A lengthy, melodramatic prologue – stormy seas, a juicy dismemberment, a barmy John Rhys-Davies bellowing – belies the fact that THE FERRYMAN is a smarter, subtler film than it initially appears. The set up is conventional and the climax unleashes a generic on-screen demon that would have been best hidden, but the movie is astute in its avoidance of clichés and in its sparingly effective use of special effects.
Six twenty something’s of varying nationalities – including the token American couple and Tamer Hassan as a comedy Cockney named Big Dave (“Let’s make like a Catholic and pull out!”) – are sailing on a yacht in New Zealand. Many of them have prominent closet skeletons that will become apparent as the story unfolds. Their ocean voyage is fraught with bad omens even before they respond to a distress call from what turns out to be a deserted, creepily abandoned boat : dead birds, omnipresent fog, a severed arm found inside a shark they catch, visions of ghostly kids. From the boat, they pick up cancer-ridden, tattooed lone seaman Rhys-Davies. He’s a nice enough bloke who just happens to be the current host for an age old demon looking for fresh bodies to hijack. Younger, healthier bodies.
The film’s first hour is boldly low key in its horrors, a decision that helps heighten the impact of later events (including the discreetly unpleasant fate of a dog) and enables the film, unusually for a contemporary genre flick, time to satisfyingly develop its refreshingly non-teenage characters. Director Chris Graham sustains a tense ambience as he fleshes out these credibly complex grown-ups in peril. The film’s neatest narrative touch is to have the characters, when possessed, retain the look and personality of their former selves, albeit with underlying nuances and uncharacteristically hostile behavior. In the fashion of the various takes on INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, this enables the cast to cannily play “dark” versions of their established characters, and adds a degree of “who is it?” suspense in the vein of Carpenter’s THE THING.
The movie is strongest and most effectively scary in its moments of personal horror rather than its few, fleeting scenes of visceral violence. There’s a superbly acted sequence in which the nice American guy abruptly turns into the abusive husband from Hell : a callously cruel, brutal figure who expresses the demon’s bragging by boasting to his horrified wife of how disposable she is compared to the thousands of women “he” has had. Similarly uneasy and well done is a subsequent scene in which the roles are reversed, the wife is taken over and she perversely taunts her wounded spouse while grimly masturbating in front of him.
As a whole, it’s a neat take on familiar territory, with solid performances and a better script than most. It is somewhat weakened by terrible songs on the soundtrack, though the end credits boast a metal version of Chris De Burgh’s “Don’t Pay The Ferryman”.
– Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
