A new film is set to probe the haunted world of the notorious RMS Queen Mary.
Variety reported that Japanese director Ryhuei Kitamura will direct Vessels, a thriller based on the supernatural lore surrounding the fabled ocean liner.
"The Queen Mary has an epic history through both glorious and hard times, and I’m fascinated by all the stories," Kitamura said. He says he intends to make a "really scary modern-day ghost story" which will actually be shot aboard the ship.
For decades, the colossal ocean liner RMS Queen Mary, now a hotel anchored at Long Beach, CA, has confounded ghost hunters with multiple sightings of unearthly apparitions, eerie cold spots and weird wailing noises.
Once the undisputed ruler of the seven seas, the Queen Mary has a well-deserved reputation for the uncanny. The ship is said to be home to possibly over 600 souls trapped between this world and the next.
Walking the cavernous halls of the Queen Mary, one has the feeling of being surrounded by presences – just beyond the range of human vision.
On a Classic C2C, a "paranormal sensitive," Erika Frost, revealed her attempts to make contact with the many ghosts aboard the Queen Mary. She discussed a mysterious red handprint said to be left by a ghost named "Henry" who was scalded to death in a boiler room accident.
An art deco cabin, A135, is famed for reports of an annoying poltergeist opening and closing doors. A visitor in a nearby room once reported seeing a man suddenly sitting on the right side of the bed - who wasn’t there seconds earlier - before vanishing. Others claim to hear mysterious tapping noises seemingly coming from nowhere.
Additionally, a wailing woman was reportedly seen by several guests. Furniture is said to move across the room apparently guided by unseen hands. An early attempt to capture the phenomena on film was unsuccessful as the cabin became preternaturally cold.
The vast swimming pool is also said to be a hot spot for free-floating phantasms located on the ship’s lower bow.
Many suspect the pool to be a vortex between the dimensional barriers surrounding this world and the next. Guests have also reported seeing ethereal beings in diaphanous 1930s-style swimwear coupled with the appearance of mysterious wet footprints. A young attractive woman in a sheer elegant white gown, seemingly out of place and out of time, has also been sighted.
And, perhaps most chillingly, the heartbreaking wail of an unseen baby is said to emanate from chrome steel bulkheads.
Many ghost hunters attribute the hauntings to a tragic disaster on Oct. 2, 1942 when the sea juggernaut, fearing attack from enemy U-boats, rammed and sank the HMS Curacoa, a light cruiser, claiming the lives of 239 passengers.
These drowned tormented souls may still roam the dark corridors of the Queen Mary, desperately seeking voyage home or elsewhere.