One of Karl Urban’s first roles was in this unpopular horror film – SlashFilm.

Not too many people remember Steve Beck’s 2002 horror film “Ghost Ship.” If there’s anything that stands out about the film, it’s the amazing opening sequence where the audience learns how the titular ship became an airship in the first place. It seems that in 1962, on the luxury yacht Antonia Graza, a group of rich Italian partygoers were dancing spectacularly on deck when a malfunctioning winch, attached to a strong cable, exploded, and… There is one survivor, a young girl named Katie, played by a young Emily Browning.

Flash forward to the present, and the majority of “Ghost Ship” follows a team of salvagers who find a purpose to rob Antonia Graza, which has been missing for 40 years. The salvage team is led by Captain Sean Murphy, played by Gabriel Byrne. The rest of the rescue team is played by talented actors, including Julianna Margulies, Isaiah Washington, and Karl Urban in one of his first roles. At least half of these people, if not all of them, will meet some kind of supernatural demise before the film is over. /Film once called it one of the greatest offshore horror films of all time.

As the rescue team moves around in the ghost ship, ghostly things begin to happen. The tugboat that the group drove to Antonia Graza mysteriously explodes, alone, dislodging everyone on board. Sure enough, the ghosts of Antonia Graza’s dead passengers begin to appear in the shadows, misleading, manipulating or killing the players. “Ghost Ship” isn’t a classic, but it’s not as bad as its 14% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 128 reviews) would have you believe.

In addition to its dramatic opening, “Ghost Ship” also has several fun, scary moments. I loved the scene where the wall with the bullet hole on Antonia Garza starts bleeding and fills the room with blood. There is a fun scene where two characters, including the one played by Ron Eldard, start eating some ghost food (fools) so that the food turns into insects in the mouth. It should be noted that Eldard and his co-star Margulies were a thing at the time, so he probably felt comfortable eating bugs as a way to please his girlfriend. Eldard and Margulies broke up a year after “Ghost Ship,” however, so one might suggest it wasn’t a successful endeavor. As for Karl Urban (another character who eats parasites), he plays a young man named Munder. Munder is crushed to death before the film ends. Sorry, Munder.

“Ghost Ship” was definitely a money maker. With a modest budget of $20 million, the film grossed over $68 million worldwide. It was eclipsed in American theaters, however, by “Jackass: The Movie.” This, despite the release of October 25, just six days before Halloween. Of course, Gore Verbinski’s juggernaut ghost story “The Ring” was released last week, and it still blew away most of its competition.

It was also Oscar season, and awards like “Frida” and “Punch-Drunk Love” were released on both sides of “Ghost Ship,” to get a lot of attention. In many important ways, “Ghost Ship” fell flat. It suffered the same fate as many other horror films that were released at the same time. “Ghost Ship” is almost as popular as “Abandon,” “Them,” and the scariest of the lot, “The Hot Chick.”

Critics, as mentioned, were not kind to “Ghost Ship.” Roger Ebert hit the nail on the head in his two-star review, writing that it’s “better than you expected, but not as good as you expected.” He also noted the opening scene of the killer, writing:

“The most emotional passages in the film include their examination of the abandoned liner. The quality of the art direction and photography actually produce some of the most terrifying, terrifying images of the documentary about the descent from the Titanic’s grave. There is more fear because we know how the original passengers and crew members died (because the evocative scene is still there). The girl with sad eyes, but maybe others.”

Ebert said, it was the setting that redeemed “Ghost Ship,” though it wasn’t enough to inspire him. Manohla Dargis, of the Los Angeles Times, wrote in his one-star review that director Steve Beck (who also made the celebrated episode “Thirteen Ghosts”) didn’t really have much of a game to deal with, and tried to make up for the film’s shortcomings with a big bang. It didn’t work. He began his review with a disparaging statement: “See evil. See evil run. Run, evil, run to television purgatory.” This was a twist on the symbol of the impatient picture of the movie “SEA EVIL.”

Of course, what seemed cool in 2002 can be seen as a reflection of the ’20s. Horror movies have had a moment with the “Conjuring” and “Insidious” series, and many horror nuts would love to slip into Beck’s film style. One can watch a movie on Kanopy, and you already know if it will be good for you.