When the salvage tug Sea Star is caught unprepared in a violent storm, it slowly sinks, and the crew, led by Captain Everton (
Donald Sutherland), wander upon another ship for refuge. The ship, apparently deserted, turns out to be a Russian research vessel loaded with high-tech electronics. The Sea Star crew, which includes hot-head Kelly "Kit" Foster (
Jamie Lee Curtis) and Steve Baker (
William Baldwin), soon find that they are not alone, and they also learn the horrible fate of the original crew. The ship had taken on an energy-based alien life-form capable of constructing bodies out of human tissue as easily as electronic parts. The life-form wants to inhabit the planet earth but first must rid the world of the virus that infects it and could kill it -- man. John Bruno, special effects supervisor on
Terminator 2 tries to reinvent the haunted house sub-genre in his directorial debut, much as
Ridley Scott did in
Alien. ~ Ron Wells, All Movie Guide