The Ward

The Ward is John Carpenter's first film in more than a decade. He's a hero to some fanciers of genre films, but I've never thought his work was that stellar. I suppose for what he does he's one of the best, but the horror genre, to me, as always had a low bar. That being said, The Ward doesn't rely heavily on strictly visceral thrills. There is some atmospheric touches that Carpenter uses. Unfortunately, the script, by Michael and Shawn Rasmussen, is unoriginal.

The film begins with Kristen (Amber Heard), torching a farmhouse. She's arrested and committed to a psychiatric hospital. We are told it is 1966 (the dates given in the film don't add up), presumably because a story set in the distant past allows for more politically incorrect treatment of patients.

Heard is one of a small handful of patients on the ward, and the film becomes sort of a horror version of Girl, Interrupted. All of the girls are attractive. What is it about sexy girls in psychiatric hospitals? After Sucker Punch I realize this must be a particular male fetish.

Heard, who doesn't understand why she's there, slowly realizes something is amiss, especially when a ghoulish figure wraps her hand around her throat in the shower. A ghost of some sort is haunting the ward, and one by one the other girls are done in. One gets a lobotomy, another is fried by electric shock therapy. Questions to the nurse and doctor are mysteriously unanswered.

By the end of the movie a twist is revealed, that while clever is nothing new. In fact, it's something of a rip-off from another movie. I can't tell you the movie or I would give away the secret. Suffice it to say it starred Amanda Peet.

The script is also implausible in other ways. The hospital seems ridiculously lax in security. Heard is able to get out of her cell very easily, and even gets out of a straitjacket in under thirty seconds. The head nurse seems to work there 24 hours a day, and when patients do escape there's no communication with other staff. Also, why would anyone make vents big enough for someone to crawl through in a facility designed to keep people inside?

So ends Amber Heard week. Pretty girl, but she hasn't made a whole lot of good movies. I understand she will appear in the upcoming film Rum Diary, so maybe her luck will change.