The retired RMS Queen Mary docked in Long Beach, California is considered one of the most haunted locations in the world — which only somewhat shines through in Gary Shore’s Haunting of the Queen Mary. Any wishes to relive Dark Castle Entertainment levels of production design in Ghost Ship won’t be fulfilled, but that said, Haunting of the Queen Mary is more successful than its brushed-under-the-rug release undersells. Shore and co-writer Tom Vaughan channel the Queen Mary’s grave history for a supernatural infestation that spans decades, complete with atmospheric haunts akin to what’s accomplished in remakes of Thir13en Ghosts or House on Haunted Hill. Proper spookiness prevails, even though the over two-hour length gunks up the film’s gears with subplots that slow momentum.

Alice Eve stars as Anne Calder, who pitches Queen Mary’s Captain Bittner (Dorian Lough) on a virtual 3D tour experience to resurrect the ship’s reputation. Along for the ride are estranged partner Patrick (Joel Fry) and their ghost-hunting son Lukas (Lenny Rush), who stay out of Anne’s hair. Patrick and Lukas head to the Queen Mary’s haunted tour, where Lukas wanders away from a distracted Patrick buried in his mobile phone. As Anne tries to convince Bittner to approve a new book that explores the vessel’s darker features from a child’s perspective, Lukas unintentionally gets a head start on their investigations. The Queen Mary reveals its secrets to Lukas, which may trap his entire family aboard as unrested souls if they aren’t careful.

Cinematography reminds of Christopher Smith’s Triangle, as Anne and Patrick eventually must canvas the Queen Mary on their lonesome during lockdown renovations. The echoey grandness of the regal liner can be felt throughout empty hallways where tourists usually flood, which heightens the paranormal attacks of lost souls who terrify the parents. Isaac Bauman directs photography that embraces shadowy nooks and steamy engine rooms with blanketing darkness that’s quite “Horror 101,” but not as a detriment. Wonderfully frightful scares involving rotten arms reaching through smartphone screens or swimming pool waters with no visibility score eeriness like a genre fan’s comfort snack. It’s not ferociously scary, yet sinister enough to hook viewers through suspenseful anxieties bred by competently haunted shot selections.

Haunting of the Queen Mary is also a time-hopping slasher, as the story jumps from Anne and Patrick’s search party to a past voyage aboard an old timey Queen Mary. Imposters David (Wil Coban) and his fortune teller wife Gwen Ratch (Nell Hudson) scheme to score their daughter Jackie (Florrie Wilkinson) an audition with a mega-producer on board — the setup for an earlier example of the Queen Mary’s malevolence. Tap dance numbers with Fred Astaire (?) prelude graphic murders as atrocities endured by David’s family parallel what Anne and Patrick fight, and the Queen Mary’s timeless purgatory becomes a shared realm. Shore and Vaughan also call upon urban legends of “foundational sacrifices” and pure evils that ensured the Queen Mary didn’t meet a Titanic fate, mixing satanic lore with a supernatural cruise that hacks bodies to bits. It’s all conceptually interesting, but begins to bloat as scenes churn through choppy narrative structures.

There’s a whole lotta movie to Haunting of the Queen Mary, which desperately needs to ditch some weight. Shore feels like he’s tossing ideas at the wall from black-and-white flashbacks to moving watercolor interludes, seeing what will stick — which they all don’t. Maybe that’s because Eve and Fry aren’t especially convincing as not-quite-exes, whose performances are stiffer than the talents we’ve seen both actors exhibit. I’d watch an entire movie dedicated to the Ratch family’s killer costume party based on menacing attire and practical effects that crack skulls once an axe comes to play, which unfavorably contrasts against the quieter Calder material (although I love sleazebag Dorian Lough giving Richard Brake a run for his money). Shore and Vaughan overload their screenplay, which forces an experience that will inevitably cut away from something you’re enjoying to pick up elsewhere. It’s distracting, throws off pacing, and indecisive at the end of the day given how some concepts would be better left on the chopping room floor.

All said, Haunting of the Queen Mary is still a serviceable voyage into Shore’s nasty and blood-soaked interpretations of the transatlantic beauty’s ghostly mythology. The film’s problematic running time doesn’t present too much of a good thing — it’s an imbalance between what’s eye-catching and what’s not so inviting. Luckily, that ratio skews positively toward an intriguing hybrid of brutal slasher deaths and seafaring terrorization that harps on inescapable curses. It’s never as accomplished as Ghost Ship, Triangle, or other primetime haunted vessel comparisons, but it’s still good enough to chill your bones cold like a moonlit breeze off the ocean after midnight.