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It’s no surprise to see a scary movie that takes place in a big, old house—one with lots of nooks and crannies to hide in (and jump out of) and attics and basements for victims to (unwisely) run to. In Mary, however, a family faces horrors on the open sea, where there’s nowhere to run.
Mary stars Gary Oldman as David Greer, a sea captain who’s eager to start his own charter boat business—even if it means buying a run-down old ship and putting everything into fixing it up. His wife, Sarah (Emily Mortimer), isn’t thrilled by their new acquisition, but she and their two daughters stand behind David’s dreams. When the ship is ready to set sail, the family and two additional crew members head out on the ship’s first voyage. But they soon discover that there’s something dark and terrifying waiting for them at sea.
From the beginning of Mary, everything here is built on blatantly obvious foreshadowing—on stories of witches and sirens and of crews that head out to sea and are never seen again. And there’s something creepy about the ship’s ancient masthead—an image that’s shown over and over again (usually with eerie music playing in the background). Clearly, the filmmakers want viewers to know that there’s trouble aboard this boat—trouble that a skilled captain should probably know about before taking his family on the maiden voyage out into open, isolated waters.
But, of course, the main characters of scary movies rarely heed the warning signs. And what follows is a predictable story about horrors at sea. The isolation certainly gives it a twist on the usual creepy-old-house brand of scary movie—because there really is nowhere for this family to go once they’re at sea. Fortunately, the cast here is solid. Oldman and Mortimer offer the right mix of drama and horror. But the story feels somewhat jumbled. There’s little background on what’s happening and why, and the filmmakers seem to simply throw a little bit of everything at audiences. Instead of letting the story unfold in a way that’s smart and subtle, it’s a whole lot of horrors that aren’t exactly easy to follow.
Mary definitely offers up plenty of jumps and sea-faring horrors—enough that it should make you think twice before boarding another boat. But if you’re expecting a smarter scary movie from these talented stars, you’ll be disappointed.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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