The Ward (2011, John Carpenter)

 

Finally got to check out John Carpenter's "The Ward" after waiting, what felt like, forever and a day. As said over and over again, this was Carpenter's first feature length directorial outing in about ten years since that stupid Ice Cube movie from 2001. I assume, after a some soul searching, thousands of nicotine patches, and a few cool "Masters of Horror" contributions, the iconic horror director was ready to jump back into the game with this psychological/ghost flick.

Set in 1966, a girl is shipped off to North Bend Psychiatric Hospital after torching a farmhouse. Of course, she has no memory of her pyromania and is thrown in the Ward with a handful of other hopelessly crazy girls. Before long, she begins catching glimpses of a decrepit figure peaking through the door of her cell and is physically attacked in the shower by the grotesque woman. The hospital staff doesn't believe her (which prompts them to utilize electro-shock therapy) and the rest of the patients are unwilling to discuss what they clearly have some insight on. Eventually, the ghostly figure begins killing off the girls one by one with outdated surgical methods (labotomy, electricity...).

As you can expect, this all leads up to a hugely predictable "twist". Overall, "The Ward" didn't leave me with a whole lot of zealousness toward John Carpenter's big comeback. The film is far from BAD, and if you just take Carpenter's involvement out of the equation, it's a fine flick. The atmosphere is gray and creepy, the score is memorable, and certain effects are fairly effective. Despite all of this, if I hadn't known Carpenter was attached to this movie, I wouldn't have ever thought he were behind it... I'm sure people will disagree with that, but his 'stlyle' is far less palpable and a bit more ambiguous than his glory days...

Still, I would say that John Carpenter's "The Ward" is an above-average film done by a great director who brought something to the 'modern' horror table that eclipses a lot of the garbage that you commonly see vomited onto the "scene" these days. There's nothing all that NEW within "The Ward", and, again, the "twist" ending was pretty unexceptional and prosaic. It was a lot like the ending of another fairly recent film. I won't say the title, but I will say it rhymes with Butter Pieland.

Carpenter fans, stifle your curiosity by checking out "The Ward". Just don't let your expectations get too high and limit you from enjoying the film for what it is. All we can hope is for Carpenter not to end his career on this note and REALLY blow us away with the next one!