“The Concrete Captain” appears as a segment of the “Ghost Story” TV show from the 1970’s. I remember watching a few of these shows when I was a kid and I can safely say that what was once a frightening experience is today a viewing experience of utter boredom. I have read other reviews of this show which describe it as a slow-moving affair and after my recent viewing, I would definitely concur.

This program got its start as the brainchild of noted horror author Richard Matheson and exploitation movie maker William Castle (“House on Haunted Hill”, “The Tingler”, “13 Ghosts”, etc.) With the impressive track record of these two talents being involved, a TV series was greenlighted. Unfortunately, Matheson would write only the first episode and subsequent efforts would see other writers involved and as a result, either by design or not, a slow pace approach to storytelling took over.

“The Concrete Captain” is no exception. A married couple celebrating their anniversary visit a coastal stretch of California. The wife gets a souvenir from her husband of a local landmark designating the final resting place of an old-time ship’s captain. The wife suddenly becomes possessed by the object and directs her husband to a remote old hotel she mysteriously knows the way to and there in begins a series of glimpses of ghostly characters and disembodied voices heard mingled with the continual howling ocean wind. Seems that the long dead captain is trying to lure his “wife” to assist him in freeing him from a tomb he was unfortunately interred in a century before.

That’s the best way I can describe this story because I am not entirely sure if that is what the writer intended. Oh, well. Close enough.

Some interesting special optical effects are used in this episode and the cinematography is stunning and actually quite beautiful. But the scares are few and far between and the whole premise is a little confusing. And slow moving.