Haunting of the Mary Celeste tries to base itself around a well known mystery. The Mary Celeste was a ship found in the Atlantic Ocean between Portugal and the Azores in December 1872. The mystery about it is that it was totally abandoned and that the lifeboat was missing despite not showing any signs of a crisis onboard. There was still plenty of provision and water and the ship itself seemed to be in working order. To this day, no one knows what really happened and what made the crew leave the ship. Theories and speculations have been plenty.
Haunting of the Mary Celeste starts off by us following a couple of scientists going to the place where the Mary Celeste was actually found. The leader has some new theory that she wants to prove or at least try to find evidence for. Haunting of the Mary Celeste doesn’t make it totally obvious what the motivations are, but I don’t think it’s totally scientific and academic. There is also footage which can be interpreted as the leader of the expedition lost her daughter in a drowning accident. She dreams about it and wakes up horrified.
Anyway, the first boat that was supposed to take them out to the site abandoned them. Supposedly because the skipper was too scared to take them to that exact location. However they find another ride eventually. This is kind of a story in itself as he might be conning them to get more money out of the deal. He also repeatedly says to them that they don’t have a clue about who he is. I’m thinking that this lays the foundation for some supernatural being which could have fit the narrative.
Haunting of the Mary Celeste doesn’t go down that path though. It keeps itself more grounded, at least to begin with. Things happen, like the engines malfunctions and other things that keep the expedition on the verge of collapsing. Things intensify eventually and when we are nearing the end things really start to happen, mysterious things that can’t be explained. At least not with my limited knowledge of science.
But on a more important point, it’s not trustworthy. It doesn’t seem like they actually know what is going on themselves, and that might be very well. But I feel like we, the audience, should at least get a basic understanding of what is going on. But this is just so confusing that all and every speculation that I have can either be true or not. It’s kind of like Schödinger’s Cat. Everything is true and false at the same time.
I honestly can’t say what happened in the end. Who survived and who died and if they even found out what happened or suffered the same fate as the Mary Celeste. Were there aliens involved, some footage might support this. On the other hand, it’s a fully plausible explanation that they went crazy. So, I guess the problem is the story itself. The acting is fine and I don’t have any other complaints about the craftsmanship of the movie. It won’t leave any lasting impressions though. As a whole it was quite boring and it’s kind of a saving grace that the runtime is only about 74 minutes.
