Review: Questions abound in 'The Ninth Passenger'

Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2018 at 12:02 PM Central
Last updated Tuesday, August 21, 2018 at 12:04 PM Central

by John Couture

There are so many questions. How would it be so easy to borrow a yacht given today's technological advances? What is Jesse Metcalfe doing slumming in a no-budget horror film? Where are Mulder and Scully?

In what plays more as a lost episode of The X Files, The Ninth Passenger is eager in creating a suspenseful horror film but ultimately delivers a rather lackluster movie. It seems almost as if the writers were cobbling together one horror cliché after another until they got to the end and realized that they never stopped along the way to figure out how the film should resolve itself. The result is a rather uneven film that is more indicative of made-for-TV fare than edgy indie.

A group of eight college students (or recent graduates or whatever, I mean Jesse Metcalfe is almost 40, so there's plenty of suspension of disbelief served up here) meet up in Vancouver and come up with the bright idea of borrowing a billionaire's yacht for a little fun joy ride. And thus begins every horror movie set on water ever.

The one thing that is most disappointing in this movie is that there is potential in the whole Island of Dr. Moreau meets Ten Little Indians, but the execution just falls flat. Whether it's the listless acting by half the cast or the shoddy clichés that almost become comical, The Ninth Passenger falls victim to unrealized potential.

Jesse Metcalfe does an admirable job in trying to right the ship (pun totally intended), but even he seems to realize that the script isn't up to snuff. There are elements that are interesting, like the side plot of an evil biotech firm and their questionable research practices, but pretty much everything else, these elements aren't fleshed out enough and just seem to stretch the plot out until the next murder.

By the time we get to the big reveal of what/who is The Ninth Passenger, the film has pretty much devolved into parody and the reveal is almost comical in light of the rest of the film. Again, I think the elements of the film would work rather nicely in the framework of an hour-long episode of The X Files where Mulder and Scully would find themselves part of the ever-shrinking party of boaters only to figure it out before the hour was up.

As it stands, The Ninth Passenger loses what little steam it builds up in the first act rather quickly. Then, it tries its audience's patience by trying misdirection after misdirection. Finally, you are left with a rather unsatisfying conclusion that seems almost like a cheat simply to get to the credits. On second thought, I'm OK with this. Whatever sinks this ship faster works for me. The biggest question that I am left with is 'why did this movie ever get made?'

The Ninth Passenger is now available on DVD.