Just perfect...

Absolutely brilliant

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

An American couple, another couple from New Zealand board a small ship for a trip from New Zealand to Fiji. The boat is owned by yet another couple. In an intro we hear a voice over by a little girl talking about the Ferryman who takes the dead to the afterlife if he gets paid. Why this entity needs or wants money, who knows. Also previously we witness a ship going through very rough seas and two guys beating each other up until one of the goes nuts, stabs the other guy and hacks him to pieces.Meanwhile the small boat encounters dense fog at night and hears a distress signal. They stop and go searching for the troubled boat and find the crazy survivor from the beating earlier. He goes crazy and stabs the Kiwi guy. He inherits the old man's giant back tattoo of a snake in the shape of an 8. Now he goes nuts and attacks the American guy, and so on. The knife somehow transfers the madness and every crazy person ends up with the tattoo.The New Zealand girl, a former nurse, keeps having visions of a little girl who died in her care. She took some sleeping pills and sleeps through the entire ordeal while everyone else is attacking each other. She has another vision and this time the girls gives her a coin, which will be key to calling the Ferryman and putting an end to all the craziness.This movie is about 30 minutes too long, and far too boring. Once you confine a bunch of uninteresting people on a small boat, there's not much to expect. Add to that fog and the night- can't gruesome things ever happen during the day? and you have a recipe for one lame movie. The Ferryman is a bit gory, there's the killing and gutting of a baby shark, the hacking to pieces of some guy, lots of blood, but not even that keeps our attention. The ending back on land is quite interesting but by then it's too late to save the movie.

I decided to knock just two points off this movie simply down to the pointless character depth probing that caused the story to linger needlessly near the beginning.But that's all... as this is one of the best horror movies I have seen in recent years. I have to agree with the previous reviewer, it's refreshing that the characters were people you can care about; some empathy is possible rather than just seeing a load of high school brats being sliced up one by one, as is the usual formula.Here, a few couples on a luxury voyage to Fiji investigate an abandoned boat in response to its distress call following the horrific opening scene. There, they find John Rhys-Davies the sole survivor, sick and weak, and rescue him. Unbeknownst to the crew, their voyage of fun and love is soon coming to an end as they picked up a being that has been escaping death (The Ferryman) for centuries using a mystical dagger that allows him to swap bodies...If you love horror movies, do not miss this roller-coaster ride from the New Zealand movie industry. Horror fans will adore watching the demonic being hopping from one body to another to survive aboard a luxury yacht. The film starts with a violent and gory scene fit for the demanding horror fans out there.John Rhys-Davies, what a catch for the movie! He is outstanding as the Greek rescued by the yacht's crew in response to his distress signal. The basic formula soon unwinds as the not-so-hapless crew is his prey for some great horror scenes offering plenty of ghoulish moments.Echoes of other films will come to mind where demonic possession is concerned. The atmosphere generates the necessary foreboding feeling that draws you into the unfolding chaos and terror of the macabre.Horror fans may have missed this one due to its surprising online reviews that support the contrary on it not being any kind of a masterpiece. But, as a horror movie fanatic, this movie supersedes most of the crappy teen horror movies and awful remakes hitting your screens lately. You will find the movie refreshing after some real dull not-so-scary movies this last couple of years.A must-see...

"The Ferryman" is a potentially interesting but ultimately extremely disappointing effort.**SPOILERS**Going out on a trip, Big Dave, (Tamer Hassan) and his Suze, (Kerry Fox) agree to take friends Chris Hamilton, (Craig Hall) Kathy, (Amber Sainsbury) Zane, (Julian Arahanga) and Tate, (Sally Stockwell) on a multi-day cruise from New Zealand. At first out having fun, they soon start to change when they come upon a strange fog, and when coming upon a stranded sailor known as The Greek, (John Rhys-Davies) they decide to bring him aboard. Shortly afterward, they realize that something isn't right, and when the group begins to start killing each other, they learn that they are the target of the Ferryman, a vicious supernatural killer that is trying to collect souls to take to the afterlife, and must resort to a never-ending series of tactics to outwit the body-hopping killer before all of them become victims.The Good News: This here was a potentially interesting affair, as there was some good stuff here. One of the film's best features is the killer and his rules, which are quite new and original, not really something that is expected at all and really has something going for it. With the rules following along closely to the ones already established for the real-life persona it's based on, namely the reaping of souls for the underworld and used here, gives it a nice touch and really makes it seem that much more like a legitimate, imposing force. That there are also rules that go along with it all, from how to get possessed to what happens during that time and how to get rid of the force within is also really nice, which works here by adding a really interesting twist on the slasher-among-a-group-of-friends that has been done countless times before which is where it really scores well while also giving the film some nice momentum at the end when it's revealed what's going on and making those scenes, which start off as back-story revelations but turn into big brawls makes it even more entertaining and exciting, putting in a touch of energy missing from the rest of the film as well. The last plus here is the fact that the kills aren't that bad and quite bloody, which is a big plus. There's several that are beaten up and viciously bruised, an eyeball bludgeoned out, a beer bottle bashed against the head, a slit throat and another is set on fire. These here are all that work right for this one.The Bad News: There was a couple of rather big flaws for this one. One of the main ones is that the film is just so utterly boring that it's quite impossible to make it through most of the beginning of the film. As it sets up the characters and their relationships with each other, it doesn't really start getting to business until an hour in, which is a criminal mistake that really takes it's toll on the film. It sets up almost nothing as it's just random scenes of people acting mysteriously around each other and then everyone else trying to figure out what's going on, but none of this is done with any care towards making it interesting. They just go around talking about anything and everything, which is quite boring and makes for a dull time. This also isn't helped by the fact that there's just a high level of confusion around the film, as hardly any of it makes any sense at all. There's very little reason given as to what the killer is doing going after any of the people here as it was given that there was a target, which wasn't any of them, and makes those scenes just all-around confusing. The scenes among the group earlier when trying to figure everything out are just as bad, as they manage to just spout off anything that sounds logical and not really piecing anything together coherently, offering up little that is overall important and just instead adds to the dullness and boredom that permeate the film. There's so much more here that doesn't make any sense that it eventually just washes over and really just sort of settles, making the overall effect of derision quite easy to accept. The last flaw here, which ties into the confusion as well but also suffers on it's own, is the fact that the film never really does anything with the killer or his motive, which is introduced way too late into the film to really get a handle on anything. It's almost over before we get any kind of idea what the official killer is, an explanation about it or why it's important to the film, all of which come a little too late to be of much help and never really comes of anything. It would've been better not being given at all rather than at that late date. These here are the film's problems.The Final Verdict: Really hard to get into and features a lot of really big and important flaws, really negating this one considerably and not really offering much. Give it a shot if this kind of film appeals to you, while those that are put off by the flaws or aren't into this kind of film should heed extreme caution.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity and animal violence

I've had the DVD of THE FERRYMAN sitting in my pile of must sees for some time, for some unknown reason I've been putting it off. But finally got round to seeing it...and I really liked it! It's got a decent cast, the most familiar face to me was Tamer Hassan - from THE BUSINESS, and Julian Arahanga from ONCE WERE WARRIORS, but the acting was good all round I thought.The film itself was way above average for a DTV movie, it looked like it had a few quid chucked at it, and was extremely well made.It was quite creepy in parts, the setting on a yacht stuck in the fog in the middle of the ocean - at night, had the desired effect.I'm not going to go into to much detail about the synopsis (thats available at the top of the title page), but if I had to compare it to something I would say it reminded me of THE HIDDEN... on a boat! Im not sure of the UK release date, it was due out October time, but was withdrawn and hasn't had a re-release date, but keep an eye out for it.If you've had enough of the countless remakes and slasher flicks that keep getting churned out - give this a try, you will do a lot worse i guarantee it.