Ghost Rig

Rating:
Summary: Looks Awfully Familiar
Review: Ghost Rig is a low budget horror movie that takes the script from John Carpenter's "The Thing" and reworks it for an oil rig. The premise is almost exactly the same. In this movie, a group of environmentalists go aboard an oil rig to shoot a documentary. Initially looking for the maintenence crew, they find the rig abandoned. However there appears to be some sort of entity on board that can take control of a person's body. Once the entity leaves to hide in another body, that person dies. The group flies into paranoia in trying to determine which of their party is possessed. Along the way, they discover the secret behind the entity's presence here which is not an original one.
Because "Ghost Rig" copies the plot so closely, this movie actually builds some semblance of suspence. The characters are marginally interesting. At least the director tried to pass them off as intelligent and "important" within the context of the story. There are no party-hearty dimwits among this group. Unfortunately, a total lack of originality and and uninteresting payoff dooms this movie to the bargain basement genre of horror releases.

Rating:
Summary: Pleasantly surprised
Review: I bought this DVD on recommendation by a friend who'd seen it in the UK and I was happy to find it over here in the States. I was definitely pleasantly surprised by this film given I had not heard about it prior. The bunch of characters had good depth and the cinematography was well done. All in all, it is a welcomed addition to my collection of horror movies.

Rating:
Summary: It's Ghost Ship on an Oil Rig
Review: I just explained my review in the title, it's Ghost ship on an oil rig only 1000X worse.

Rating:
Summary: RIGGED
Review: My first experience with a Scottish straight to video..GHOST RIG suffers from a pace that is too slow for a horror movie of this nature to be totally effective. Too much of it is shot in the dark, and the characters don't establish exactly who or what they are. Jamie Bamber as Tom, the hero, and Jaason Simmons as Vincent, the fanatical leader, are well cast and the rest of the cast is adequate, if not thespianically (is that a word) sharp. It's not a horrible move, it is watchable and has some good plot twists at the end.
Rent..don't buy.

Rating:
Summary: RIGGED
Review: My first experience with a Scottish straight to video..GHOST RIG suffers from a pace that is too slow for a horror movie of this nature to be totally effective. Too much of it is shot in the dark, and the characters don't establish exactly who or what they are. Jamie Bamber as Tom, the hero, and Jaason Simmons as Vincent, the fanatical leader, are well cast and the rest of the cast is adequate, if not thespianically (is that a word) sharp. It's not a horrible move, it is watchable and has some good plot twists at the end.
Rent..don't buy.

Rating:
Summary: Exceeded My Low Expectations
Review: Nothing original; not an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but I actually liked Ghost Rig in large part due to the unpredictable twist of an ending. After expecting a mindless afternoon of watching a "shouldn't have rented", I got instead a "not too bad at all."

Rating:
Summary: Exceeded My Low Expectations
Review: Nothing original; not an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but I actually liked Ghost Rig in large part due to the unpredictable twist of an ending. After expecting a mindless afternoon of watching a "shouldn't have rented", I got instead a "not too bad at all."

Rating:
Summary: I already knew it was gonna be bad.
Review: This is a terrible inexcusable waste of film. These people who made this should be arrested and put in jail for stealing. Stealing the precious moment s of your life you spent watching this load of crud! Nothing original or exciting or well there is simply nothing here. Never watch this or anything else this company has put out, there all a big waste of time and money. As a matter of fact this shouldn't have been made. It's films like this that give horror flicks a bad name.

Rating:
Summary: No Ghosts on the Rig
Review: This movie can be quickly summarized as a modest twist on a theme that has been used multiple times, and as such it offers minimal thrills and chills. However, there are a couple of interesting plot points that make this movie worthwhile for a die-hard fan of horror.

The plot line is interesting. A group of supposed environmentalists has occupied an oil rig to prevent it from being turned into a reef by being collapsed into the water. After landing on the oil rig, they discover that the maintenance crew that was supposed to be there is missing. The ten members of the team continue to search the rig to restore power and find what happened to the maintenance crew. During the search one they find strange symbols and soon thereafter one of the team is bitten by a rat. After that, we see a team member kill another team member, but the killer turns up dead.

The movie continues along until the interesting twist at the end that makes you wonder why the person who pressed to come onto the rig in the first place handled in the way he did, instead of a way that was ultimately fatal to nearly everyone. Of course, then we wouldn't have had a movie.

Another reviewer stated that this movie makes use of the body inhabiting ability of the creature in "The Thing from another World," later remade as "The Thing." That statement is inaccurate. In these two movies the Thing was an alien creature from another planet. In "Ghost Rig" the being is a (gasp) demon. Among several disappointments I had was that this movie had no ghosts such as those found on the much more interesting "Ghost Ship."

I was also disappointed that there was little scare factor in this movie. The movie is a demonic murder mystery with minimal chill factor. There were minimal special effects, so the story is minimally about the demon, other than serving to knock off one member of the team after another, leading to the ending.

Many movies are meant to be enjoyed for the journey. This one aims for the conclusion, which provides only moderate justification for watching the whole thing from beginning to end. My recommendation is to rent this one from the bargain bin of your local video store rather than buying it as a permanent part of your collection, unless you are a demon killer movie collector and have to have this entire genre.


Rating:
Summary: Why Do I Like This? Beats Me
Review: When I saw a movie blatantly attempting to cash in on the questionable success of "Ghost Ship," I knew I needed to sit up and pay attention. "Ghost Rig," originally entitled "The Devil's Tattoo," (a title they should have stuck with considering how much more sense it makes) is a Scottish straight to video production made by people who obviously knew nothing about how cheesy "Ghost Ship" was. I went into this one fully expecting to hate it with a passion. They replaced a ship with an oilrig? Big deal! If they relied on the spirits of dead oilrig workers to scare the audience, "Ghost Rig" would be little better than "Ghost Ship." That was my first mistake because this movie is decidedly different from "Ghost Ship." Even more surprising, and this is surprising, is that I actually liked "Ghost Rig." I know, I know. I don't understand how it happened either.

The plot of "Ghost Rig" is simplicity itself. Ten environmental activists calling themselves Action Planet take over an abandon oilrig named Janus. The owners of the rig plan on demolishing the thing and letting it fall to the bottom of the sea where it will slowly become a reef. Action Planet wants to stop this egregious action, claiming that this plan will cause more damage to the ecological cycle of the sea. The activists fly in on a chopper with the notion of squatting on the rig, thereby forcing the authorities to pay attention to their demands. We know this because members of the group film several video segments of themselves on the platform, planning to release the tapes to the media and hopefully gain supporters amongst the general public. Unfortunately (and there is always an 'unfortunately'), the weirdness begins quickly with the discovery that the rig's maintenance crew has mysteriously disappeared. The only possible clue is a damaged power generator, a problem overcome when the activists fire up a backup to get some of the lights working. Then the madness starts, as one by one the activists fall prey to something decidedly not of this world. The characters soon learn that they can trust no one as they race through the bowels of the rig in an effort to discover exactly what is going on.

The actors playing the characters are mostly nobodies, with the exception of Jamie Bamber who apparently acted in a few Horatio Hornblower television movies. The characters are the usual mixed bag: three slightly cute chicks, a guy in a wheelchair, the unstable leader, the guy who ends up taking charge of things, and one dude who looks like Moby with a nervous condition. Most of them die in mundane ways for a horror movie, with a few stabbings, a strangulation, and gunshot wounds. I cannot say I cared for any of the characters, but I didn't hate them either. That's important because in "Ghost Ship" I despised every character with the heat of a million suns. I guess I liked the thick Scottish and English accents the characters had, especially with the girls. There's nothing like a young woman with a Scottish brogue, is there? Anyway, I couldn't even tell you most of their names. It doesn't matter anyway because most of them die fast.

Since I liked the film for some inexplicable reason, I didn't notice as many plot holes as I would in other B movie extravaganzas. There are a few, though, and it's immensely entertaining to laugh over them:

The team leader brings a gun on board, which infuriates the other members of the group. Why? Did they really think that the authorities wouldn't storm the rig armed to the teeth once they became aware of the group's actions? Didn't it occur to Action Planet that the maintenance crew on board might put up resistance? Why does a gun bother these people so much when it is obvious some of them have serious psychological issues in the first place? One of the women beats the tar out of another member after discovering he's up to no good. These people are not paragons of social virtue and it seems ridiculous they have a problem with weapons. The presence of spears later underlines this fact.

How did Action Planet fix the radio? One of the possessed team members shattered the transmitter with a hammer, but it only takes a short time to get the thing up and running. Why did they need to fix the radio in the first place? Wouldn't there be a back up system somewhere on the rig? It is impossible to believe a radio is the only communications system on the platform in the first place. Wouldn't there be some sort of satellite communications system as well?

Where in the heck did all those spears come from? It's like a magic trick; every time you turn around someone has another spear. They look homemade too, with a knife taped and imbedded in a stick. When exactly did they make these things? And this from people who have moral issues with firearms? Doesn't it present more of a moral hurdle to stab someone to death rather than shooting them from a distance? C'mon!

These three things are only a few of the plot problems in "Ghost Rig." As I said, I liked the film, thought the background music was atmospheric, liked the twisty conclusion, and the indifference I felt for the characters didn't cause too many problems. I am hesitant to recommend this film, though. Just imagine "The Thing" with a brogue and make your own decision.