Here is another episode of Masters of Horror titled Dream Cruise from director Norio Tusuruta (Ring Ø: Birthday, Premonition). Dream Cruise is based on a short story from writer Kôji Suzuki whom wrote the novels for The Ring and Dark Water. Dream Cruise is a Asian based J-Horror film, however it’s presented in English and stars Daniel Gillies of Spider-man 2 fame and Ryo Ishibashi from Audition and The Grudge.
Dream Cruise is about a young guy named Jack Miller who is sleeping with his boss Eiji’s wife Naomi. Eiji invites Jack to meet him for dinner, however when Jack arrives he is greeted by Naomi whom is just as confused as Jack as to why the both of them are there. they quickly realize that Eiji suspects that they are seeing each other, and when he comes into the restaurant he decides to tell jack just how much his wife means to him. However he is not fully convinced that they are having relations so he invites Jack to come with him and his wife on his Yacht. Jack being scared of the water after his brother drowned as a child, does not want to go, but fearing for his job he agrees to hop aboard. However as the night out on the water soon becomes a nightmare where our characters worst dreams are about to come true.
The script for this episode starts off very, very slow. I’m not kidding when I say I was completely board out of my mind for the first half of this episode. It was full of a lot of back story on Jack and then it tried to give us the run down on his life and his relationship with Naomi. However once the plot is established and the horror begins that’s when the script takes a turn for the better. There is a major plot twist in which we learn about Eiji’s first wife and how she died, and why everything on the boat is going on. The characters in this episode are somewhat one dimensional and I thought all of them to be expendable and really could not relate to them all that much. However the story is what kept me interested and its the plot that drives this episode to be a pretty scary one.
The acting in this episode is actually very good. Daniel Gillies plays the role of Jack exceptionally well and both Yoshino Kimura and Ryo Ishibashi fit their roles perfect. However I can’t give the actors all the praise as director Norio Tusuruta did a great job directing each performance and got the most from his cast when it came to bringing his characters to life. Although it was really not the characters that interested me; Tusuruta really did do a great job with the story bringing it from a slow start at the beginning to an extremely chilling thriller at the end.
Believe it or not I honestly think that Dream Cruise had some of the best production value out of the majority of the Masters of Horror films that I have seen. Even though one can argue that the sets and locations were very easy to come by and get. It was not the sets or the overall look of the film that caught my eye. No, in fact I was very impressed with the visual effects, especially that of the ghost which had this deep sea greenish glow to her that made the film that much more creepy. Leave to an Asian filmmakers to give you a real scary ghost story. It always seems that when it comes to making ghost films; Asian filmmakers know how to do it right.
Overall, Dream Cruise started off as a very boring and dull film, but the second half of the episode is where all the action and scares take place. Think of Open Water except with the ghost replacing the sharks, especially towards the end of the film. I wouldn’t go as far as saying it’s one of the better Master of Horror episodes, but it was an original and different kind of ghost story; and I enjoyed it as the film moved along. It’s a must have for fans of Asian Horror Cinema.
– Horror Bob
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- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
