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Judging A Film By Its Cover: DEATH SHIP (1980)
Welcome (once again) to Judging A Film By Its Cover, where I take a horror movie with outstanding artwork and see if the film itself lives up to it! Today we take a look at one of my all-time favorite horror artworks courtesy of the somewhat great year of 1980! The impact of this art can be primarily seen in the poster for Ghost Ship, which not only (sort of) steals the title, but the artwork is nearly identical! Trust me; this art is FAR superior.
Death Ship 1980
Plot Summary: Late one night, a huge ship rams into a cruise liner, resulting in the cruise nking and nearly everybody dying, save for a few survivors (including George Kennedy (Cool Hand Luke) and Richard Crenna (The Rambo movies)), who are adrift at sea on a life raft. However, the same ship that rammed the cruise comes along, and they unwittingly climb aboard. They find the ship abandoned, and soon find themselves getting picked off one by one by either the ship (which turns out to be a Nazi torture ship) itself or the now-insane captain of the cruise. Can they escape this ship of death?
Why The Art Is Great: Just look at that. Look. It’s beautifully painted and actually
very creepy. I like how the artist put the people on the life raft on the bottom corner of the art just to show how masve the ship is. Then there’s the huge amount of fog surrounding the ship, giving it an almost nightmarish atmosphere. The poster itself would be creepy even if the face wasn’t on the ship, but then they throw a lot of rips in the metal of the ship making a hideous face. Awesome. My one complaint is that the tagline isn’t that great. This is the only poster I have in my collection (so far) that’s an original one-sheet, and I’m proud to have it because this is one of my favorite horror artworks of all time.
Does The Film Live Up To It? How could it? No, it doesn’t, but I still really like the movie. I’ve always liked George Kennedy, but you have to admit, he’s been in some bad movies (anyone seen Wacko?), and I think he’s a good actor. This is no exception. Richard Crenna’s really good too, but the rest of the cast is only alright. The only really bad actors are the kids, but that’s typical for most movies. A lot of people have called this “The Shining on a ship,” and that hits it right on the head. There are a lot of haunted house tropes, from the ship running itself to the shower pouring blood instead of water. There isn’t a lot of blood or violence (bedes the blood shower and when they find a torture chamber filled with decaying corpses in various torture devices).
The film itself isn’t very scary, save for a few nightmarish images later on in the movie. It does drag occaonally, but I found it different and intriguing enough to be really interesting most of the time. Of course, I’m a sucker for both horror movies set on a ship and horror movies about Nazis, and this has both. There are some suspenseful moments as well sprinkled here and there throughout. Until recently, Death Ship was never released on DVD, but those wonderful folks over at Scorpion Releang are planning a DVD release for November! I know a lot of people dislike this one, but I enjoy it.
Well, there you have it. And if you have seen some great artwork out there that you want me to judge, comment below and let me know!
Thank you to joshk1986 for the request
Death Ship 1980
Plot Summary: Late one night, a huge ship rams into a cruise liner, resulting in the cruise nking and nearly everybody dying, save for a few survivors (including George Kennedy (Cool Hand Luke) and Richard Crenna (The Rambo movies)), who are adrift at sea on a life raft. However, the same ship that rammed the cruise comes along, and they unwittingly climb aboard. They find the ship abandoned, and soon find themselves getting picked off one by one by either the ship (which turns out to be a Nazi torture ship) itself or the now-insane captain of the cruise. Can they escape this ship of death?Why The Art Is Great: Just look at that. Look. It’s beautifully painted and actually
very creepy. I like how the artist put the people on the life raft on the bottom corner of the art just to show how masve the ship is. Then there’s the huge amount of fog surrounding the ship, giving it an almost nightmarish atmosphere. The poster itself would be creepy even if the face wasn’t on the ship, but then they throw a lot of rips in the metal of the ship making a hideous face. Awesome. My one complaint is that the tagline isn’t that great. This is the only poster I have in my collection (so far) that’s an original one-sheet, and I’m proud to have it because this is one of my favorite horror artworks of all time.
Does The Film Live Up To It? How could it? No, it doesn’t, but I still really like the movie. I’ve always liked George Kennedy, but you have to admit, he’s been in some bad movies (anyone seen Wacko?), and I think he’s a good actor. This is no exception. Richard Crenna’s really good too, but the rest of the cast is only alright. The only really bad actors are the kids, but that’s typical for most movies. A lot of people have called this “The Shining on a ship,” and that hits it right on the head. There are a lot of haunted house tropes, from the ship running itself to the shower pouring blood instead of water. There isn’t a lot of blood or violence (bedes the blood shower and when they find a torture chamber filled with decaying corpses in various torture devices).
The film itself isn’t very scary, save for a few nightmarish images later on in the movie. It does drag occaonally, but I found it different and intriguing enough to be really interesting most of the time. Of course, I’m a sucker for both horror movies set on a ship and horror movies about Nazis, and this has both. There are some suspenseful moments as well sprinkled here and there throughout. Until recently, Death Ship was never released on DVD, but those wonderful folks over at Scorpion Releang are planning a DVD release for November! I know a lot of people dislike this one, but I enjoy it.
Well, there you have it. And if you have seen some great artwork out there that you want me to judge, comment below and let me know!
Thank you to joshk1986 for the request
ObscureCinema101
Saturday 7/07/2012 at 02:02 AM | 94454
I remember being petrified by the cover of this film along with the incredible melting man when I was 3 or 4, but that fear bought on by the covers grew into an obseson with Horror Films, I hunted high and low for Death ship for my collection and found no trace of it in the UK in fact I wasn't even sure it actually existed. Which prompted me starting a book entitled The misleading art of VHS Horror unfortunatly I didn't get past the 1st chapter due to other distractions that was 8years ago now. Thank you for the article a good read
krsdacritter
Sunday 7/08/2012 at 10:01 AM | 94485
Hell yeah! Great review man, I couldn't agree more with you as well. Definitely a fine example of how amazing some art is in the horror genre and it's a damn shame that not many know of this one.
I'm extremely jealous that you have an original one-sheet too! That's a godamn treasure you have there
I'm extremely jealous that you have an original one-sheet too! That's a godamn treasure you have there
joshk1986
Sunday 7/08/2012 at 12:13 PM | 94487
Seems like we think alike, James. Cover art has always been my one of my favorite aspects of the genre. One of the most prominent in my mind while walking through my local video store long ago, which was also independently owned so it offered a great deal of horror flicks, was the cover of "Blood Feast" released on the big box veron from Comet Video. Awesome cover showing grotesque scenes on the back as well, but when I finally viewed the film... well it surely did NOT live up to its full potential!
buried13
Sunday 7/08/2012 at 02:35 PM | 94489
Hey... I really enjoyed this movie... all that was on TV at 3 am was a bunch of infomercials and this... I managed to enjoy this movie and later score it on DVD!
Corpsegrinder
Sunday 7/08/2012 at 04:54 PM | 94490
Seems like we think alike, James. Cover art has always been my one of my favorite aspects of the genre. One of the most prominent in my mind while walking through my local video store long ago, which was also independently owned so it offered a great deal of horror flicks, was the cover of "Blood Feast" released on the big box veron from Comet Video. Awesome cover showing grotesque scenes on the back as well, but when I finally viewed the film... well it surely did NOT live up to its full potential!
Do you you want to put in a request for that one? I like the whole "go-for-the-jugular" approach to the art, so I'd be glad to do it!
Do you you want to put in a request for that one? I like the whole "go-for-the-jugular" approach to the art, so I'd be glad to do it!
ObscureCinema101
Sunday 7/08/2012 at 09:14 PM | 94494
Seems like we think alike, James. Cover art has always been my one of my favorite aspects of the genre. One of the most prominent in my mind while walking through my local video store long ago, which was also independently owned so it offered a great deal of horror flicks, was the cover of "Blood Feast" released on the big box veron from Comet Video. Awesome cover showing grotesque scenes on the back as well, but when I finally viewed the film... well it surely did NOT live up to its full potential!
Do you you want to put in a request for that one? I like the whole "go-for-the-jugular" approach to the art, so I'd be glad to do it
Sure thing, do it up man!
Do you you want to put in a request for that one? I like the whole "go-for-the-jugular" approach to the art, so I'd be glad to do itSure thing, do it up man!
buried13
Sunday 7/08/2012 at 09:52 PM | 94495
