Ship of the Damned

Directed by Steve Lawson

2024

Creativ Studios

Not every film needs to have a deep message or do something earth shatteringly original. In fact, I would argue that one of the biggest problems with modern filmmaking is the complete lack of 90-minute thrill rides. You look back to the 70s, 80s and 90s and there were countless well-made, quick action and horror flicks that didn’t bring anything new to the industry, but which were entertaining and often gave young screenwriters and directors the chance to cut their teeth.

Nor is there an issue with jumping on trends and turning around fast turnaround, low budget films. This was the style of Roger Corman – without whom we might not have some of the greatest directors and actors of the last generation.

Credit then to Steve Lawson, who has headed up Creativ Studios in Leicestershire since 2008, and worked with High Fliers Films to put out an extensive catalogue of films – which have made their way onto streaming services and physical media. It’s something that a lot of UK-based, independent writers and directors would kill for.

You can almost feel that ‘but’ coming can’t you? But Lawson is missing some of the key ingredients that make this plucky, independent production dream work. For starters, Ship of the Damned, the latest film to come out of the studio is pretty poor. The script is bogged down with exposition and plot holes and the direction is lazy – often reusing simple shots that add nothing to the film.

The paper-thin plot involves a 17^th century pirate ship cursed to sail the seas forever with its immortal, cannibalistic crew. After being found by the coastguard and dragged into port at a nameless seaside town, the crew takes maritime expert Elena (Hannaj Bang Bendz) and coastguard desk jockey Michael (Jacob Anderton) hostage, aiming to procreate with one and eat the other.

That’s it essentially. There are some minor points about Elena and Micheal’s past relationship – only added in, it seems, to give the characters something to discuss between the incredibly short action sequences. The various fight scenes make up about five minutes of the total runtime.

What’s particularly annoying is the fact that Bendz and Ben Manning (who plays Jacob, the captain of the ship) both bring a decent amount of physicality to their roles. Lawson could have easily filled a chunk of the running time with extended fight scenes. These don’t have to be big CGI extravaganzas – in fact it would surely be more appropriate for the themes of the film for them to fight primarily by hand, or with swords.

Instead, Lawson includes massive stretches of talking, often reiterating many of the same plot points, or having characters discover things that have been blatantly obvious for most of the film. The cast do their best with the script – Bendz is a highlight and carries much of the film – but there’s little here to recommend.

It's such a shame because Lawson has a toolbox that many would kill for. And there are moments of flair here. Despite filming in landlocked Leicestershire, the use of physical effects and CGI does make the ship convincing, but that’s really the best thing that can be said about it. Lawson’s insistence on following a rather stale formula with his films means that Ship of the Damned is another missed opportunity for the filmmaker.

★

1 / 5

Matthew Tilt

Twitter @Matthew_Tilt