The Ghost Galleon - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

The Ghost Galleon is a Spanish Horror film directed by Amando de Ossorio. Being a novice to 70’s Spanish horror myself, I was very surprised to find out how similar this film was to the style and feel of some 60’s Gothic Italian horror films, which sometimes are mislabeled as Gialli and other Gothic European horror of the time. The Ghost Galleon, however, does not take place in the past like other gothic horror; and while there are some gothic pictures which involve a modern person being haunted by the past, this film brings the gothic as a left behind anomaly trying to force itself into the modern world, seemingly for the sole reason of blood harvesting.

The Ghost Galleon has a rather silly premise. We follow a fashion model whose roommate has gone missing. She investigates and finds out that her friend is being hired as part of a publicity stunt by a yacht brand. That stunt being that two models deliberately get “lost” at sea in a popular shipping lane so they can be rescued by a cargo ship and get a boatload of publicity for their yacht company - somehow, a boat breaking down in the middle of the ocean is good publicity? The two models stuck on the boat call in to the yacht business owner and inform them that they see an old Spanish galleon approaching in a thick blanket of fog, all while being tracked by the Yacht business. The two boat models then board the ship, only to find the ship spookily empty, and decide to use the chambers for shelter. Some time later, the folks on land go searching for them, only to find the empty yacht tied to the Galleon. The crew figures out that this is in an alternate dimension Bermuda triangle situation, and all while on the boat, the galleon, they get picked off one by one by the slowest-moving ghouls you ever did see.

The film is very slow - as slow as the ghouls - which, for the first couple of attacks, is done rather well. The ship is a finite space, and the ghouls, while moving slowly, are following the old zombie style of movement, i.e., hands out showing unmoving skeletal hands and enveloping their victims. This routine happens multiple times and becomes less and less spooky each time. It turns out the ghouls were satanic knights transporting gold, which gave them eternal life. The killings seem to be mostly done because the folks trespassed on their ship; they do end up getting the characters who tried to steal the gold, but it would have been better to actually have some motivation from these ghouls. The final two people jump ship and swim out of the portal back to their normal time, and we are treated with the coolest shot of the film, which is the ghouls emerging from the ocean and surrounding the camera for one final kill. Overall, this movie is sometimes fun to watch but is mostly a slog with some good ghoul designs and one or two spooky scenes. I would definitely recommend it to those studying gothic cinema, or European genre films of the '60s and '70s, but for everyone else, it’s probably best to pass.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Docking from Bizarro and OCN Distribution, The Ghost Galleon arrives ashore on 4K UHD. This film is housed in a black 4K UHD case featuring a 4KUHD disc as well as a Bluray which contains another copy of the film as well as the special features. The artwork for this release is a classic poster of the film and looks nice. If you were able to order from Vinegar Syndrome, you could pick up an exclusive slipcover. 

This release from Bizarro includes a 4K scan of the original camera negative and is shown in 2160P in HDR10. This release looks incredible; the visuals are crisp, and everything is clearly visible, which is super impressive. The ghouls are presented in such high definition that they really look unimpressive and rather silly at times. I can imagine this film working better on VHS, being watched on an old CRT TV, and the dark, foreboding ghouls probably appear scarier because of how little you would be able to make out of them. This is one of those rare instances where a perfect picture really makes the experience a little worse because of how you can make out every corner of the ship, so there’s no actual suspense worrying if a ghoul is hiding in the corner of the screen. That being said, I do really like the design of the ship; it’s very spooky, and fog hangs gossamer all over the place, and I really do like the designs of the ghouls; their robed skeletal visages are honestly pretty creepy, but once in motion, they lose their creepiness.

The sound in this release is also quite good and presented in DTS-HD MA 1.0. This release has both the original Spanish soundtrack and an English dub. The English dub is performed in much the same way as the old Italian films, which is sometimes worth watching but I still recommend listening to the film in its original Spanish, because the track matches up with the mouths of the actors for the most part but a lot of the film is done in ADR like many European films were done at the time and the English track just doesn’t sound as good. My favorite bit in this film is the sound design during the first attack of the ghouls. There is no musical soundtrack, only the sound of the wind rustling the tattered sails of the ship, and the ghouls just silently approach their victim, only for a creepy chanting to begin as they envelop the poor bikini-clad model. There’s some very good sound design in this picture, and it all sounds very serviceable in this release.

The supplements included in this release are pretty good; they all provide good and interesting context on both the director of the film and the place of Spanish horror in the horror canon in general. There is also a fun overview of the visual effects of the film, which was not my favorite supplement because the creature design is better than the actual execution,  but I know someone who is into cheese FX will love it.  There is also a short talk with the film director Amando de Ossorio, which is also very fun to watch. Overall, these supplements add some value to this release.

• A Childhood Discovery: A new appreciation by Diego López-Fernández, creator of El buque maldito fanzine (HD 24:19)
• A New Mythology in Spanish Horror: A new interview with Sitges Film Festival director Ángel Sala (HD 22:23)
• Unmasking the Templars: A new interview with FX artist and film historian Antonio Garcinuño (HD 10:48)
• Amando de Ossorio: The Last Templar (HD 25:59)
• Trailer (00:59)
• English Title Sequence (HD 1:26)

The Ghost Galleon from OCN Distribution and Bizarro is a solid release of a film I did not enjoy completely. The packaging and supplements are the best part of this release, and I did like the option for either the Spanish track with subtitles or a dubbed English version. The film itself was a bit of a slog with a goofy premise comparable to older, lesser-known European genre pictures of the time. I feel like the perfect clarity of the picture actually did something of a disservice to the enjoyment of the film because you can see the defects of the ghouls and the sets, making them look a bit cheesy. While I wasn’t wild about the film, I am glad that underseen horror directors from Europe are getting their flowers with great releases of their work that many may never have seen. I would give this a light recommendation for the horror fanatic, especially those who are into European Gothic Horror. For Fans Only.