For more than a decade, the SyFy Channel has been home to numerous guilty pleasure B-movies ranging from the Sharknado franchise to Lavalantula and the numerous Mega Shark pictures. Yet, there was a period in the early 2000s before the network’s rebranding when there were attempts to make original science-fiction films just as compelling as Hollywood’s big screen offerings. Among the original made-for-movies reaching the airwaves, Lost Voyage attempted to enter a territory overlooked by major studios at the time: The Bermuda Triangle.
Originally released on the Sci-Fi Channel in 2001, Lost Voyage cashed in on the disaster movie craze popularized by Titanic and meshed it with ‘90s stranded ship movies such as Event Horizon and Deep Rising. Headlined by legendary Brat Pack member Judd Nelson (The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire) and genre icon Lance Henriksen (Aliens, The Terminator), the Christian McIntire film relies heavily on the supernatural paranoia of its core ensemble rather than the lackluster CGI effects of killer spirits and a cruise liner lost at sea. The 33% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes confirms that Lost Voyage is no traditional summer blockbuster but rather a B-movie trying hard to be taken seriously. But somehow, the supernatural thriller’s limitations bear fruit on an entertainment level.
What Is ‘Lost Voyage’ About?
Paranormal research specialist Aaron Roberts (Nelson) has been obsessed with the Bermuda Triangle ever since childhood, when his father and stepmother went missing while traveling on a luxury cruise ship called the “Corona Queen.” He gets word from a colleague about the ship’s sudden reappearance near the Bermuda Islands, which also catches the attention of ambitious paranormal television host Dana Elway (Janet Gunn). Convincing Aaron to take part in a larger story about the discovery, the reporter assembles her camera crew as they join the researcher, the cruise liner’s rep David Shaw (Henriksen), and a salvage team to embark on an expedition into the abandoned ship.
Upon arrival, however, the team is surprised to see no casualties on the ship or significant damage to the interior. Then a spiritual presence onboard starts to take out some members of the team while others get haunted by images of their deep thoughts. Realizing that the Corona Queen’s passengers fell prey to the spirits emanating from the Bermuda Triangle, Aaron and the remaining team have to escape before the ship re-enters the mysterious dimension once more.
Lost Voyage’s performances are only held up by the gravitas of Nelson and Henriksen. Both actors have been used to playing in the B-movie sandbox for decades, allowing their talents to take the supernatural concept seriously in contrast to their television co-stars. Nelson’s Aaron is deeply haunted by memories of his missing father, while Henriksen’s Shaw takes a no-nonsense approach against insane situations similar to the characters he portrayed in his collaborations with James Cameron. If the special effects in Lost Voyage struggle to deliver the suspense, Nelson and Henriksen do their absolute best to suspend disbelief on an emotional level.
‘Lost Voyage’ Reshapes the Bermuda Triangle Myth
Lance Henriksen as David manhandled by Jeff Kober as Dazinger in Lost Voyage.Image via United Film Organization and Oceanbound Productions
The Bermuda Triangle was often been portrayed as a significant plot device in blockbusters such as Airport ’77, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, and the Jack Black-led Gulliver’s Travels. Predating another sci-fi thriller for the network, The Triangle, starring Eric Stoltz by only four years, Lost Voyage manages to reframe the mysterious area of the world as more than just where people, airplanes, and ships vanish. The supernatural elements of the film play with a metaphysical shift in space, time, and reality, where the rooms showcasing the characters’ troubled pasts and self-centered dreams are more dangerous than the spirits. One particular scene features Dana’s much younger colleague (Scarlett Chorvat) having a vision of replacing her as the lead investigative reporter on Dana’s show. The dream becomes a living nightmare when the colleague gets trapped inside a dark room, only to resurface later on as one of the spiritual tormentors.
While not having the high production values of Ghost Ship and The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Lost Voyage works on the basis of psychological tension and paranoia similar to John Carpenter’s The Thing. The low-key lighting of corridors, manifested with an intense foggy atmosphere and claustrophobic spaces on the ship, outweigh the limitations of unfinished CGI renders throughout the film. What director McIntire lacked in a budget, he makes up for with subliminal horror and grounded characters incapable of battling an otherworldly force. Lost Voyage was proof that the old school Sci-Fi Channel was capable of making thrilling TV movies as opposed to intentionally comedic fare.
Lost Voyage is streaming on Prime Video in the US.
Release Date
October 23, 2001
Runtime
96 minutes
Writers
Christian McIntire
Producers
James Hollensteiner, Jeffery Beach, Ken Olandt, Phillip J. Roth, Thomas J. Niedermeyer Jr.