The Ward

I felt it was very drawn out. Tiny little pieces were given along the way and it built to a huge, twist finish. The characters were believable and there left enough unclosed at the end to make your own decision, without any confusion - it ended without ending. It is very riveting despite the drab surroundings, the acting does grip you, the baddies frustrate, the goodies you want to cuddle and there's one mysterious character. The doctor, it's impossible to determine which side he is on. Very good film by a great man. Not a John Carpenter classic but worth a watch.

I have no idea what anyone gets from this film. I nearly left after half an hour, and it didn't improve. I spent more time laughing than anything else. The ghost is predictable, what the ghost does is predictable. Seems rather an incompetent ghost, actually. As ghosts go, these days. "Jump" moments are easy to achieve. Every time the ghost appeared, I groaned. "Not again." Yawn. And we even have the tired old device of a last "jump" moment after the story has concluded, in the second before the credits roll. Designed for Friday night date nights where easily-scared girls shriek and can be comforted by their boyfriends. Otherwise, to be avoided.

Returning to the director's chair after a ten year absence, you might think that during all that time, director John Carpenter would have gone through a lot of proposed projects and picked the best one of all for a comeback. I have absolutely no idea why Carpenter picked "The Ward" for his comeback. It isn't a terrible movie - for a somewhat low budget movie, it looks fairly professional, and it isn't boring at any moment. But throughout the movie, I kept telling myself, "You've seen this all before." This includes the "surprise" twist towards the end the movie - most likely you'll have some idea of what will be revealed before it actually happens. And when you think about the twist after the movie has ended, you will realize that some other parts of the movie don't make much sense with the knowledge of this twist. The confusing twist, along with the unsurprising makeup of the rest of the movie probably explain why this movie didn't get a theatrical release in North America.

If one didn't see veteran filmmaker John Carpenter's name on this production, they might not believe he actually was responsible. As was said in another review, this is not the return to form we fans of Carpenter were hoping for, after his almost decade long self imposed break. It's not badly made or anything, just routinely written and acted; it will have experienced horror fans shaking their heads with disappointment. It just doesn't have anything to really distinguish it from other low budget genre films taking up space on shelves. The story takes place at one of those insane asylums that seemingly only cater to smoking hot young babes (not that this reviewer is complaining on that score). The new arrival is Kristen (Amber Heard), who'd set a farmhouse on fire. She insists she's not insane, natch, and soon she and her fellow inmates have their lives threatened by a mysterious long haired entity that seemingly wandered in from a Japanese horror film. All of this leads to a climactic revelation we've seen done before, all done in the classic style of having one character explain everything just in case we didn't get the point on our own. Carpenter does infuse the film with atmosphere, a respectable amount of it, to give it some effectiveness, but relies on jump scares just a little too often. The movie works best when it's simply enveloping the viewer in its ambiance. That said, Heard *is* a compulsively watchable lead, a stunner *and* a capable actress who can get us on her side. Her fellow hotties fare reasonably well: Danielle Panabaker (of the horror remakes "Friday the 13th" and "The Crazies"), Mamie Gummer (the spitting image of her mom Meryl Streep), Mika Boorem, Lyndsy Fonseca, and Laura-Leigh. Jared Harris is likable enough as the psychiatrist who seems to have her best interests in mind, although the other staff includes stereotypical, grim faced meanies including an obvious Nurse Ratched clone (Susanna Burney). There's some graphic violence, but not that much blood, and the vengeance-crazed spirit is not among Gregory Nicotero's and Howard Berger's best work. Then again, this whole thing strikes one as exactly the kind of thing people do to collect a paycheck. It's professionally done, but is also extremely forgettable in the end. The last second shock ending was hardly necessary. Six out of 10.

Probably like many who grew up with Halloween, The Fog, The Thing, Starman etc there has been a real sad sense of "What happened to John Carpenter?" considering the horrors (bad pun) of later films. I'm glad to say while this isn't perfect, perhaps the 1st act is too long, this was really enjoyable and was much more reminiscent of early days. It's nice to leave the cinema with the feeling you've not been ripped off and genuinely entertained in that wonderful B-movie way. Without risking spoilers, while it may seem to some clichéd, and yes the ending is fairly predictable, in some ways I'm not so sure; there's a cleverness present that meant the twist was far more satisfying than the excruciatingly predictable Shutter Island. It also meant the very last shot was not as "silly" as some feel. Considering the generally poor quality of many horror films these days, there's an opportunity for Carpenter to really make a resurgence, which for those of us remembering his golden period can hardly be a bad thing.

The most disappointing fact relating to this movie was that my local cinemas decided for some reason to show it over 3 nights only - what is it about broadcasting horror films in the UK? I'm a classic Carpenter fan and have been since the golden days of Hallowe'en which first graced our screens in the UK back in the early 80's (I think), thanks to the incredible time lag which these days is almost obsolete with the effective medium of DVD - a necessity to get films out there as quickly as possible to the street from the box office, en masse to the buying public. Although I'm not quite old enough to remember Dark Star or even Assault On Precinct 13 let's face it unless you're an avid reader of Fangoria, from the offset it was doomed to get slated by the mass media - why? Because it's horror. What doesn't help the situation with The Ward is that this is Carpenter's first film since Ghosts On Mars, so with the long gap (what's wrong with taking a creative break?) there is undoubtedly massive expectancy especially for the renowned master of horror to produce something that breaks new ground merging his previous ideas and styles together with 21st century technology. Correct? Absolutely not. John Carpenter, undaunted by the prospects of CGI and post Avatar computer generated wizardry that seems to be within the confines of well, lesser and unknown cartoon heroes at the moment has decided to stick to his own blend of paced horror that his trusty fans are familiar with, keeping the concept retro but not to the point of the film feeling dated in any way, or for that matter clichéd. This is especially important to address because we know how many asylum films exist, but The Ward stands on it's own two feet (or more to the point foundations) where John Carpenter proves again that if something isn't broken then why fix it. The film really is classic Carpenter, nothing more and certainly nothing less. The story is good and dark, with a great twist at the end. The acting is good, no annoying characters that you feel an incessant need to give long bouts of electro shock therapy to and the location/scenes are limited but nonetheless excellent. There are plenty of scary moments and anticipation and as usual, like Rick Wakeman reciting Mozart all of the notes just occur in the right place and at the right time. Character interplay is interesting yet not over the top and the film trundles along with a story that builds to a suitable and convincing crescendo and twist that only adds to the successful, albeit tried formula. Without giving much away the late, great Richard Harris' son Jared makes a great appearance as the somewhat gentile and quietly spoken asylum 'Guvnor', the type who wants you all to believe that he has nothing but your best interests at heart, yet there is a certain je ne sais quoi about him that gives off an unnerving feeling that at any moment he is going to open a leather bound case full of chainsaws and experimental Victorian surgical equipment. I won't say anything about the film's story because it is up to the viewer to enjoy it - and enjoy it you surely will. It's well worth the price of admittance if of course you can find anywhere on planet earth that's showing it. In a nutshell this is classic Carpenter - to his fans the style we all know and love and it is reassurance for those who were disappointed with Ghosts Of Mars although the similarities between such films could of course be compared to the artistic creations of Banksy and Picasso. It is obvious as a director that John Carpenter is stubborn enough to stick to his own style of filmmaking regardless of what the media think and there's only one ever word that can sum that up - respect.

Yet another summing up project from Master of Horror John Carpenter. This time he's revisiting the hospital killing ground of Halloween 2, without the much missed Donald Pleasence to anchor the story. Confidently directed by Carpenter, after nearly a decade away from feature films, and well-acted by its young cast, the film is nevertheless most enjoyable for its small pleasures, especially the use of 1966 as a period setting. The cruder approach to psychology during this era infects the film at every level, from the memorable credits sequence, to the primitive yet threatening art direction of the mental ward where most of the action takes place. Keeping the gore up to his usual standards, and employing his standard bag of "cheap tricks" to make the audience jump, Carpenter delivers an efficient slasher film whose unpretentious approach to its core issues of sanity vs. insanity prove much more satisfying than the dead end resolution of the recently similar mental hospital thriller, SHUTTER ISLAND.

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