Hooksy
Sep 17, 2009, 06:10 AM
I saw this movie approx 10 years ago (or more), late at night. It was in b/w and dubbed into English - I think it was French. I also missed the very start so I can only describe the general plot from some minutes into the film, sorry. The scene is set around a sea port (in Europe/Sth America or similar) suffering obvious hard times (possibly in the mid 20 century). Men are gathering in numbers to try and get a job on the ships. One sailor disembarks from a particular ship (don't know its name) and needs a couple of very specific-nomination coins (value or currency I can't remember) to pay off a debt to his captain I think, and he offers to tell his story to whoever will listen to it, for the payment of these particular coins.
One man looking for work that day says he will listen (and pay) and so they go to a café where the sailor tells his tale of woe – as he begins to tell it the film plays out the story. The story is that the sailor was in a similar position to this man some months/years earlier, desperately seeking work at a port, and took a job on the ship that he had earlier disembarked from. I think the captain of the ship must have loaned him (and possibly others) money upon embarking, on the condition that they stay working on the ship until they pay him back the EXACT amount of money. Now, why they can't simply pay him after they receive a few weeks pay I can't remember, other than to say I guess they don't go to enough ports (or maybe enough specific ports) to get the money in the EXACT DENOMINATIONS OR CURRENCIES, but anyhow the sailor ends up being stuck there, working on the ship for longer than he had hoped.
After a while he feels that something isn't right with the crew. Basically, to keep a long story short, it turns out the crew are all dead/zombies, with sores and worms and maggots, etc are coming out of them, but for some reason he hadn't noticed it earlier. This is evidenced also by the type of food they eat – it is also pretty bad (dead rats, maggots, etc) but he can't get off the ship until he pays his debt.I forget how it ends, I think it ends OK.
now it sounds pretty revolting, but it isn't. It is not the same nature/genre as most horror films that exist purely to spew out blood and guts everywhere with no particular storyline. This film keeps you in suspense right to the end. It is of the ilk of say, the Mexican horror film 'Kronos' or the 'The City of Lost Children', in that it doesn't consist of simply blood and guts and nothing else. This film is good, thrilling suspense with elements of unpredictability from the start. I can highly recommend it, if only I knew its name, and I could also watch it from the start and see the full story! Cheers.
One man looking for work that day says he will listen (and pay) and so they go to a café where the sailor tells his tale of woe – as he begins to tell it the film plays out the story. The story is that the sailor was in a similar position to this man some months/years earlier, desperately seeking work at a port, and took a job on the ship that he had earlier disembarked from. I think the captain of the ship must have loaned him (and possibly others) money upon embarking, on the condition that they stay working on the ship until they pay him back the EXACT amount of money. Now, why they can't simply pay him after they receive a few weeks pay I can't remember, other than to say I guess they don't go to enough ports (or maybe enough specific ports) to get the money in the EXACT DENOMINATIONS OR CURRENCIES, but anyhow the sailor ends up being stuck there, working on the ship for longer than he had hoped.
After a while he feels that something isn't right with the crew. Basically, to keep a long story short, it turns out the crew are all dead/zombies, with sores and worms and maggots, etc are coming out of them, but for some reason he hadn't noticed it earlier. This is evidenced also by the type of food they eat – it is also pretty bad (dead rats, maggots, etc) but he can't get off the ship until he pays his debt.I forget how it ends, I think it ends OK.
now it sounds pretty revolting, but it isn't. It is not the same nature/genre as most horror films that exist purely to spew out blood and guts everywhere with no particular storyline. This film keeps you in suspense right to the end. It is of the ilk of say, the Mexican horror film 'Kronos' or the 'The City of Lost Children', in that it doesn't consist of simply blood and guts and nothing else. This film is good, thrilling suspense with elements of unpredictability from the start. I can highly recommend it, if only I knew its name, and I could also watch it from the start and see the full story! Cheers.