Horror has been the big story in Hollywood in 2025. With superhero fatigue at what feels like an all-time high, moviegoers are looking for unique stories that can entertain them for a couple of hours without extra baggage. Well, a director best known for his work in the comic book movie genre, Ryan Coogler, got the party started early in the year with Sinners, a vampire flick that incorporates music in a fascinating way. Zach Cregger picked up the baton from Coogler when he dropped Weapons, one of the hits of the summer that makes use of one of the most terrifying concepts in history: possessed children.
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With the year nearing its end and spooky season in the rearview mirror, there aren’t many scares to be found in theaters anymore. That’s not the end of the world, though, because all the major streaming platforms are also bringing the scares by building up impressive horror libraries. Tubi, in particular, knows that its audience is ready to find out what goes bump in the night, offering selections like the Terrifier franchise and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. However, the streamer’s biggest success story at the moment is a cult film that didn’t have many supporters when it was released over 23 years ago: Ghost Ship.
Bringing home $68 million at the box office was a miracle for Ghost Ship because critics were pretty hard on the movie. Despite its unique premise, which featured a salvage crew stumbling upon a ship that disappeared decades ago and uncovering its supernatural connection, the narrative around the film was that it relied too much on gore and didn’t have much to offer in the story department. That might all be true, but in the streaming era, Ghost Ship has a leg up on the competition because it knows how to grab viewers’ attention.
Ghost Ship‘s Opening Is One of the Most Memorable of All Time
The first couple of minutes of Ghost Ship differ from the rest because they keep things upbeat. There’s a party happening on the MS Antonia Graza, with none of the passengers seeming to realize that they’re in a horror movie. But a mysterious figure starts to kill the mood, pulling a lever that causes the ship’s inner workings to go haywire. A wire snaps near the dance floor and goes careening through the crowd. Ghost Ship initially refuses to report the damage, showing the guests all standing still. They don’t stay that way forever, though, as it eventually becomes clear that their bodies have all been cut in half.
The mystery that follows Ghost Ship‘s first scene isn’t much to write home about. There’s a lot more death and a convoluted bit about capturing souls on the ship. However, an opening that good gives an otherwise lackluster movie a pass, even at a time when there is enough horror available on streaming to sink a battleship.
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Image courtesy of Focus Features.
