Director Gary Shore delivers an inventive and stylish supernatural horror mystery in Haunting of the Queen Mary.

Akin to The Shining on the high seas, Haunting of the Queen Mary is as engrossing as it is confounding, with the films unique rhythm getting some used to. Once viewers do get their sea legs, however, Haunting of the Queen Mary is a rich haunted horror experience filled with strong craftsmanship and an engaging twist-filled story.

Set upon the RMS Queen Mary (a retired British ocean liner that is reportedly haunted), the film tells its story during two concurrent timelines: 1938 Halloween night, where during a star-studded voyage a guest is driven by supernatural forces to do bloody murder; and modern day California where the long-docked Queen Mary welcomes tourists who come for the history yet find they cannot leave.

The crossover of time periods in Haunting of the Queen Mary is expertly handled by editor Colin Campbell (Lola) who keeps the pace and tension of at the right pitch. Impressive too is Shore’s versatile visual approach, with Haunting of the Queen Mary transitioning from rich vibrant cinematography courtesy of Isaac Bauman (Bloodline), to animation, to black and white photography, and then back again.

A great selection of tracking shots glides through the dark corridors and engine rooms of the mighty vessel, while sudden bursts of ferocious blood splattering violence remind viewers that the dark spirits on this ocean liner take no prisoners. Those who are squeamish at the sight of crimson splatter best be warned.

The cast of Haunting of the Queen Mary all deliver solid performances, with notable mentions to Alice Eve as an anguished mother searching for the lost soul of her child, Will Coban in a chilling turn as a deformed war veteran turned axe-wielding murderer, and Dorian Lough as the ship’s captain whose slick oily charm hides a sinister secret.

So strong, though, is the films’ central-setting - “a bright ship with a premonition of death” - that the characters in Haunting of the Queen Mary can often fade into the background as the dark demented souls on this vessel-of-the-damned become the true stars in a genuinely scary and innovative horror movie.