Ghost Ship is a 2002 American supernatural horror film directed by Steve Beck from a screenplay by Mark Hanlon and John Pogue.

Its plot follows a marine salvage crew in the Bering Sea who discover a mysterious ocean liner that disappeared in 1962 and stars an ensemble cast of Gabriel Byrne, Julianna Margulies, Ron Eldard, Desmond Harrington, Isaiah Washington, Alex Dimitriades, and Karl Urban.

[2] In 1962, passengers aboard the Italian ocean liner MS Antonia Graza dance as a lounge singer named Francesca performs the song "Senza fine".

An unidentified passenger lifts a lever to tighten a metal cable which then snaps and rips through the stage and dancefloor, cutting everyone in half except Katie, who survives due to her short height.

Forty years later, a salvage crew—Captain Sean Murphy, Maureen Epps, Greer, Dodge, Munder, and Santos—are approached by weather service pilot Jack Ferriman, who spotted a vessel adrift in the Bering Strait.

Greer encounters the ghost of Francesca, who seduces him into cheating on his fiancée and then tricks him into falling to his death down an elevator shaft.

He is revealed to be Jack, who is actually the demonic spirit of a deceased sinner tasked with provoking people to sin before killing them and bringing their souls to Hell.

The film would have focused on four members of a salvage crew who end up stranded aboard the ghost vessel they are scuttling (the titular Chimera).

It has been suggested that "The cast signed on based on this (original) draft ... and were sadly disappointed to find the script had been radically changed by Joel Silver and associates when they arrived to begin shooting.

"[4] According to Beck in the newly released directors commentary he mentioned that the September 11 attacks in the United States inspired the studio to make the film a more definitive fight between good and evil instead of trying to be nuanced about the corruption of man.

This allowed Warner Bros. to take full advantage of the wide spectrum of services offered including CGI, animation, miniatures, live-action, prosthetics, pyrotechnics and aerial, underwater and motion control cinematography.

Photon created a 35-foot 1/20th scale model of the ship, allowing the exterior shots to be a combination of CGI, miniature, and live-action footage.

[8] While filming the exterior shots on the tugboat, a feeding frenzy occurred in the water bringing 800-1000 sharks within 50 yards of the production and its stars.

[10] In February 2002, the 35-foot-long model of the Antonia Graza, made by Photon VFX, was taken out to Moreton Bay to film establishing shots of the ship adrift.

[11] In early February, construction of the bow and foredeck of the full-scale replica of the Antonia Graza was getting underway at Newstead, Queensland.

Construction, which lasted roughly six weeks, drew many curious residents and tourists that were hoping to get a look at the nearly 100-foot-tall (30m) massive hull that dominated the surrounding area.

Photon VFX filmed a real ocean-liner at sea off the coast of New South Wales, digitally removed the ship, but kept all of its movements, leaving nothing but ocean and sky.

[14][15] The songs "Not Falling" by Mudvayne and "Senza fine" sung by Monica Mancini are not part of the soundtrack despite being featured in the film.

[20] On October 26, 2018, Official Charts Company revealed Ghost Ship was the United Kingdom's 26th best-selling horror DVD/Blu-ray of all time.

The site's critical consensus reads: "With a plot as creaky as the boat, Ghost Ship fails to deliver the scares.

Granted, there are only so many ways to kill people in these pictures, but lingering on a woman on a meat hook doesn't make a movie scary.

"[27] Manohla Dargis of the Los Angeles Times was critical of the script's lack of character development, writing: "With its minor shivers and modest Grand Guignol showmanship, Ghost Ship is the sort of flimflam that would have filled eight paneled pages in the great horror comic book Tales From the Crypt or consumed about 30 minutes on the latter-day HBO spinoff.

"[31] Upon the film's release in the United Kingdom in January 2003, The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw praised its set design, but added "it's the same old tired stuff we've seen a hundred times before in various permutations.