A wonderfully kitsch Love Boat-style opening sets the scene for this film which, in the best tradition of B-Movies, is so awful it's good.

Universally hated by critics, the expectation of enjoying this was very low and that's perhaps why I was pleasantly surprised.

A salvage crew led by Murphy (Gabriel Byrne) sets out to investigate a mystery ship spotted by air force pilot Jack Ferriman (Desmond Harrington).

They discover it is actually the Antonia Graza, a luxury liner which mysteriously disappeared in 1962 in a modern-day Marie Celeste episode.

But the ship holds a few secrets and wants to share its horrific past with its new stowaways.

It's predictable. It's cliched. It's corny. The script is hackneyed to the extreme. The actors seem slightly bemused by the fact they chose to take part in the project.

But the gory special effects - especially the first 10 minutes or so - more than make up for the lack of imagination.

And some scenes are actually quite disturbing as the plot unfolds and the audience is shown what happened on the fateful night the ship disappeared.

Gabriel Byrne always lends kudos to any film and his presence here is welcome.

The ending is a let-down but it's worth checking this out if you are prepared to willingly suspend that disbelief.

SC