Movie Appraisal: The Ward (2010)

This was John Carpenter's comeback film, the movie that might have been able to bring him out of the cellar of not so great movies he had been in through most of the Nineties and early 2000s. I have to say that I was expecting something really bad. I had heard from critics and movie fans alike that this was a bad movie, unfit for the eyes, terrible beyond comprehension, a movie with an odor so bad that it would make every other John Carpenter film bad by comparison.

And... I don't see it. The movie is by no means brilliant. It has a pretty standard premise and the twist is also pretty standard in these kinds of movies. I could compare it to Shutter Island, Identity, Session 9, and High Tension, although I think this movie is a lot better than those. Yeah, I just said that. Let that sink in. If you think I'm dumb you should just stop reading this review now. If you're intrigued then let me carry on. Shutter Island was a critical success, but I absolutely couldn't stand it; while this movie feels like a horror movie, and it acts like one too. Is it great? Does it live up to older John Carpenter films? No, not really. It's good, but I can't say it's better than my favorites of The Thing, Prince of Darkness, Into the Mouth of Madness, and others of the Eighties. That being said, it's still a pretty good horror film, full of twists and turns and some surprisingly good acting performances. Jared Harris and Amber Heard especially shine in their roles, but I have to give a nod to Dan Anderson who played Roy, the chief orderly. His performance was really the breakout one for me.

This is a pretty standard horror film though, and I can't beat around the bush about that at all. I mean, it doesn't do anything that another horror film couldn't, but does have a pretty good director behind it for whatever that's worth. The cinematography was fine, if a little brightly lit at times, and the horror was pretty decent, actually causing me to get into the movie quite a bit. Some parts of the movie were absolutely ridiculous, certainly ridiculous enough that I rolled my eyes a bit, but there was never a moment that I hated the movie or wanted to stop watching it, which is much more than I thought I'd say. I found it entertaining and with enough scares to win me over despite my own apprehensions. I can think of a ton of movies that are worse and a ton that are better, but mediocre is a much better movie than I thought I'd get so I'm happy in general. It is a pretty middling film, but it works and is competent. It never offended me or my intelligence, its pace was good, the acting was perfectly fine, and the scenery was fun to watch. I like how the story is built up, and although the twist is pretty apparent it's still kind of surprising when it happens, I suppose.

I liked this film, but I also tend to like movies like this. I liked Identity quite a bit, although Shutter Island and High Tension were not my thing at all, but these kinds of movies are fun to watch and guess at, and I found myself having fun throughout the movie and liking the little scares. I can't really talk too much about the story because it is just so standard and there are long stretched of time when nothing really happens beyond tension buildup. I like that, but I can imagine a lot of people won't at all. It's not a film for a person who's looking for horrific imagery and shocking awful horror. It's really a film for a person who likes a good psychological horror film and who likes looking for symbolism and such. Not that it does a great job at it, but again... it's pretty okay.

It is a pretty mediocre film though, and I think that's just what I'm going to keep saying about it. You'll just find me typing MEDIOCRE FILM MEDIOCRE FILM over and over a thousand times. I can't see myself watching it again. It's nowhere near good enough for me to care about another viewing. I enjoyed it once, and now I'm done with it. I'll probably forget about it pretty quickly, but I enjoyed it while watching it. Honestly though, this is a movie I could easily tell people to pass right by. It's okay, but not great, and it's not terrible enough to make fun of. It has some fairly dry bits to it as well as cinematography that doesn't quite sync up with the horror that the movie seems to be trying to go for. But I like it anyway, finding it more fun and enjoyable than not. I can't say I regret watching it. John Carpenter, one of my favorite directors, does a pretty good job coming back to helming a movie. My only hope is that he won't play it as safe for his next one.

I have to say that the soundtrack is absolutely banging. By the way. I mean, it's absolutely fantastic, easily the best part of the movie. It makes you feel much more into the movie and gets your blood pumping. Both are good things. I was expecting such a kicking score, but it was really cool.

The last thing I have to say is about the great way they established the mental hospital. I have been doing research on old mental hospitals and treatments for a while now, and they actually did a pretty good job at being fairly accurate. I was both surprised and impressed by that. The DID was a little less than stellar though simply because DID that strong actually rarely happens... hell, it's even heavily debated whether it even could happen. So, there's that in the reality department. But I still liked the film well enough, and if it sounds interesting, take the chance in watching it.

You might be surprised.

Hell, I was.

Movie Appraisal: Session 9 (2001)

Session 9 is a fantastic psychological horror movie. This is exactly what every psychological horror movie should be. Yes, it takes credit from the location of the abandoned Danvers State Hospital, but the imagery overall is fantastic.Yes, there are some downsides, but with the relatively tiny amounts of good or even decent psychological horror movies out there, this movie does stand out to me as being absolutely full of quality.

While neither the acting nor the characters themselves really sell this movie, the directing and mental hospital imagery really do. What is scary than being inside of an abandoned mental asylum? Not much. What else can I even think of that would be scarier? Locked inside of the Parisian catacombs? Or I guess any catacombs? Yeah, I guess that would be more terrifying, but until I see horror movies with that as the setting, I am going to have to settle for this being one of the creepier settings.

A lot of psychological horror is set in hospitals, probably to remind all the viewers of death and how hospitals really are a place of sickness and death just as much as they are places of healing. It is how our society views death. We fear hospitals for what they represent: death, sickness, disease, cancer, sadness, grief... All those things come to mind when thinking about a hospital, and a mental hospital is even worse, throwing in insanity and psychosis into the mix, maybe even violence if there is a history of that with the patients.

My point here is that a lot of psychological horror tends to use that fear of hospitals against the viewer. Hospitals or mental hospitals appear in Jacob's Ladder, Autopsy, Room 8, Silent Hill, Ink, Stay, Black damn Swan, The Ring, Dead End, Sublime, 1408, and many others including many horror video games as well. My point is that the setting is used so much because it is useful for unsettling the watcher and useful for making people squirm. That is one of the reasons why Session 9 is so effective.

Is it my favorite psychological horror movie? No. It has its moments, but ultimately, despite the great and fearful visuals, it seems to lack something. The plot is simplistic, about working men cleaning up an old hospital and finding something dark within that place. Yes, there are small scares from time to time, but nothing that feels altogether coherent. It has a weird plot, one that turns about and has a big twist in the end, but ultimately feels like it lacks a soul.

Does it really matter if a horror movie has a soul or not?

No, I think this movie feels scary. There are scenes in this film that are intensely difficult to watch. One comes to mind with the use of the lobotomizing instrument. It's really creepy.

The plot is all over the place and, like I said previously, involves a few twists and turns with an ultimate story "twist." I'm not going to spoil it, but it involves Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), which seems to be a common thing in psychological horror (like Identity for example) and a loose cannon of a character. The pacing is good and the characters, although not exactly likable or played by amazing actors, do a great job for their roles within the story.

There are some Chekhov's guns throughout the story as well and if you pay attention you can figure out the plot long before the movie presents the solution to you. Watch the phone calls between Gordon and his wife, watch the different deaths of the cast and see if you can figure it out. The character of Simon is also creepy too, creepy enough to give one of my friends who watched it years ago nightmares about it for weeks afterward.

Again, this is a solid entry into psychological horror even if it isn't the best. It's scary and well-paced, and thoroughly enjoyable, with few flaws that I can really even mention save the weak cast. The imagery is incredibly well done and it really does stick out as one of the better psychological horror movies around even if it really jumps onto an overdone psychological horror trope in using hospitals as a main setting. It's a solid movie anyway and lovers or even likers of psychological movies or horror movies will be impressed by it.