The Haunted Sea

Near the Yucatan Peninsula, Captain Ramsey's freighter finds the ship "Hades" drifting in the ocean, showing no apparent sign of life on board. Ramsey and his crew explore the Hades, while they are being observed by an unseen entity. In the cargo hold, they discover an ancient Aztec treasure, which gives second mate Medina flashbacks to a violent ritual. They also learn from the diary of the Hades' captain, Jameson, that the artefacts were retrieved from Montezuma's temple. Two of Ramsey's men, Delgado and Lane, attempt to plunder some of the treasure, but Delgado becomes possessed as a result. He transforms into a reptilian monster, mauls Lane to death, and sets about killing the rest of the crew.

In the kitchen, Medina discovers Jameson, traumatized but alive. The Hades' captain hints that he, too, fell under the treasure's evil influence and, while possessed, turned against his crew mates. To escape his predicament, he flees and commits suicide. Eventually, human presence on the Hades is whittled down to just Johnson and first mate Bergren. They rig the cursed ship with explosives. The monster kills Bergren, and Johnson jumps overboard just as the Hades is blown apart. She's rescued by the freighter, but is revealed to be possessed herself.

The film was pitched internally as "Alien on water" and had the working title of Ghost Ship.^[1][2] It was eventually rebranded as Haunted Sea, a loose callback to the vintage Corman film Creature from the Haunted Sea. It was originally intended for inclusion in the television anthology Roger Corman Presents, which included several reimaginings of the B-movie mogul's classics, but had a troubled production. Glamour photographer-turned-director Dan Golden, who was responsible for two prior Presents installments, was brought onboard after another helmer departed the project. He was hesitant due to the script's poor quality. Corman allowed Golden to work on it with his usual story editor Frances Dole, but insisted the shoot start within ten days as planned. Filming took place in December 1996. That date coincided with a state of flux at Corman's studios, following the ousting of several staff members by the producer, which did not help matters.^[2]

Despite the film taking place at sea, there was no budget to actually shoot the actors in such surroundings. Corman demanded that ship sets from Carnosaur 3 be recycled, although Golden felt they were too limited for some scenes. They were later complemented with stock footage for exteriors. To link the sets with the story's supposed mesoamerican setting, the director tried to buy B-roll from the government of Mexico, but even that proved too expensive for the thrifty Corman. Since he had planned a holiday in Cancun, Golden simply brought a 16 mm camera and captured some establishing shots himself.^[2]

The creature was a dinosaur left from Carnosaur 2, outfitted with a different head by John Carl Buechler. Its mobility was severely limited, including the opening and closing of the mouth. Golden tried to film around it, but Corman insisted that the effects were satisfactory and that the creature should be shown more. Following her appearances as Emmanuelle, Krista Allen was not enthusiastic about the film's instances of nudity, and Golden acknowledged that the first such scene was not gracefully integrated into the picture.^[2] In the finished film, the director was credited as "Daniel Patrick", while effects man Buechler was credited only through the name of his company Magical Media Industries.^[3][4]

While the film was supposed to premiere on Showtime as part of the Roger Corman Presents collection, the channel's executives deemed its quality unacceptable and rejected it.^[2] Although this has not been acknowledged by either party, genre publication Psychotronic Video later posited that the third-party production When the Bullet Hits the Bone had been inserted into the series to help Corman satisfy his remaining television commitments.^[5]

The Haunted Sea therefore debuted on a VHS from Corman's own New Horizons Home Video^[6] on November 17, 1997.^[7] It eventually made its U.S. television debut on August 5, 1998, on The Movie Channel, a sister channel of Showtime.^[8] New Horizons re-issued The Haunted Sea on DVD on July 20, 2004.^[9]