Not a bad little movie at all.
Added 7/28/2009
The Devil's Tattoo (Julian Kean, 2003)
Oh, America, what are you thinking sometimes? Taking a movie with a cool name like The Devil's Tattoo and renaming it for the American market to Ghost Rig? Stupid. And typical. And you wonder why many Americans think no one makes good horror save Asia these days. Sheesh. Worse, this surprisingly watchable Scottish supernatural horror flick (yeah, it gets stupid at the end, but what a concept!) got the expected crap distribution on this side of the pond. Pretty much no one in this country saw it before its TV debut on cable's Chiller station (which is, I think, some sort of Sci-Fi Channel spinoff; they show a lot of the same stuff). Knowing how badly these things are mangled in translation to basic cable, I hunted down a copy of the original theatrical cut, and I have to say, I enjoyed this one a whole lot more than I expected. Well, not a surprise. I wasn't expecting much from something called Ghost Rig, now, was I?
The Devil's Tattoo is the story of a group of ecoterrorists--oh, excuse me, environmental activists--who occupy an abandoned oil rig in order to stop it from being sunk in order to create a "natural reef". (I don't get why they would consider that a bad thing, but that's me.) When they get there, they find it deserted, which is odd; there should at least be a skeleton crew around for maintenance. When one of them finds a videotape of the maintenance crew, they begin to suspect that something's wrong. It gets worse when one of the activists gets bitten by a rat whose bite has exceptionally nasty consequences...
It's got some script problems, but it's got a lot going for it. The cast (including both Jamie Bamber and Kerry Norton from the new Battlestar Galactica) range from adequate (Jaason Simmons, who seems kind of miscast here) to really surprisingly good (Norton), and the camerawork is quite nicely handled. And like I said, the concept? Phenomenal. It's been done before (telling you in what would give it away), but not quite like this, and I loved the way it was pulled off here. Or, at least, I loved the way it was pulled off here until the climax of the film, which goes overboard on the silliness. (Oddly, once the climax is over, it goes back to being fine; the last few scenes tie everything together in the best possible way.) If you missed this one the first time around, and you almost certainly did, don't let the fact that it showed up on Chiller stop you from renting it. Fun stuff, this. ***
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BORING, NOT SCARY, AND WHAT ARE THESE OTHER REVIEWR SEEING IN THIS??
Added 5/2/2006
What the hell have the people here rating this higher then 2 stars been seeing in this?
This movie has been so boring from start to finish. A group of press people have landed on an oilrig about to be detonated to save it for some reason. But they can't find the crew that's supposed to be on it. As they search they end up being killed off. Zzzzzzzzzz
This movie is kinda the same thing as LOST VOYAGE. Only LV was enjoyable where as this movie stinks. Its not scary, the attempt at scares are absolutely pathetic, and not in a FUNNY way at all. PLEASE, I'm begging you to ignore these other reviews and understand this movie sucks.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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No Ghosts on the Rig
Added 12/31/2004
This movie can be quickly summarized as a modest twist on a theme that has been used multiple times, and as such it offers minimal thrills and chills. However, there are a couple of interesting plot points that make this movie worthwhile for a die-hard fan of horror.
The plot line is interesting. A group of supposed environmentalists has occupied an oil rig to prevent it from being turned into a reef by being collapsed into the water. After landing on the oil rig, they discover that the maintenance crew that was supposed to be there is missing. The ten members of the team continue to search the rig to restore power and find what happened to the maintenance crew. During the search one they find strange symbols and soon thereafter one of the team is bitten by a rat. After that, we see a team member kill another team member, but the killer turns up dead.
The movie continues along until the interesting twist at the end that makes you wonder why the person who pressed to come onto the rig in the first place handled in the way he did, instead of a way that was ultimately fatal to nearly everyone. Of course, then we wouldn't have had a movie.
Another reviewer stated that this movie makes use of the body inhabiting ability of the creature in "The Thing from another World," later remade as "The Thing." That statement is inaccurate. In these two movies the Thing was an alien creature from another planet. In "Ghost Rig" the being is a (gasp) demon. Among several disappointments I had was that this movie had no ghosts such as those found on the much more interesting "Ghost Ship."
I was also disappointed that there was little scare factor in this movie. The movie is a demonic murder mystery with minimal chill factor. There were minimal special effects, so the story is minimally about the demon, other than serving to knock off one member of the team after another, leading to the ending.
Many movies are meant to be enjoyed for the journey. This one aims for the conclusion, which provides only moderate justification for watching the whole thing from beginning to end. My recommendation is to rent this one from the bargain bin of your local video store rather than buying it as a permanent part of your collection, unless you are a demon killer movie collector and have to have this entire genre.
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My first experience with a Scottish straight to video..GHOST RIG suffers from a pace that is too slow for a horror movie of this nature to be totally effective. Too much of it is shot in the dark, and the characters don't establish exactly who or what they are. Jamie Bamber as Tom, the hero, and Jaason Simmons as Vincent, the fanatical leader, are well cast and the rest of the cast is adequate, if not thespianically (is that a word) sharp. It's not a horrible move, it is watchable and has some good plot twists at the end.
Rent..don't buy.
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Exceeded My Low Expectations
Added 12/6/2003
Nothing original; not an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but I actually liked Ghost Rig in large part due to the unpredictable twist of an ending. After expecting a mindless afternoon of watching a "shouldn't have rented", I got instead a "not too bad at all."
5 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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