Produced by horror veteran Robert Zemeckis, and Joel Silver, A salvage crew is approached by pilot Jack Ferriman (Desmond Harrington: Taken, Wrong Turn) who discovers an abandoned cruise liner among the waters, they agree to scour the boat with him and discover something truly gruesome and horrifying lies within the belly of the boat, something they will never be able to escape alive.

There's been many ghost films over the past decades ranging from the great (The Haunting, Thirteen Ghosts), the mediocre (Below, What Lies Beneath), to the awful (The Haunting 1998, House on Haunted Hill 1999) and there's not much original material or horror devices you can inject within the horror genre these days, especially films that involve ghosts and spirits because it's all been done to death. This film is no exception applying to that formula, but it does tend to use the tired clichés with much tenacity that I found it hard to dislike this. No matter how hard I tried, it was tough trying to label it awful, because it isn't awful. It's far from being scary, but it's not dull either. It's refreshing to find a movie studio solely devoted to horror movies like "Dark Castle" entertainment, because other than "Full Moon", there's been no other. Their scorecard of horror films are either way: Good or bad, it's never in between.

Taking something from "Virus" the crew of a boat discover this cruise liner which they find abandoned, but it isn't. At the opener there's this incredible and gruesome scene that sets up the entire movie. I'd tell you what the scene is, but why would I deprive you of gasping with your jaw hanging down onto the floor? It'd be a crime. Instantly we get to present day where we meet the group of boat salvagers played by some great underrated character actors. We have Ron Eldard who plays the gruff sailor Dodge, Julianna Margulies, Isaiah Thomas, and best of all Gabriel Byrne who plays the ship captain. What's interesting about these characters is that they're not cardboard cutouts as seen in many ghost films. These are actually likable characters that I wanted to root for and I couldn't help becoming intrigued by them. Eldard shines in every role he's in and he makes no exception in this movie as Dodge, Isaiah Thomas is likable as Greer who's desperate to get home to his wife, Julianna Margulies channels Ripley from "Alien" in this film playing the rough and tumble Maureen Epps who discovers what lies within the boat, and then there's Gabriel Byrne who manages to downplay his role as Captain Murphy never going overboard with his routine as a sea dog.

Desmond Harrington manages to shine in this role as he did in "Wrong Turn" as the inept Jack Ferriman who assembles the crew to scour the ship and bears a secret that will manage to surprise audiences in the end and will leave you wanting more. Why hasn't Hollywood thrown more parts this man's way? It's ridiculous how this guy stars in these films shining and stealing the scenes from the cast when he could be raking in the dough, and a certain actor with the initials B.A. gets all the high budget juicy roles and can't act for squat. Sigh, what a pity. Harrington's role is meager at first but manages to blow out the screen with an electric and powerful performance in the climax of the film. Emily Browning is great and effective as Katie who serves as a spirit guide rather than ghoul helping in the morbid exploration of the ship, often helping Margulies' character discover what events unfolded in the cruise liner and manages to pull in a memorable performance.

There's a lot elements in the movie that borrow from older films and are re-used in this that aren't very effective but still cool, nonetheless. There's the sea of blood ala "Shining", the old ghost/mirror trick ala "Poltergeist", the walls oozing something icky ala "Amityville", and the maggot/food transformation scene ala "Lost Boys" and much, much more. Despite that, this is an entertaining, creepy, and cool film with a lot of mood and texture to it.

I didn't enter the film with high expectations as I do with modern horror films, yet I was disappointed. Throughout the entire film I spent the majority thinking: "This can be so good, but there's something missing". This will more than likely leave the audience expecting more yet end up getting less. As far as scares go, this film won't provide it, go somewhere else for jumps because there's nothing here. There's the occasional pop-up and shadow play within the boat, but nothing much is happening. The effects used for fright effects are overly-extravagant which kept 1998's "The Haunting" from getting off the ground. There's the odd and redundant scene where Isaiah Thomas' character and the audience watch an abandoned room be re-built by ghosts before our very eyes as everything begins returning back to normal. It's interesting but scary? Hardly.

As far as ghosts come, don't expect to see them here, either; there's probably five ghosts within the film and only two are meant to be creepy as the others are far from it. The rest of the film is comprised of the sea crew looking through the boat which is pretty boring considering it's haunted and wouldn't be very scary even for kids. There's a lot of emphasis on the people who were ghosts, even with the awesome montage showing how the boat became cursed, but it still isn't enough. I would have liked to see more ghosts, more creeps, and maybe even a walking dead person; but there's nothing even remotely close to what I expected or would have wanted. In the end it's just forced and rushed and the explanation as to what and why caused the ship to be haunted seems so broad and indistinct.

Ah, heaven help me, I dug this movie a lot, it's entertaining, interesting, and morbid, with a lot of solid performances from the cast and has a great ending that left me thrilled.

• The design for the "Antonia Graza" was modeled after the "Andrea Doria", a real-life Italian cruise ship that also met a tragic fate: it sank in the 1950s after colliding with another liner. The photo that the captain shows Murphy of his ship rescuing the sinking ship, is actually a photo of the sinking "Andrea Doria", listing badly before finally going down.