Expanded from the famous episode in Stoker's Dracula novel, this film expands on what happened on the ship that was chartered privately to transport fifty unmarked crates from Romania to London, but their contents are unleashed with deadly consequences for the crew. The film is beautifully designed - with a huge TARDIS-interiored ship that has an unusual cathedral-like echo! - and it is rich in atmosphere. Unfortunately, it is also rather slow and adds little to the expected story as the crew members start to get picked off one by one in the relentlessly impenetrable night gloom, Pitch Black/Alien-style. The cast is solid, led by Liam Cunningham at his most stoic as the doomed vessel's captain, and the film is generally executed well - even the generic 'exposure to sunlight' burns are delivered to good effect - but how well the film plays will probably depend on the individual viewer's level of familiarity with the material and genre.
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