Haunting of the Queen Mary (2023) Review!!

Synopsis – Haunting of the Queen Mary explores the mysterious and violent events surrounding one family’s voyage on Halloween night in 1938, and their interwoven destiny with another family onboard the infamous ocean liner present day.

My Take – While there are many attractions spread around the world that claim to be the most haunted, The RMS Queen Mary, the retired British ocean liner that sailed primarily on the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967, has often being confirmed as the definite most haunted ship in the world, with multiple stories of ghost sightings.

Though documentaries and other films have been made about the hauntings on the ship, for his latest director Gary Shore (Dracula Untold), who co-wrote the film with Tom Vaughan (Extraordinary Measures) and Stephen Oliver, aims to offer an enthralling blend of history and the supernatural in his exploration into all the ghouls that lurk aboard the luxury liner. Resulting in a serviceable voyage into the nasty and blood-soaked interpretations of the transatlantic beauty’s ghostly mythology.

Filmed on the actual ship at Long Beach, California, the film is beautifully shot and is reminiscent to the tone of The Shining (1980), however, it takes a while to get going and despite telling two stories, there’s not enough substance to sustain its overly long 125 minutes. The overloaded screenplay makes the experience distracting and indecisive, making one wonder how some concepts should have been better left on the chopping room floor.

Instead, it shines best in the third act, especially when it’s capturing the look and feel of the eerie events that took place on the ship back in 1938. Particularly the disturbing murders that took place, and most importantly, it never holds back on the horrific moments.

The story follows two families one in 1938, the Ratch family consisting of husband and wife David (Wil Coban) and Gwen (Nell Hudson) and their daughter Jackie (Florrie Wilkinson) are on a voyage aboard the Queen Mary as third class passengers masquerading as first class passengers at the onboard Halloween party. That is until, the Ratches are caught out and told to leave, though Jackie stays and gets to display her skill by dancing with Fred Astaire (Wesley Alfvin).

However, while hanging around the deep pool area David ends up experiencing a break with reality much to Gwen’s increasing unease and horror. At the same time, the vessel begins to experience unseen difficulties, and despite warnings, Captain Carradine (Jim Piddock) is not willing to sacrifice speed as that would mean the loss of the Blue Riband, an accolade for the fastest passenger ship.

Meanwhile in present day, the Queen Mary is now permanently docked as a tourist attraction and the story follows the Caulder family consisting of Anne (Alice Eve), her son Lukas (Lenny Rush) and her estranged husband Patrick (Joel Fry) who come onboard intending to write about its allegedly supernatural history from a child’s point of view only to find the hauntings all too real.

Drawing from the many ghosts alleged to haunt the ship such as the Woman in White, by shooting onboard, the film is awarded a sense of authenticity and adds immeasurably to the production values. Sadly though, it struggles to maintain its momentum. It‘s also hard at times to figure out just what is going on. Particularly in the first half. Interweaving the two stories lands the ship in choppy waters, with ideas introduced that leave more questions than answers.

Between the two families, passengers and crew there is a large cast of characters, very few of whom are given much development. Even the ambiguity surrounding Captain Bittner (Dorian Lough) isn’t clearly articulated.

The script clearly needed to revised as here, it mostly feels like the writers are tossing ideas at the wall from black-and-white flashbacks to moving watercolor interludes, seeing what will stick, which they all don’t.

But while the film can get confusing with the jumping back and forth of timelines, it is at least consistent with the way it does horror. And the horror here is very much in your face. It hits you right from the beginning in a mass panic of guests on the boat and a crazed man who murdered five people, including his wife and daughter.

Within all of this, there are several impressively staged scares, some surprising deaths and shocking murders. While some do happen off-screen director Shore isn’t afraid to show an axe smashing a skull open or repeatedly striking a victim and painting a cabin’s walls red in the process.

Plus, the film is visually striking throughout. Especially in the scenes set in 1938 when the ship was at the height of its fame and elegance. Scenes featuring the likes of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (Maddison Nixon) are stunning. The modern-day story uses the ship’s cavernous and imposing engine room and other working areas to build an atmosphere of dread. Credit goes to cinematographer Isaac Bauman for pulling off the two opposing looks so well.

Performances wise, Alice Eve and Joel Fry are decent enough, though we have seen the two in better roles before. In other roles, Jim Piddock, Lenny Rush, Dorian Lough, Wil Coban, Nell Hudson, Maddison Nixon, Florrie Wilkinson, and Wesley Alfvin are more than adequate. On the whole, ‘Haunting of the Queen Mary’ is a serviceable horror that has enough disturbing frights to work for the genre.