The Haunting of the Mary Celeste
Ratings: 3.5/5
Duration: 1 hr 14 mins
Language: English
Genre: Horror
Director: Shana Betz
Writer: Jerome Olivier, David Ross
Based On: Real Events (Mary Celeste disappearances)
Producer: Justin Ambrosino, Eric R. Brodeur, Brian Dreyfuss, Norman Dreyfuss, Jerome Olivier, Allyce Ozarski
Music: Alex Ruger
Cinematography: Raquel Fernández Nuñez
Editing: Danny Daneau, Cris Mertens
Art Direction: Cayman Eiler, Scott Enge
Release Date: 23 October 2020
Releasing In: Theatres
Star Cast: Emily Swallow, Richard Roundtree, Ava Acres, Pierre Adele, Dominic DeVore, Alice Hunter
Plot: A researcher and her crew try to link the mysterious disappearance of sailors aboard a ship to the supernatural.
Review: The British brig Dei Gratia was about 400 miles east of the Azores on December 5, 1872, when crew members spotted a ship adrift in the choppy seas. Capt. David Morehouse was taken aback to discover that the unguided vessel was the Mary Celeste, which had left New York City eight days before him and should have already arrived in Genoa, Italy.
Thus was born one of the most durable mysteries in nautical history: What happened to the ten people who had sailed aboard the Mary Celeste?
Haunting of the Mary Celeste draws you in, with its already known premise and its similarities to Ghost Ship. It is bound to be compared with the real-world naval mystery.
The protagonist embarking on this journey is researcher Cassandra who takes her assistants Rachel and Grant out to do some readings out at sea. Their hired Captain Tulls is not very enthusiastic about this trip. Emily Swallow (“Mandalorian,” “Supernatural”) starring as Rachel, a concerned researcher whose team who has set out to sea to prove that the disappearance of a family and crew from a merchant ship was for reasons having to do with the supernatural. Her theory that those on the Mary Celeste vanished into a “rift” between dimensions proves true as the boat breaks down and her crew begins to vanish one by one.
Director Shana Betz (Free Ride) along with writers David Ross (The Woods, The Babysitters) and Jerome Olivier have come up with a story that is more conventional where the researchers find out the hard way some mysteries should be left unsolved.
One of the attractive element of the film is that it doesn’t solely depends on horror and jump scares but, tries to trace the source of the phenomenon behind its related disappearances. You may not experience horror from this film that won’t let you sleep at night.
The shining star of the film is the sound design. The film with its mysterious story got a lot of backing from the sounds, genuinely eerie noises that bring you goosebumps till the very end as Haunting of the Mary Celeste builds up to its climax. That climax is somewhat blurry. Rachel’s theory is never fully explained, so it may seem bleak of what ultimately happened. There is also a final scene that is a sort of like an anti-climax.
