Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Neil Welch A group of mature young people charter a yacht and pick up a mysterious stranger. He turns out to be hosting some ancient spirit who has been seeking to avoid paying the Ferryman to the Underworld for millenia, by means of shifting his spirit into the bodies of unwitting mariners by way of a sacrificial dagger. Cue bloody mayhem.A neat (but somewhat underdeveloped) idea, executed with a slow start but otherwise satisfactorily. It features a largely antipodean cast (including the pleasingly pneumatic Amber Sainsbury, more recently seen in 30 Days Of Night) with the mysterious stranger played by John Rhys-Davies, returning to mortgage-paying schlock after the glories of Lord Of The Rings. Clearly, he likes New Zealand! It's a shame the basic idea wasn't developed more fully, because the latter half - a "last man standing" bloodbath - has been seen many times, most recently in Donkey Punch, although Dead Calm is probably higher profile.

innocuous I'm confused. Several other reviewers have written fawningly of how great the plot concept of this movie is. Say what? Yes, several cultures have a "ferryman mythos", wherein souls are ferried across a river in return for a coin or piece of gold. But this movie has nothing whatsoever to do with that mythic element. Instead, this "Ferryman" apparently just takes over the bodies of others in order to avoid having to be ferried at all.The idea of a basically immortal entity taking over other bodies in order to survive for centuries is simply too old of a plot element to be worth noting. This movie fails on several levels...one of which is an absolute lack of originality.Other than that...the acting is bad, the dialogue is absurd, and there is no tension or suspense.Not worth renting.

DICK STEEL I have enjoyed limited movie offerings from New Zealand, with the likes of the romantic comedy Sione's Wedding and horror comedy Black Sheep, and for my horror double bill this weekend, I wouldn't have wanted to miss The Ferryman.In western folklore, the Ferryman is the one responsible for transporting the dead to the nether realms, where souls would be judged (so you'd better start chalking up those brownie points). Ferrymen had been depicted in movies before, be they just a background character like in Woody Allen's Scoop, or becoming a point of contention in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies with crew of The Flying Dutchman. Think of it as the equivalent to the Chinese folklore characters of "Cow Head" and "Horse Face", where they will visit the body at the point of deaths to escort the soul to the depths of Hell for judgement.2 couples (two of whom are Craig Hall and Amber Sainsbury whom we will get to see again in 30 Days of Night, in which Ben Fransham who plays The Ferryman will also appear) signs up for an adventure sail from New Zealand to Fiji, where a luxurious spa awaits their tired bodies after their "homestay on the sea" stint. Before everyone, including the captain his wife and their pet dog, can get chummy with one another, their ship receives a distress signal, and the laws of the sea dictates they get themselves into unknown trouble by picking up a survivor from a non-working vessel. And like all hitchhiker styled movies, there's always something strange about the hitcher (played by John Rhys-Davis) you pick up, especially when the weather's all foggy and he starts to give everyone the creeps.The Ferryman turned out to be a rather interesting concept movie rather than outright horror with shock and awe moments. It doesn't scare, nor does it follow the recent trends in gore and with torture porn. What it's more akin to is a good old fashioned thriller with supernatural elements thrown in for good measure. Some might complain that nothing much really happens, with the usual hack and slash, but I'd argue that it had a very novel take on the theme of longevity, especially when it starts to play out in full. While it certainly isn't something new, the way it was executed (pardon the pun) mattered, and its ending will undoubtedly leave a wicked smile on your face, at what had transpired, and the loads of potential should you possess such capability.Not without loopholes though, but I thought it could be glossed over given its supernatural slant, unless you choose to harp on it, especially when it didn't get developed properly. In short, The Ferryman still qualifies for an entertaining afternoon matinée when ticket prices are cheaper.

Scarecrow-88 Crew on a yacht voyage from New Zealand to Figi run into a creepy fog that never seems to lift and find a mysterious ship adrift with an equally strange survivor on board. This mysterious survivor(John Rhys-Davies)is actually merely a human host for this benevolent male spirit who moves from body to body to escape the Ferryman using this unusual knife as passage. We watch as members of the crew fall one by one as the spirit flees one individual into another to escape possible harm..the chilling part of the film is how this person treats those he harms, seemingly enjoying his handiwork as others die not knowing who is the one invaded. The evil spirit is cunning and devious and uses his element of surprise(like a pod alien, he can leap into a new human host tricking those around him)for a violent advantage.When the male spirit switches bodies with vacationer Zane(Julian Arahanga), he tosses the cancer-ridden Greek overboard. Zane will swim to the other ship and his expertise in driving and maintaining water vessels will come in handy as he follows close behind the yacht. He has a wife on board, Kathy(Amber Sainsbury)who is suffering horrifying memories regarding the death of a badly facially scarred girl and this drives Zane to continue. Meanwhile, his body is being used and dumped by the spirit as body-switching occurs until there are few characters left in the film.If one can get past the silly premise of the Ferryman, coin, and knife that causes body exchange, then there's some intense entertainment in store. I felt as I watched it that there will undoubtedly be a few rolling their eyes and shrugging their shoulders at the whole film. But, the spirit is pure evil and seeing the cast change personalities as the body switching takes place(adopting the "Ten Little Indians" theme)is kind of fun. We see the violent carnage that occurs as he enjoys destroying others both physically and psychologically.