13 Creepy Unsolved Mysteries That Need To Be Turned Into Movies
9. The SOS Of The SS Ourang Medan
It was June 1947 when ships all around Malaysia started picking up SOS distress calls. The calls came in Morse code, were heard by American, British, and Dutch posts, and were eventually traced to a freighter called the SS Ourang Medan. The messages were chilling; “All officers including captain are dead, lying in chartroom and bridge. Possibly whole crew dead.” The last line before utter silence was simply “I die.”
When an American ship, the Silver Star, found and boarded the Ourang Medan, they found corpses on every deck, each with the same eyes-wide look of terror on their faces. As the ship was towed back to land it mysteriously caught fire, blew up in a ball of flames, and sank to the bottom of the ocean, bringing the mystery down with it.
How Would The Movie Look?
Not unlike Captain Philips, an Ourang Medan film would need an A-list actor like Tom Hanks to ground the action and make an unbelievable story believable. Close-quarters filming and, perhaps, a director that isn’t afraid to gloss over the mystery of what happened could serve the film well.
The real trick with pulling off this film would be to show the horror before the mysterious event and the shock of the American crew after. Although what happened on board is fascinating, any movie that tries to depict something that can't be depicted would find itself sinking fast.