This Ex cruise ship employee sounds like they know an awful lot about how a cruise ship horror scene would go in almost every way. Almost as if they lived through them. Perhaps they have actually lived through a Horror ship but are unable to say it because of the curse that was placed on them for leaving their friends behind.
Now im just picturing a cruise ship where like all the horror movies happen. Youve got your haunting/possession going on but also theres a masked serial killer, but also theres monsters, but also like two other things. And its just sort of concurrent and overlapping. The possessed girl and the werewolf navigator have a fight in the third act.
Given that the average population of a cruise ship (approx 3000 people) matches a small city, there's no reason you couldn't have several supernaturals with varying levels of ill intent on board.
"Downplay any disaster to avoid any publicity" Nah, no such thing as bad publicity, a true greedy corporate overlord would spin it in a way to attract the same type of people who visit haunted houses and hotels Murder Boat practically writes it's own advertising
Not even from the mayor in Jaws angle? Also if you've already got a boatful of people who DID NOT ask for a horror option when they paid and on finding out that their lives are in danger will want to be immediately provided a way off the ship with their money fully refunded...
This sound like Still Wakes the Deep. Sure, it's an oil rig in that game, but it has a lot of the concepts listed here including a section where you attempt to leave via lifeboat.
I recently watched a playthrough of a horror game that took place on an oil rig. Whatever lovecraftian horror they woke up is tearing apart the facility and mutating people, while a storm is devastating the oil rig from the outside. Lifeboats? The arms holding those up haven't seen maintenance in a while. Complete with the corporate boss trying to downplay the incident until the last minute, and then trying to leave in his helicopter.
People on cruise ships are probably a bunch of rich people just messing around as well, and that definitely wouldn't be the first time people in that demographic have stupidly endangered themselves while in vehicles designed to traverse water.
That also means you get an ample supply of unsympathetic victims to kill off in order to create a sense of danger around your actual protagonists whom you want to keep alive for a while or even till the end
@@MxPokirby Of course. I wasn't trying to say only rich people go on cruises, just that most people who go on cruises are rich. Sorry for not clarifying
See, this is why the only cruise I’d ever consider would be a river cruise on the Mississippi. All the isolation-related problems are no longer an issue.
You’d still have a problem leaving if you’re at one of the widest points depending on the kind of threat. The widest part of the Mississippi is over 11 miles. If the lifeboats get sabotaged, your only option is take control of the whole ship or swim 5 and a half miles to shore. Neither sound like a fun time.
The closest cruise to me would be on Lake Michigan. Which… well, it may not be Superior, but I wouldn’t be able to tune out Gordon Lighfoot in my head.
@@ariaphoenix2760 yeah, no, thats a random lake youve NEVER get anything larger than a kayak from that point to the mississippi proper, the widest actual point is ~1mile wide, go actually look at lake winnibigoshish, its in central minnesota and trying to figure out how or why its considered part of the mississippi is a complete and utter nightmare, its a worse horror story than most horror stories because its real bureaucracy and politics.
@@abiean222 I mean, cruise ships do have lifeboats. I still think you’re fucked either way if the lifeboats get sabotaged, but you’re correct in that you have zero chance out on the ocean while the river gives you at least some goal to work towards.
I think the difference is relatability, everyone at some point in there lives have to go to the hospital, but when was the last time you have ever went on board a cruise ship? I personally never even seen a cruise ship in my whole life, and most people are the same, also hospitals have a dark history full of tragedies, and while cruise ships are just down right awful I can’t think of a HORROR story related to cruise ships, or rather that such stories aren’t as common as stories of people being tortured and used as animals in old hospitals HOWEVER I FULLY SUPPORT THAT WE NEED CRUSE SHIP HORROR, the more unique horror locations the better
Exactly, plus as far as I'm aware, while cruises can have some negative stories they are sand grains compared to the joy they bring to people who go on them, but then again a lot of horror games do like taking thinks filled with joy and making them spooky.
almost nobody in human history went to space or even boarded the Orient Express but i think space dramas still generate banks. It's just how it's written.
Not to mention the turnover rate. Unless you’ve signed a contract for two weeks or a month or whatever, many cruise ship workers are only obligated to stay for the one trip. Because you can’t leave. Hate your life and regret your decisions on day two or three? You’re forced to stay onboard for another five days and work. Some ships have as high as 60-80% turnover belowdecks each trip, and (PR really hides this statistic) there’s so many undocumented or illegal people who will work for cheaper that there’s often two separate paperwork offices. Background checks can be pretty lacking, due to a combination of the sheer number of people they’re hiring, the short notice they’re hiring on, as well as corporate turning a blind eye to a lot of sketchy shit. So if you need a motive, there’s several internal options available just right there
That 'upside' of the situation in storms: "crew walk about like drunks" If you expect your crewmate to wander towards you unsteadily, you're not going to be suspicious of a zombie until they're right on top of you...
tbh never even crossed my mind how those cruise ships can be a place of negativity (for passengers at least), though now i do feel some of it now (also i live in a poor country hundreds of kilometres from the nearest sea so cruiseships aren't a thing i often think about)
Not really…never had any 1st hand experience with one or spent much time thinking about them. What little I do know is all holiday activities, buffets, and drinks, and making sure you don’t get left behind at a foreign port. That, and a little bit about the crew experience from a few RU-vid shorts 🤷♀️
The pollution bit was already reason enough for me never to go on a cruise. What I take away from this: if I ever step foot on a ship that might go into international waters, I _will_ check its registered country first. I remember the story of an engaged couple on vacation in the UAE who got arrested for premarital sex because they found out the woman was pregnant. Don't want to fall afoul of any unexpected laws from _any_ country...
Isn't this the concept of an incredibly underrated game called Monstrum? The character is stuck on a cargo ship, and they have to escape by repairing one of three different escape routes: The submarine, the helicopter, or the life raft.
Another sad fact about cruise ships is that SA happens a lot on cruise ships, and the incidents are frequently under-reported and go unpunished. The incidents of SA often occur from Crew members towards passengers rather than between passengers.
I have an idea to how to shove a spooky cruise ship level in a horror story: The protagonist is wandering inside the place where cruise ships park, until suddenly something pulls them inside one of the ships and then said ship starts moving with the protagonist inside, trapping them in the middle of the ocean, through of no fault of their own.
I’ve been thinking for a while that cruise ships would be great for horror. It combines the classic haunted house with the classic ghost ship! On the big island of Hawaii, on Kona side, they’re used to seeing cruise ships weekly. They pop themselves a ways away from the port and use smaller ships from the port to unload passengers, and then the immediate area is swarmed with tourists. Now add in the idea that this is a ship that sank and all the passengers died with it. Ghost cruise arriving to bring its ghost passengers around to terrify the locals, sounds like a great story to me.
Horror game idea: You are a guy out in a cruise, everything seems fine and dandy but you begin to notice how people are starting to dissapear (first some of your dorm neighbors and eventually a staff or two), you usually go out for some walks at night through the cruise maybe because the player likes being alone or maybe because they want some midnight snacks... (which in the first two days would serve to ease in the player to the place while also showing them potential unlockable areas as well as giving the place a spoopy atmosphere). But this all changes one night as you go out for your midnight snack at the cruise buffet, by this point the player is already more accostumed to the atmosphere and the darkness, but as you get to the buffet the player witnesses what it appears to be a staff member brutally killing a passenger before following the player (luckily managing to get to his room before that)! The game would then follow up with a cutscene in the morning of the player character talking to staff and trying to alert them of the killer but they don't believe you, the player character even commenting how the staff's eyes looked weirdly cyan... Anyways the game would then have the player each night going out of their room to investigate, each night they get an item or unlock a door which will get them to the next important area (but everytime the player advances enough a night they are then forced to head to bed again before they are caught) the nights would have dangers like the afformentioned killer, cameras that can spot you so the staff will sorta put you in a cruise jail cell leading to a bad ending where the protagonist is forced to spend his days listening as more people die until he is left alone... to die starving (bad ending), maybe a puzzle where the player is locked in a freezer room by the creature and must escape through the vents! All culminating to the player getting to the bottom of the ship, discovering in the morgue of the ship that plot twist it wasn't a killer it was some sort of water monster siren, there's a chase scene and eventually you are able to safely lock yourself in the boiler room, an idea crossing the player's head... they sabotage the boiler so it explodes, just enough to cause damage to the boat so people need to get to the life boats... and while at the end we see some of the headlines of the whole cruise sinking we get at the end a video of the survivors leaving the boat, the camera then pans to a particular survivor, who looks at the camera and their eyes glow cyan... BOOM! The end.
@@RespectfullyBiasedReader yeah i tried to check list out everything it was mentioned in the video, with some exceptions due to this mostly being made on the spot 😅z
i guess hospitals are more utilized in horror because theyre easier to reach, and feel more relatable. im sure most if not all of us have been to a hospital, if not for ourselves, then for our loved ones. but not everyones been on a cruise ship, so for are interesting as that would be as a setting, it may lack that shared understanding that we have for the hospital setting
You can pry hospital horror setting from MY COLD DEAD HANDS!!!!! But cruise ships are a really good idea and would be an interesting setting to explore.
There are such things as hospital ships. In the 19th century some ships were also moored to use as hospitals for sailors. Imagine one of those supernaturally floating off.
This reminds me of that one _Doctor Who_ episode on the spacefaring Titanic, named and modeled after the tragic seafaring cruiser of the same name. The owner of the nuclear-powered interstellar cruise ship was trying to commit insurance fraud by intentionally crashing it into Earth, which would not only destroy the ship and kill everyone on board but would also devastate the planet’s biosphere. All the stewards were these creepy golden robotic angels in white robes with razor-sharp halos that could be thrown as chakrams and were programmed to ensure that nobody but the owner would make it off the ship alive. Because it was a 10th Doctor Christmas special, the episode ended with snowfall that wasn’t actually snow, as was custom for the 10th Doctor’s Christmas Specials.
@EleanorPaine Could also have your "exit" just be 47 lying down on a lawn chair enjoying his cruise! Or a helicopter, or a lifeboat, or whatever else! Plenty of possibilities!
Technically there is the ICA tutorial levels in the WOA trilogy, but that is a training facility modelled after a small pleasure cruise as opposed to a full size cruise ship. But big agree, also a hitman level in an airport or similar place with way too many eyes for a guns blazing approach
Ahem: A large group of dromaeosaurs break out of their holding compartment during a blackout on a cruise ship in a storm and now the crew has to fight them, involing surgical equipment, trash compactors, large ass freezers, swinging anchors and watertight doors, only for the last crew member throwing away a glowing cigarette in the wrong spot and end it for good after discovering that the owner of the ship was not only a greedy, slimy bastard, but also using parts of the ship as a dinosaur cloning facility.
Sounds like cruise ships are perfect for a horror setting. Since they are run by rather wealthy companies, I suspect that using a cruise ship as the setting for a movie that paints them in a bad light would be difficult to get funding for. Although, I will throw a little bit of shade back at hospitals. The very first statement made is that cruise ships exploit workers. As though hospitals don't exploit workers. They have long shifts, 10+ hours on the regular, likely due to a lack of qualified workers to cover the hours of operation.
That would be very difficult considering all the corporate corner cut ones have the competitive advantage. I’d suggest looking into reviving the concept of nuclear powered cruise ships like the NS Savanna to gain an unusual edge over the immorally run ones.
@@ham_the_spam4423 They said they wanted an environmentally friendly ship, not a commercially viable one. They could possibly fill that niche by running a line of sail-powered tall ship cruises.
Not all of the above, but definitely a part of why 999 (9 hours, 9 persons, 9 doors) is so brilliantly unsettling. If you want a fun thriller/puzzle game with a soundtrack that might hount your dreams at night, give that one a try! ✨
This reminds me of Man of Medan tbh. Except that is set on a military freighter and not a cruise ship but the general idea is the same. Also this just makes me anxious of cruise ships lol
Oooh! Oooh! Starfinder, the sci-fi setting from Paizo, did something with this masterfully. A cruise ship but in space. When intergalactic travel suddenly stopped working, the cruise starship is stuck out in space without anyway to get back home. The interdimensional event that broke intergalactic travel also dumped a bunch of strange creatures on board that range from confused to openly hostile. Some of the robotic staff is going haywire and with no clear indication of when rescue is coming, the ship captain who is a big wig in the cruise company decides to conserve power for the high paying guests but cutting power to the decks of those who only paid for the cheaper packages, leaving them to fend for themselves, and in fact hoping they die so they can't lodge complaints if rescue does come.
I saw an entitled person story where some mother brought her kid with some kind of really contagious disease onto a cruise and got the entire ship sick. Like around 200 people. They couldn't even dock. The disease made it hard to eat and drink and keep it all down of that helps identify it. OP said that when they were feeling better they left their room to get some fresh air, and the ship looked empty.
That level in 2013 Tomb Raider where it's not even a cruise ship but an expedition ship is downright horrifying. The claustrophobia, the threat of the ship randomly sinking because it was already split in half. Truly amazing.
Let me just write that down... Costa... Concordia... horror movie... featuring... giant... uh... noo, sharks have been done to death. Giant squid? CTHULHU!
What about eldritch whales? Like, idk, cthulu orcas that will play with their food in a way that real orcas might, and playing with their food's minds too Edit: forgot briefly that orcas are technically dolphins but I hope yall get it. Feel free to add onto this too
There's also a growing number of boomers moving onto cruise ships to live out the rest of their lives on the ocean because it's cheaper than going to a nursing home, so there's a potential for more ghosts and zombies as the old coots die off. Oh, OH! And if something happens to the food supply, a suitably unethical chef could raid the morgue for ingredients to feed the passengers to keep them happy.
The fantastic Hungarian author Rejtõ Jenõ who's otherwise an expert in completely unhinged characters and over the top violence has several books that involve the claustrophobia of cruise ships.
In my favorite book of his, the main character has to kill two people with sleep pills to conceal his identity, which leads the captain to quarantine the ship, but then people keep dying unrelatedly in ways that are increasingly obviously not connected to a disease and eventually everyone starts to panic.
I was looking up some lesser-known tabletop RPGs a while ago, and one of them was zombie apocalypse themed, and one of the two sample adventures in the rulebook took place on a cruise ship in the aftermath of an outbreak.
imagine a game where you are on a cruise ship, and there are civilians and such on said ship, but with a killer on it, you never quite know where they are gonna come from, and they can kill you in the many unique ways associated with cruise ships, alongside just straight up stabbing you to death, and you have to sneak around and survive and do little objectives while avoiding said killer, which would likely have complex AI, and be murdering other civilians on said cruise ship, imagine running from someone who you cant identify on a ship full of dead-ends in the middle of a storm, who has a high chance of just straight up popping out of random rooms or hallways, with the added bonus of accidentally walking in on him murdering, or trying to escape and hiding behind someone and watching them get murdered
Some cruises are less expensive than the average retirement home. So they started to build and operate dedicated ships for the elder to spend their last days.
Even on the average cruise ship, a good chunk of the passengers are going to be retired or well established in their careers. With a lot of geriatrics on board it makes sense some of them may pass of natural causes.
I have been thinking to myself for years that a cruise ship would be an awesome place for a horror game, if only I had the slightest idea of how to go about that beyond planning what I would put in the game
I've always liked the idea of a zombie outbreak on a cruise ship. And hey! With the glaciers melting and releasing potentially ancient diseases into the water, those arctic cruises are looking even more potentially dangerous.
Also, ships historically are treated and named somewhat like people, and given how complex the machinery on board can be, mechanical quirks are often just considered part of its personality. In more fantastical settings, or some futuristic ones, the ship itself can be a character - but whether that character is on your side or not is entirely up for grabs. The only other things that initially come to mind to best use this underused concept are trains and land designations ranging from someone's house property to a whole country, and both of these are still incredibly underused, not to mention applying the concept of a manifested personification of the spirit of whatever it is to literally anything else.
And I have seen photos and videos of the ship at night in cloudy weather. No stars or moon? Miles from shore? The view of the sea is a pitch-black void.
Like the sheer direction with this is amazing. You know those mutation farm stories? Doing that with people would be so easy, since food on cruises is MEGA unhealthy, slipping weird human meat growth hormones would be a cinch, when you eat SO much on these cruise ships, that the average gain is 10 pounds in a week already lol
A cruise ship would make a better murder mystery location than a horror location. -Many places to explore. -Many ways for people to die by 'accident'. -No one can escape. -You can figure out the cause of death of someone. -Places to dispose the bodies.
I think what makes hospitals so used like that is just "what if good thing, but twisted and baaad" rather than "what id this already iffy or bad thing became even worse" plus most people know hospitals and vow they "should" be so writers think it is easier to sell onto the "evil/twisted" thing with them. I am sure not many know anything about cruise ships.
1:17 Ooh, and it has a built-in reason for that to be the case! Door doesn't close because there's a guy in it, guy doesn't get cut in half, yay! Drowns instead, along with many others. Oh... So you really want them to close even if one guy's life ends because of it.
Not a cruise ship but "Into the Drowning Deep" by Mira Grant takes place on a research ship over the Mariana Trench, when another ship (filming a mock-umentary about mermaids) was found with it's entire crew missing with some unusual footage. Highly recommend it, i've re-read it a few times
This reminds me of a movie that my partner told me about seeing on accident when he was little and is still terrified of. The gist is that there are a bunch of people on this cruise ship that gets attacked by this enormous squid that starts picking people off. One specific scene he remembers is of a woman going into one of the bathrooms where a tentacle reaches out from one of the toilets and drags her in. He doesn’t remember the name, so if anyone knows what it is, that would be cool. Also, the idea of a Silent Hill or Resident Evil style horror game that takes place on board a cruise ship sounds awesome.
With all the description of fire I'm surprised they didn't mention that the fire surpession system in the engine room WILL kill you if you're unlucky enough to be inside when it starts.
John Ringo has a whole THING about cruise ships is his zombie apocalypse series. Heinlein had a whole thing about them in his novel "Job: A Comedy Of Justice". Eric Flint and his Co- writers have a thing about cruise ships in one of Flints SUB- series to the 163x series. It DOES happen - but everyone goes to the hospital at some point (and the horror stories I could tell just from my OWN life and care) most people don't go on cruises, and those who do see them as positive (not sure WHY they do But I read "Job" when I was 10 so had an idea how the workers were treated...) (actually, Heinlein uses cruises a few other times, too. Hrm...)
Remember that one news story about how a maintenance worker got crushed in a cruise ship elevator and the whole elevator system had blood gushing down it?
You know, i was harbouring doubts about that "quality upload in every video claim" Thankfully i was proven wrong since you credit the creator both in vid and description
The problem i have with crew's ships as a horror setting. Is that it can't be an abandoned place. So what spooky thing that is going down. Has to go down during the story. Like in Alien. So this means you can't have a story where a group uncovers what spooky stuff happened. Unless its a cruise ship that crashed into some place, but then again. That would be a big deal and have people over it like flies. P.s. A lot of this seamed better fitting for a disaster movie then horror move.
Ex Navy guy here thinking that still sounds like a great time compared to the nuclear petri dish I was on. If you think living below the water line is bad, try sleeping below 15 tons of F-18 connecting with the flight deck ten feet above your head at 180-odd miles an hour. Also, in reference to the morgue: keep in mind, there are a lot of old folks who live on cruise ships full time. Some folks do the math and figure it's cheaper than living in a decent nursing home. No, I'm not kidding. So yes, it makes sense that people die on cruise ships fairly frequently.
