Cast Amber Heard, Mamie Gummer, Danielle Panabaker, Lyndsy Fonseca, Jared Harris, Mika Boorem, Laura-Leigh
Director John Carpenter
Rating TBA
John Carpenter emerges from hibernation after nine years with this old-fashioned psycho thriller set in the 1960s. As a director who’s most cited by slasher film fans for having made Halloween and The Thing back in the 1980s, this effort, however, doesn’t seem like a triumphant return.
Written by Michael and Shawn Rasmussen, the movie tells the story of Kristen (Heard) a young woman who lands in jail after burning down a farmhouse, and ends up in a lonely ward of a mental asylum with no recollection of her past life.
At the hospital head shrink Dr Stringer (Harris) is treating four other mentally disturbed young women – impeccably mannered Iris (Fonseca), the very friendly Sarah (Panabaker), the childish Zoey (Laura-Leigh) and self-harming Emily (Gummer).
Pretty soon Kristen realises that the ghost of a young girl is lurking in the ward and terrorising everyone. And when her fellow patients start getting brutally knocked off one-by-one, Kristen realises the only way to survive is to escape.
In all fairness, the film’s full of unsuspecting scares (loud musical cues) that make you jump out of your seat and the spooky setting in an actual abandoned asylum makes the film effectively sinister.
Kristen’s attempts to escape do begin to grate on your nerves a little. Towards the end of the movie she tries to run away, fails, then someone is killed – and this is repeated several times.
And what’s more, the evasive spirit doing the rounds in the ward doesn’t look a bit scary, her make-up effects being poorly crafted. The more you see her, the less fearful she gets, thus spoiling the mood of the film.
Amber Heard is absolutely believable as the psychotic Kristen. And the other characters? Well, we’ve really seen them in this type of movie time and time again.
