or parapsychologist Aaron Roberts (Nelson), the mystery behind the Bermuda Triangle is more than just a passing interest—it's been an obsession since childhood. Ever since his parents disappeared aboard a vanished cruise ship, the S.S. Corona Queen, he's been looking for answers.
When the missing ship suddenly reappears after 25 years, a television reporter named Dana Elway (Gunn) smells a hot story. She pulls a few illegal strings to get her film crew onboard and offers to take Aaron with them if he'll give her an interview. Aaron reluctantly agrees, realizing this may be
his only chance to discover the truth about what happened to his parents.
However, even as Dana, Aaron and several others manage to get onboard, a storm is brewing. As they begin to search the ship, they find it to be in excellent condition, even though the ship is supposed to have been at sea for 25 years. Settling in for the night, the visitors soon realize there's undeniable haunting activity. Several of them begin to suffer from hallucinations and it becomes difficult for them to tell reality from fantasy. It doesn't take long for the first of their number to die a grisly and
bizarre death.
As the night wears on and the storm builds, they discover the ship is headed toward some kind of a strange mass, which just may be the Bermuda Triangle itself. Aaron, Dana and the others struggle to survive, but something on the ship has no plans to let them go.
A mystery grapples with ghostly history
Lost Voyage suffers from the same problem of far too many films that tackle the Bermuda Triangle. It has a pretty good mystery with a nice scare or two, but with no satisfactory resolution.
With its many passageways and darkly lit areas, a cruise ship would seem to be the ideal location for a spooky story. As the soon-to-be victims walk through the ship, with the overhead lights flickering on and off, there's no ready escape. They have no place else to go because they are totally isolated, and it's believable enough. However, like too many horror movies these days, Voyage is all setup with no real conclusion.
While there are some entertaining special effects at the end, it can't make up for the lack of story. Several of the characters are actually fairly well defined in the beginning, but never become fully realized, because the script doesn't give them a chance to do much more than explore scary parts of the ship or die an interesting death (or both).
Leading the cast, Judd Nelson so underplays his part that it's almost surprising when he leaps into action, even if it is because a ghost is after him. The rest of the cast does all right, considering their characters' limitations. The best performance actually comes from Jeff Kober (often cast as a villain) as Dazinger, in a secondary role. He manages to dig out a couple of nice moments, this time playing a regular guy who discovers too late that he's in over his head.
