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#10 - The Ward
John Carpenter, 2010
In 1960s Oregon, an amnesiac named Kristen (Amber Heard) is arrested after burning a house down and is sent to a psychiatric facility. Once there, she notices some suspicious activity and soon discovers that there is a malevolent force picking off the patients one by one.
Ah, John Carpenter. He's made at least a couple of my all-time favourite movies and I've generally liked most of his work but he's made his fair share of stinkers, especially over the course of the past thirty years. While I'll readily defend In the Mouth of Madness and Escape From L.A., he hasn't really made a good film since They Live. Sure, the "Cigarette Burns" episode of Masters of Horror showed he hadn't completely lost his touch (even if it was basically "In the Mouth of Madness but about movies instead of books"), but then he messed it up a bit with the weirdly off-kilter "Pro-Life" episode. For the longest time, it looked like his final contribution to cinema would be the mishmash of former glories that was Ghosts of Mars...then he made The Ward.
It's an interesting thing watching a movie you don't really expect to be good but still hold out a little hope for on the basis that you're watching one of your favourite directors, but it becomes clear from the moment that the credits aren't in Albertus typeface that, despite his name hanging over the title, this doesn't quite feel like a Carpenter movie. The central premise did have some potential - setting the film in an old mental institution with its capacity for sadistic staffers, nightmarish treatment methods and general detachment from reality was unsettling enough without the introduction of a supernatural threat. Of course, that does leave the film wide open to a certain number of clichés, up to and including the suspiciously calm psychiatrist (played by Jared Harris). It also doesn't help that the other patients in the ward subscribe to a number of basic mental patient stereotypes - the upbeat friendly one, the mean one, the cowardly one and the childlike one. Heard's protagonist doesn't seem to have much of a personality at all and no real goal other than to get out of the hospital and also find out what's going on. The horror is tried-and-true - plenty of jump scares, darkness, a few graphic death scenes, but some of it does get ridiculous, especially when...
Also, I think the ending is worth talking about so here come the spoilers again...
I think the fact that I even have to question whether or not that ending makes sense of the rest of the film or just creates even more plot holes means it's probably going to invoke the latter, but whatever. The Ward is definitely not a classic and not even one of Carpenter's better movies, but I didn't hate it. Even though you can't teach an old dog like Carpenter many new horror tricks, this didn't feel like a complete waste of time and built up a decent enough atmosphere and featured some fairly disturbing death scenes. Unfortunately, the rest of it is still kind of a chore to get through, so it goes on the negative end of the scale. Hardly the last hurrah a director of his caliber deserves.
John Carpenter, 2010
In 1960s Oregon, an amnesiac named Kristen (Amber Heard) is arrested after burning a house down and is sent to a psychiatric facility. Once there, she notices some suspicious activity and soon discovers that there is a malevolent force picking off the patients one by one.
Ah, John Carpenter. He's made at least a couple of my all-time favourite movies and I've generally liked most of his work but he's made his fair share of stinkers, especially over the course of the past thirty years. While I'll readily defend In the Mouth of Madness and Escape From L.A., he hasn't really made a good film since They Live. Sure, the "Cigarette Burns" episode of Masters of Horror showed he hadn't completely lost his touch (even if it was basically "In the Mouth of Madness but about movies instead of books"), but then he messed it up a bit with the weirdly off-kilter "Pro-Life" episode. For the longest time, it looked like his final contribution to cinema would be the mishmash of former glories that was Ghosts of Mars...then he made The Ward.
It's an interesting thing watching a movie you don't really expect to be good but still hold out a little hope for on the basis that you're watching one of your favourite directors, but it becomes clear from the moment that the credits aren't in Albertus typeface that, despite his name hanging over the title, this doesn't quite feel like a Carpenter movie. The central premise did have some potential - setting the film in an old mental institution with its capacity for sadistic staffers, nightmarish treatment methods and general detachment from reality was unsettling enough without the introduction of a supernatural threat. Of course, that does leave the film wide open to a certain number of clichés, up to and including the suspiciously calm psychiatrist (played by Jared Harris). It also doesn't help that the other patients in the ward subscribe to a number of basic mental patient stereotypes - the upbeat friendly one, the mean one, the cowardly one and the childlike one. Heard's protagonist doesn't seem to have much of a personality at all and no real goal other than to get out of the hospital and also find out what's going on. The horror is tried-and-true - plenty of jump scares, darkness, a few graphic death scenes, but some of it does get ridiculous, especially when...
WARNING: "The Ward" spoilers below
Sarah, the group's mean girl, just finishes having a conversation with the others in the main room before walking past the nearby nurses' station and seeing the killer ghost, somehow managing to scream without alerting anyone else and runs off only to be captured and killed by the ghost.
Also, I think the ending is worth talking about so here come the spoilers again...
WARNING: "The Ward" spoilers below
At first the reveal behind the ghost's nature is that it's a former patient named Alice who was murdered by the other patients in the ward and is taking its revenge on them. When Kristen "kills" the ghost and demands an explanation from Harris' character, he explains that her real name is Alice and that she developed multiple personality disorder as a means of coping with being kidnapped and molested. Each of the girls was a split personality and the whole film was taking place in Alice's mind, so their deaths were simply a metaphor for how Alice was slowly getting cured...until "Kristen" appeared and shook things up again. The film's very last scene involves a cured Alice getting ready to leave the ward - until Kristen jumps out of a mirror and the movie smashes to black.
I think the fact that I even have to question whether or not that ending makes sense of the rest of the film or just creates even more plot holes means it's probably going to invoke the latter, but whatever. The Ward is definitely not a classic and not even one of Carpenter's better movies, but I didn't hate it. Even though you can't teach an old dog like Carpenter many new horror tricks, this didn't feel like a complete waste of time and built up a decent enough atmosphere and featured some fairly disturbing death scenes. Unfortunately, the rest of it is still kind of a chore to get through, so it goes on the negative end of the scale. Hardly the last hurrah a director of his caliber deserves.