Rish Outfield's reviews
We haven't reviewed a lot of made-for-TV movies--a couple of mini-series (The Stand, Sole Survivor, Storm of the Century), some made for cable stuff ( The Omen IV, Body Bags), but aside from The Babysitter, which was a mistake, no real ones come to mind. Without a doubt, this is the first made-for-TBS movie we've reviewed on the site. Of course, there's no doubt because it's the only horror film Turner Television has attempted. You gotta give them credit for trying, though.
The premise is basically, a group of old buddies get together for their annual fishing trip, and this time they go down to the Bermuda Triangle. One guy brings his girlfriend along, they charter a boat, and bizarre stuff ensues.
It had an interesting cast: Luke Perry, Dan Cortese, Olvia D'Abo, Dorian Harewood. . .in other words, all has-been TV stars. But hey, you're not gonna get A-class talent (like Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson or William Katt) to do a TV movie like this one, and I gotta appreciate the actors they did get. At least I recognized them all. I'm not the world's biggest Luke Perry fan, but he was pretty likeable here (and not to give anything away, but he's the bad guy). Plus, except for a couple of poor CGI effects, the quality of the show was pretty high. And the premise isn't the worst, either. Unfortunately, the scariest part of the film happens early on and is pretty much thrown away and is never resolved. Too bad, because Lewis Teague isn't exactly an amateur at making these movies ((he also directed other horror flicks like Thinner, Cujo, and Cat's Eye--in fact, one of the characters has a Cujo poster on his cubicle wall).
The whispered voices in the ship and a couple of cheap fake scares work really well. The change of one character to evil, actual spirit appearances, the flashbacks and visions, and the mystery of a haunted cruise ship did not. A ghostly little boy, who should have been absolutely terrifying (in one scene, he's down in the water, trying to pull down one of the swimming characters), was absolutely the opposite. In fact, the open sea and basically ANYTHING underwater has great scare potential, none of which is taken advantage of. It's a real shame, because I think they might have had a better film in the script. The comedic scenes (especially the dialogue) are actually pretty funny at times, which lead me to believe that something went wrong somewhere.
Best Scare: The aforementioned scene happens when one of the characters takes a candid picture of a voodoo ceremony, and when he sees the resulting photo, finds no one in the picture. It was well-done and pretty chilling, but was completely unconnected to the rest of the film.
I'd Recommend It To: People who watch TBS. If ratings are high, they'll do Horror again.

Total Skulls: 18

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood hits camera
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?