PLOT: In a nameless 1959 town, a young woman named Kristen is found, crazed, in the woods before a burning church. She’s taken to a foreboding psychiatric hospital run by the ominous Dr. Stringer, where she meets an eccentric (natch) group of half-nutty girls, as well as a couple of unsavory orderlies. But it’s when the lights go out that things get really unsettling, as Kristen begins to see a ghostly figure roaming the halls – and even entering her room. Before long Kristen wises up to the fact that Chamberlain Psychiatric Hospital contains a very dark secret – and everyone but her seems to know what it is…
REVIEW: THE WARD is, as you may know by now, supposedly John Carpenter’s ticket back to the big leagues. Though the screenplay wasn’t written by him (it’s credited to Michael and Shawn Rasmussen), he boarded the project with great fanfare; it’s being produced by prestigious production house Echo Lake (the Oscar-winning foreign film TSOTSI) and came with up-and-coming star Amber Heard (ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE; PINEAPPLE EXPRESS) in the lead. Who isn’t thrilled that the master of terror (well, one of them anyway) is getting another shot at directing an A-level project, especially after doing so-so work on MASTERS OF HORROR (his last feature film is GHOSTS OF MARS for crying out loud). So does it look like Carpenter will indeed return to the big time and show the new kids how its done?
Based on the screenplay, I’d say he has a shot, although this isn’t exactly the kind of material we usually associate Carpenter with – if anything it should be handed off to Takashi Shimizu or one of his brethren. Explicitly stated, this is a PG-13 movie. There are a few bloody moments in the script (an eye-gouging, a throat-slitting) but nothing that couldn’t be toned down with a concealing camera-angle here, a smash-cut there. It’s for the crowds who see THE UNINVITED, not THE THING. We even get the standard long-haired girl ghost popping up behind people and hovering in the shadows… Think “THE GRUDGE Goes to a Mental Institution!”
The tale plays out like GIRL, INTERRUPTED filtered through a J-Horror strainer. (What it most reminds me of, however is Lucky McKee’s little-seen boarding school horror flick THE WOODS.) The group of girls Kristen meets is made up of a typically varied personality types: the pretty bitch, the mousy loner, the out-of-control rebel, etc. Kristen herself is pretty much cut from the take-no-crap, anti-authority cloth, but of course she’s gentle and sympathetic as well. Dr. Stringer is the type of generic psychiatrist we’ve seen a hundred times before: he’s too concerned about the lead’s well-being, offers concerned smiles and speaks in quiet tones, which of course means he must be a sinister bastard up to no good. There’s even a male orderly who is a sneaky creep, although the screenplay doesn’t do much with him…
For the most part, the story follows a faithful beat: Kristen converses with her fellow loonies; Kristen challenges Dr. Stringer or a nurse’s authority, but is subdued; Kristen sees something creepy and gets scared; repeat. There are three scenes with real violence in them, as the ghost lashes out at a character, but these are spread out and don’t offer much in the surprise department.
And of course, as with 99% of the movies in this genre, we’ve got to have the “big reveal” at the end, but at this point you’ve got to come up with something incredibly clever to blow an audience – let alone a movie cynic like me – away, and THE WARD’S big surprise is too little, too late. It’s overly reminiscent of a few modern classics that I won’t name lest I spoil the whole thing for you. However, let it be said that unless you’re a complete newbie and/or easily satisfied, you’ll be leaving the theater (or turning of the DVD) saying “I liked it better when _____ did it.” And there’s no doubt that these other movies did it better… (Okay, one clue: I’m not talking about THE SIXTH SENSE.)
That’s not to say there’s no entertainment value to be had. As far as scripts go, it was an easy read, and paced fairly well. Coming in at a slim 95 pages, it should translate into a quick and easy 90 min. flick that moves right along and faithfully delivers the multiple BOO!! moments this genre requires. As far as box office prospects go, it should do just about as well as any of these sort of movies do…
If cast right (and it looks like they’re starting off well with Amber Heard), with actresses who elicit our attention and sympathy, THE WARD may very well be an above-average ghost story, with adequate – albeit standard – suspense sequences and a plethora of jump-scares. If Carpenter manages to regain old form, he can jump-scare with the best of them. I’ll root for this flick just on principal – I’d like to think it gets Carpenter some dough and newfound inspiration, so he can cut loose and make the type of film we really want to see.
When in doubt – Amber Heard!
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