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Studio:Icon Home Entertainment

Director:Christopher Smith

Cast: Liam Hemsworth, Michael Dorman, Henry Nixon, Emma Lung, Melissa George

Running Time:99 minutes

Product Description

Liam Hemsworth, Michael Dorman, Henry Nixon, Emma Lung, Melissa GeorgeDirector: Christopher Smith

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Reviews

- Great thriller with top-notch 1080p picture quality

I don't want to say too much about the movie as I wouldn't want to spoil it. Though it's billed as a horror movie, I would only the consider the horror to be existential in nature. Like a nightmare you can't wake up from. Not much in the way of gore.

If you like psychological thriller with twisting revelations, this is highly recommended. There's a lot of theories and themes to discuss once you finish watching it, and you may want to rewatch it for a new perspective on the plot the second time around. The acting by the star, Melissa George, is top notch. The others in less challenging roles are fine, but as a North American I did notice when a few of the other actors' American accents would slip while she was spot on (probably because she's lived in a bunch of countries including the US for many years).

This movie was shot on HD video rather than film, and it's up there with the best of the best detail-wise. Other movies like Flash of Genius shot on the same camera display some sort of motion trailing that isn't evident at all on this one. The color palette is somewhat muted throughout with some big splashes of colour to enhance the mood when they go below deck. I've compared this release with the American disc and they look basically the same, with this one maybe very slightly ahead. They were encoded at almost the same bitrate but this plays at precisely 24 fps instead of 23.976 fps (which may cause issues on some players). I can't judge audio but it's 5.1 DTS-HD MA so it's as good as it will ever be.

Note that this disc is Region B locked and will not play in my USA PS3 (I play it through my computer's BD-ROM drive).

- An Explanation - Don't Read Before Viewing

Many people on here mark this film down because they didn't understand it, which seems pretty unfair.
The film does work, and there is a plausible explanation. There is a logic to it as the writer/director spent many years on it & all is intended.
The simple explanation is: they are all killed (except one) in the boat accident & this is Jess's hell.
We are told TWICE in the film the story of Sisyphus whose personal hell repeats forever and this is Jess's.
We come into the film well into the loop, with many iterations completed.
In the original time arc, Jess killed Tommy - that's why her earlier self distracts her later self & then rescues him.
But you don't escape hell that easily & so the cycle continues.
You may now say "Well, watching this film was my idea of hell" but I think it was a well-shot, well-crafted movie that tries to do something different.
The main influence I saw in it was a book by Flann O'Brien called "The Third Policeman" where someone commits a murder & so begins a surreal journey that is eventually revealed to be a repeating hell. Very different tone to this, but I'd recommend it, and it's well-priced on Amazon. And a film of another of his books is due for release in 2010 with Colin Farrell.

- Mind-bending, thought-provoking

I thought this would be a typical sadistic killer on the loose type film, but it is so much more than that. It is incrediably well-plotted and extremely well directed and edited. And the whole thing adds up if you are willing to put the thought into it, which judging by some people's reaction, not everyone wants to do. It is similar to Donnie Darko and The Nines, in that a lot of the working out of what is happening is up to the viewer. No passive sitting back and watching here!

- Voyage of the damned

!!!WARNING. MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!


Has anybody ever walked into a room and felt that they had been there before, moreover recognizing everybody in that room. Deja Vu is a puzzling phenomenom, a slip in time or a premonition, who knows?
Anyway, Chris Smith's superb, twisting psychological horror is a very unsettling, troubling head trip where our main protagonist Jess, superbly played by Melissa George, finds herself living the same nightmare again and again and again. It's like a delicious mix of Time Crimes and Gruesome, as Jess resorts to increasingly desperate measures in order to stop history repeating. It all comes full circle at the end, or does it? For me, the ending raised as many questions as it gave answers.
One thing is for sure, and that is that this is by far Chris Smith's best film to date, as I found Severance rather dissapointing and Creep to be a patchy affair. This is a little masterpiece, and deserves credit as being a cerebral film that doesn't either patronise or molly coddle its audience.
Highly recommended. 5 out of 5. The interview with the director is also well worth watching, as he gives his own explanations on the plots twists and turns

- Quantum leap for Chris Smith.

VERY thrilling film to watch unravel. Underrated by those whom just couldn't keep up.

Bunch of troubled people take a yacht out to sea, they hit an electrical storm ... along comes a creepy ocean liner. From here on out, watch the mysteries spill across the deck and the film piece it all together like a Rubik's cube. Very well written, very fantastic and do yourself a favour, get it on Blu-ray.