Reply to Topic
John Carpenter's The Ward
Carpenter's weak comeback.
Kristen burns an abandoned home to the ground and is taken to a psychiatric ward to help with her obvious mental problems. While there she meets four other girls and discovers a secret that lurks in the shadows. A young girl is haunting the place and trying to kill the girls.
John Carpenter's last flick was the underrated and equally horrible, does that even make sense, Ghosts of Mars. That flick took such a beating at the box office and by critics that Carpenter hid away from making big budget films again. He would pop up here and there in the Masters of Horror series with a few short films, but it's with The Ward that he makes his return to the big screen and to scare up those horror fans. The genre has always been hit and miss, with more misses and with Carpenter back in the fold, I had hopes that The Ward would bring back the terror.
The film stars Amber Heard as Kristen, she has a tough girl attitude about it and takes on the role of 'protector' of the girls. As soon as she enters the ward, you know something isn't right. Could it be the ominous child like sining the soundtrack so gleefully gives us in the opening credits? Or how about the fact that the staff is reluctant to tell anyone anything. Whatever it is, she decides she needs to break free and tries multiple escapes. Heard is a gorgeous girl and has the chops to lead a film like this, and she tries her best at it.
The film as a whole is a let down. To be completely honest though, I wasn't expecting much. Carpenter is a few decades behind the game and The Ward fails to scare up any chills. It relies too heavily on the ill-fated jump scare. I lost count how many times the ghost girl would pop up into frame and then the score boom loud enough to make you jump. It's the the images that scare us, it's the obnoxious sound. The girl herself isn't frightening at all. This could have been a great opportunity for the make-up department to throw together a ghoulish looking creature. They seem to have gotten lazy because all we get is some half ass rotting corpse look.
The film has me rolling my eyes throughout most of it. It's the last act, after the climax, that saves it from being a total disaster. It's not original in any way shape or form, other films have done the exact same thing before and better. I won't give away which film it is, but I will say that it has a Ten Little Indians feel to it. Here, we get the scary chase climax, the shocking reveal (not that shocking) then the calm before the storm. The storm being the obligatory last jump scare at the very end. I had hoped they wouldn't go that route, but they did.
The Ward isn't scary, but it might be for that young teenage female crowd. Each character is written to reach their maximum caricature needs, which makes sense by the end of it all. It's not the return to form we horror fans were hoping and waiting for, its not even a memorable horror film. I expect The Ward to fade away and never be mentioned again in the John Carpenter legacy. What it did do, is hold my attention for an hour and a half, what little it had left.
Carpenter's weak comeback.
Kristen burns an abandoned home to the ground and is taken to a psychiatric ward to help with her obvious mental problems. While there she meets four other girls and discovers a secret that lurks in the shadows. A young girl is haunting the place and trying to kill the girls.
John Carpenter's last flick was the underrated and equally horrible, does that even make sense, Ghosts of Mars. That flick took such a beating at the box office and by critics that Carpenter hid away from making big budget films again. He would pop up here and there in the Masters of Horror series with a few short films, but it's with The Ward that he makes his return to the big screen and to scare up those horror fans. The genre has always been hit and miss, with more misses and with Carpenter back in the fold, I had hopes that The Ward would bring back the terror.
The film stars Amber Heard as Kristen, she has a tough girl attitude about it and takes on the role of 'protector' of the girls. As soon as she enters the ward, you know something isn't right. Could it be the ominous child like sining the soundtrack so gleefully gives us in the opening credits? Or how about the fact that the staff is reluctant to tell anyone anything. Whatever it is, she decides she needs to break free and tries multiple escapes. Heard is a gorgeous girl and has the chops to lead a film like this, and she tries her best at it.
The film as a whole is a let down. To be completely honest though, I wasn't expecting much. Carpenter is a few decades behind the game and The Ward fails to scare up any chills. It relies too heavily on the ill-fated jump scare. I lost count how many times the ghost girl would pop up into frame and then the score boom loud enough to make you jump. It's the the images that scare us, it's the obnoxious sound. The girl herself isn't frightening at all. This could have been a great opportunity for the make-up department to throw together a ghoulish looking creature. They seem to have gotten lazy because all we get is some half ass rotting corpse look.
The film has me rolling my eyes throughout most of it. It's the last act, after the climax, that saves it from being a total disaster. It's not original in any way shape or form, other films have done the exact same thing before and better. I won't give away which film it is, but I will say that it has a Ten Little Indians feel to it. Here, we get the scary chase climax, the shocking reveal (not that shocking) then the calm before the storm. The storm being the obligatory last jump scare at the very end. I had hoped they wouldn't go that route, but they did.
The Ward isn't scary, but it might be for that young teenage female crowd. Each character is written to reach their maximum caricature needs, which makes sense by the end of it all. It's not the return to form we horror fans were hoping and waiting for, its not even a memorable horror film. I expect The Ward to fade away and never be mentioned again in the John Carpenter legacy. What it did do, is hold my attention for an hour and a half, what little it had left.
__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."
Suspect's Reviews
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."
Suspect's Reviews
Last edited by TheUsualSuspect; 03-09-17 at 08:36 AM.
