By its nature, movies set aboard submarines should come with built-in suspense.
If the story is set during a war, well, there’s always the threat of attack. Even during peacetime, submarines are tense settings: the claustrophobia factor, the ever-present possibility of mechanical failure, that whole trapped-at-the-bottom of the ocean thing.
And then, of course, there’s always the threat of a giant squid. (Sorry, I saw “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” too many times when I was a kid.)
Todd Robinson’s “Phantom,” however, tries to have it both ways: the implied threat of the setting, the possibility of war – and the potential of a haunted ship.
Wait – what?
This review continues on my website.