It's certainly a "grabber," which I assume was the purpose. If a horror movie is supposed to be disturbing and give you mightmares, that opening scene certainly did it for ,e.

On the contrary, the whole movie should have been like this.
The spirit of abysmal despair

Its a horror film and it was setting out its stall.
It's that man again!!

It's easily the best scene in the movie, also the only part of it I can remember, haven't seen it in years.

best scene in the movie

It's so memorable. It's a totally unique scene. I never would have thought of a kill scene like this so I give props to whoever's brain this came out of.
If it were not for this scene, this movie wouldn't be remembered all these years later.

I didn't think it was gross, and I saw this movie when I was 14. Even watching it now (I'm 23) it still didn't gross me out. Some people just have a higher gore tolerance than others.

Wow, when I first saw this when it first came out I was like "AWESOME!!!" I watched that scene over like 5 times, lol. I was honestly surprised it didnt win some sort of gore or spec effects awards. I knew it wasnt real and I was really into horror effects so I loved it, lol

Anyone agree? Also, what made the cable wire loose? Was it an accident or someone done it on purpose? I don't understand.
On purpose they were killing everyone on board to claim souls, poisoning people, shooting etc and then finally he killed the woman making him the only living person if you call it that.

That part was the best part of the movie! It would've been better if it was all that gory and didn't have such misplaced comedy. For example, after Santos dies and they're all suddenly cracking up over food and having a good laugh.

I understand what you mean Outshyned.
The movie could have appealed to more viewers if it had been less gratuitous. It probably would have been more successful as well (something to think about if it is ever redone some day).
Your best bet would be to find a "toned down" version of the film. You really won't be missing anything except some of the worst gore, and language etc. In actuality, the story is better off without the unnecessary gruesomeness.
Another option is just to skip the cable slicing incident since the same scene is shown later on in the story though flashback, but without nearly as much blood and gore. If your DVD or TV has parental controls, you can also set them so that it skips over the wost scenes.
I recommend trying to find an edited television version of the movie or looking for one of international versions of the film which were also toned down. Just beware that some foreign versions will not play on American DVD players.
Well, I hope this was helpful, and best of luck!

I want to see the movie but my stomach can not handle this scene. I could just skip that part but I know I will miss out something.

This message has been deleted.

It wasn't intended to be sadistic and they were supposed to have all been decapitated?? That seems pretty damn sadistic to me.

Hello again,
Yes, I can't disagree in that perhaps the film could have been improved upon had there been a little more character development - by which I essentially mean the more featured members of the passengers and crew of the liner prior to it's sabotage. That said I still think there was justification and room for the blood bath although perhaps that could have been handled a little more "intelligently" for want of a better descriptive.
The trouble with going slightly overboard (if you'll pardon the pun), when it comes to massacre or death
en masse
is that it devalues the overall credibility of what would otherwise be quite an intriguing film. I am a lot more forgiving than most but have known others to abort a movie early on if they encounter anything they deem to be too far-fetched.
Point of interest is that what
probably
made "Jaws" a success was the fact that the mechanical shark kept malfuncioning and so a lot of scenes were merely filmed from a first person perspective to create the suspense of the unseen danger. I am not opposed to allowing my imagination to take over and thought that, for similar reasons of abstinance, The Blair Witch Project was also gripping. That said, I was in Germany when that was released and hadn't known of it's authenticity (or lack of it), so was not influenced by any media about it.
"Has anyone seen my wife?" - Columbo

Thank you for elaborating, guardian2415! I have two copies of this film (both legal DVDs!), and clearly still wasn't concentrating on what actually caused the cables to technically break loose with such chaotic effect. I was very focussed on the gore however [
]
You're welcome highpriestess32. Much of the "elaboration" came not from from my observational prowess, but from the production information associated with the creation of the filmSo I have to give credit where it is due.
I hate to disappoint the hard-core blood and gore fans, but the film's original concepts had relatively little blood. It was more of a psychological, suspense mystery-thriller.
The idea for the gory cable slicing scene actually started off much more subdued. At first all the dancers on deck were violently swept overboard by the cable. From there the idea morphed into the cable killing everyone on deck instantly by decapitation. Finally, the concept progressed into the current gruesome cable slicing scene as it appears in the final version of the film.
In lieu of a blood bath, for some it would have been more interesting to see Ghost Ship as a suspense thriller with greater emphasis given to developing the storyline and depth of the characters in the already superb settings.

The cables held the heavy bulbous lights in place on the forward masts in order to illuminate the front of the deck for the captain's ball. A conspirator operated the electric wench on Francesca's queue to have everyone dance. This caused the wench to exert so much pressure on the cables that the heavy lights tore through their metal fasteners and came crashing down with tremendous force.
Thank you for elaborating, guardian2415! I have two copies of this film (both legal DVDs!), and clearly
still
wasn't concentrating on what
actually
caused the cables to technically break loose with such chaotic effect. I was very focussed on the gore however
It's not a bad film, certainly not the worst I've seen if you take it at face value but I think that the deck scene was arguably a little overdone in terms of people slithering around on the deck with detached torsos. That said it was compelling - again, so long as one just accepts what's before them and tries not to over-analyse things like I sometimes do.
"Has anyone seen my wife?" - Columbo

Many other viewers agree with you Outshyned.
The opening scene does seem a little "over the top" when it comes to gratuitous blood and goreBut since the movie morphed from its original suspense conception to more of a typical Hollywood horror, this is to be expected. The film was intended to shock.
However, in the early stages of development, the movie wasn't intended to be such a sadistic, deplorable blood fest. When production started, the opening scene was set to be a little different. Instead of being sliced in half by the lethal wire, every person on deck (except the diminutive Katie) died instantly from decapitation.
The dreadful wire event was no accident. It was part of the conspirator's plan to kill the captain and offers in order to take over the ship and secure the gold.
The cables held the heavy bulbous lights in place on the forward masts in order to illuminate the front of the deck for the captain's ball. A conspirator operated the electric wench on Francesca's queue to have everyone dance. This caused the wench to exert so much pressure on the cables that the heavy lights tore through their metal fasteners and came crashing down with tremendous force. The result was death, confusion and hysteria, all the things the conspirators needed to carry out their sinister plan.