a chaotic scene the music sounded like 6 different people each just sitting on a keyboard that was out of tune. That’s the best I can describe it. My ears have fallen out with me over it.
The film was okay though, a bit silly and whacky in moments but there’s a couple of gruesome scenes too. The guy stuck in the net with the rotting corpses was one of them.
Finally, I’m sure this was the first time I’d watched Richard Crenna in a film that didn’t have Rambo in it.
Great shots in creating a character off the ship.
Some of the acting and scares didn't live up to par though.
Maybe it’s just me, but I enjoyed Death Ship more when the titular vessel acted more like a little stinker than the possessed Nazi torture/experimentation boat it turned out to be. I couldn’t stop laughing when it dunked a baby-faced Saul Rubinek into the ocean or when, much to the survivors’ dismay, it deployed the lifeboats and they frantically ran around looking for a way to stop it from stranding them onboard. Otherwise, file Death Ship under “missed opportunity.” It consistently finds ways to make the most generic choices possible – both narratively and when it comes to generating suspense or memorable kills. Occasionally, the film will perk up with a genuinely creepy moment, but those are few and far…
October Horror Challenge 2014 Movie #50
I don't understand how hard it is to come across a movie that truly captures a haunted house atmosphere, especially when the good ones like this make it feel so effortless. This is truly haunting at times, even as it works in a familiar genre wraparound. The sense of horror is handled the right way, with things being shown to us but never being overexplained, leaving the mystery of it to play in the back of our heads. Maybe it's because I worked on a ship that large for a bit and know how cavernous and mind-bending they are, but the setting was perfect, utilized far more effectively than mega-budget films that have come…
I think we could all use a nice hot blood shower. It really exfoliates the skin!
Sigh.....How could someone make a movie about a Nazi ghost ship luring aboard the survivors of a cruise liner it destroyed so bland and uninspired? This is the kind of film that would be ripe for a remake. The potential for a wacky genre picture is endless. Imagine if "Overlord" had this setting? Oh well...I can dream.
Sitting through this film, all I could think about was how great it would've been if someone like John Carpenter had taken the reins. This film tries to go down the atmosphere route instead of scares, and whilst I applaud the attempt, it completely missed the mark. Carpenter is the master of the leery, handheld vibe that this film desperately tried to emulate.…
While there is no evidence to collaborate this, DEATH SHIP (1980) structurally feels like it was what Dark Castle's GHOST SHIP (2002) was based on; both are supernatural nautical films about haunted ships that have a very violent cold open, but the difference between them, is that this Canadian tax shelter production is more like THE SHINING (1980) on a boat, with the growing sense of horror as a presence within the machinery and ambience of the ship, piloted by, what else, Nazis. It's always Nazis. Set sail on the Sieg Heil seas. “You’ve got all the ingredients here for a pulpy good time: a semi-celebrity cast; a supernatural high concept; a reasonable body count; and of course, an evil…
I dunno, maybe fatigue was just setting in as this was the third film of the evening, but I wasn't really feeling it with this one. I thought I was gonna love it, cuz the titular death ship looks pretty rad, but it just didn't vibe with me. It felt like they were going for The Shining on a boat, but ended up with something more like Amityville meets Maximum Overdrive. It's competently filmed but has kind of a made-for-TV quality to it. At any rate, it was nice to see Richard Crenna in a spoopy horror flick.
I'll have to come back to this one again, just to make sure, but it all felt kind of bland and silly on this watch.
Watched with Jozlyn
Recently I watched an oceanic horror film called Blood Vessel and compared it to this and others but specifically stated it was at least as good as Death Ship. As it’s been well over 25 years since I’ve seen this one, I thought it would be only fair to revisit and perhaps reassess Death Ship’s ranking in these haunted ship flicks.
There’s a lot of homage, intended or otherwise, in Blood Vessel, for Death Ship.
1) they use the same opening credits font
2) both movies essentially start with a lifeboat of survivors who encounter a huge empty war ship
3) it’s about Nazis and their Nazi shenanigans
4) the evil presence on the ship is able to possess the…
Supernatural mayhem on a boat! No actually a ship! A Death Ship!
The film starts with a bombastic Halloween party on the ship. As the guests dance the night away in their sweet costumes the ship runs into trouble. After the ship is damaged some of the passengers take refuge in a mysterious and empty ship. A Death Ship. But they don't know that yet.
As they settle into the unknown ship all sorts of freaky shenanigans begin to occur. It turns into a kind of poor man's Shining on a ship. People get possessed, showered with blood, corpses appear out of nowhere and they learn the horrible story of the mysterious ship. And George Kennedy goes nuts and its hilarious.
A silly film but definitely in the so bad it's good category. All aboard!
