The Ninth Passenger
Director: Corey Large
Date Created: 2018-07-18 17:49
1
I love sailboat movies in the horror niche. Nothing like a fear of the ocean due to unseen forces to make you appreciate the horrors of being stuck out at sea. This is a double review for The Ninth Passenger and The Boat. What’s better than a double dose of sailing and horror? The Ninth Passenger was a film that looked good on the surface. As soon as you go deeper though, look out. There was something murky in the water but it had nothing to do with being a good film.
The Boat is a film about one guy alone on a vessel. That’s all there is. But you’d be surprised at which film was the better one. Read on to find out which one I liked better.
Firstly, Let’s Review The Ninth Passenger Movie
I ignored all of the ratings circulating for “The Ninth Passenger”. Straight away, the opening scenes sound and look like a made-for-television movie. I’m talking unpolished sound quality, standard shooting, choppy scene changes, and mediocre opening dialog. Undeterred I wanted what the basic storyline promised. Students with sexy times on their minds get their party aboard a massive yacht. With the thought of ‘something’ selectively drowning them one by one, I continued.
Most of the cast in The Ninth Passenger are experienced performers in solid television or cinema roles. I wondered if they were having a bad day… the entire time of filming. It’s the only excuse I could think of.
Scripting is one-dimensional. The characters; are a generic mess of women who ‘love having fun’ (i.e bimbos in the shape of lawyers) mushed in with one ‘regular’ female who doesn’t enjoy some fun (i.e she’s smart and forgoes drinking and drugs.) They even toned down her good looks to suit this role. No blow-wave for you young lady. The Ninth Passenger does not shy away from perpetuating the types of stereotypes the rest of the world is trying to run from. Am I wrong to want more from 2019’s films when it comes to this sort of thing?
If you begin hoping there is a backstory for these poorly defined characters rest easy, think back to other horror movies that make it easy to pick who will die.
Sailboat Movies with Monsters
When all the passengers are safely onboard Marty’s dad’s boat (who is the CEO of a company destroying the Earth) he and his best friend swing the party into gear. Don’t worry about them starving while out at sea either because the ship’s cook is already cuddled up with another young lady who is not a hooker. It’s important to know she is ‘not a hooker’ because they point out she is not a hooker.
Nor will the boat have engine trouble because Brady is masquerading as ‘maintenance’ and didn’t know the ship set sail and is now stuck on board. Some maintenance guy, who I think does not have any bronze machine screws in his toolbox! Forget those, I doubt he has a toolbox at all! Nonetheless, let us get on with the storyline.
But monsters are lurking about. There are blood splotches so we know they aren’t nice monsters.
Of course, there is an island. And if you’re looking for the comedy aspect of the film to come into play, seeing a girl called Tina walk around in platform heels just might do it for you, but you’ll have to fast forward to the last act for that.
You Can Watch the Ninth Passenger Online
For another review of The Ninth Passenger read from Cryptic Rock who reviewed the film also.
The Ninth Passenger is streaming on:
Powered by‘Enter at your own risk’ would be a much better slogan for this film.
The Ninth Passenger cast: Alexia Fast, Veronica Dunne, Tom Maden, Sabrina Gadecki, David Hennessey, Cinta Kiehl, Timothy V. Murphy, and Corey Large himself.
The Ninth Passenger is rated
1 the party doesn’t end here, it never began out of 5
Produced by 308 ent.
Distributed by Grindstone Entertainment Group & Lionsgate Home Entertainment.
The Boat Movie Review
The premiere of Boat movie took to the film festival circuit in 2018 beginning at Fantastic Fest in September. Finally, it’s got a wide release and can be watched on Amazon Prime or bought outright on digital. I would say The Boat is better viewing than The Ninth Passenger.
The premise is simple, a guy goes fishing on his small tin boat and finds himself in what looks to be an abandoned vessel. He ties on climbs aboard and takes a look around. Satisfied that the boat is empty and radios are not in working order to call it in, he decides to leave. His boat, complete with an outboard motor and his backpack is gone.
There’s only one cast member to talk about in “The Boat” and that is Joe Azzopardi. Throughout the 1 hour 28-minute run time, we never learn his character’s name. Filmmakers could have easily made him prone to talking to himself as a means of allowing the audience to know what was going on in his mind. I’m glad they didn’t. For the first half of the film, you slowly learn this guy is not just some random person who’s never been at sea. He makes sensible decisions regarding things he can use on the boat. He even manages to get the motor started.
His face convincingly shows the bewilderment and fear as each minute passes and they are no closer to land than they were hours ago. The map he has gives no reprieve as to why he and this abandoned boat are still far out at sea.
Too Much Blank Space in The Boat?
I must admit there was a moment in the final act of The Boat where I fast-forwarded a bit. The run time for this film is its biggest enemy. The scenes manage to build up tension and frustration lacking in heaps of stories with far less to work with, but this gradual build-up is squandered with a mix of fix, fail, repeat.
When he was finally freed from his small spaced prison, I had knots in my stomach that he would close another door. This guy did not have the same pent-up paranoia that I did. I loved The Boat movie, despite discovering he was able to be locked in not once but three times within the confines of a small boat.
By comparison, The Boat reminds me of The Love Bug if Herbie were a boat instead of a car and slightly more evil. On the other hand, perhaps similar to House (1977) you see the vessel as a supernatural prankster. Whatever the case, the final scene with this vivacious boat finally revealing its quirky personality a little more was something I liked. I also liked Azzopardi’s steadfast performance here and need to seek out some of his other work.
To conclude, this unique and independent film was directed by Winston Azzopardi. Winston has only previously chaired TV movies and shorts. Together both Joe and Winston wrote the story and I can’t help but hope they team up again. All things considered (reports say the budget was only $5k) this is a great outcome and a memorable watch.
The Boat 2018 is rated
3.5 take all the doors off and throw them in the sea out of 5
The Boat
Director: Winston Azzopardi
Date Created: 2018-09-22 17:51
3.5
