Welcome to North Bend Psychiatric Hospital, an isolation ward for disturbed women that holds a terrifying secret. Kristen, a beautiful but volatile young woman finds herself bruised, cut, drugged and held against her will at the sinister asylum. Trying to gain control of her memory and figure out how she got there, Kristen discovers that a savage ghostly figure roams the halls at night. One by one, the other patients begin to disappear. To survive, Kristen must discover the horrifying truth of the ward.Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Legendary director John Carpenter - the mastermind behind Halloween, The Thing, and Escape from New York - is back in this suspenseful psychological shocker
I reviewed John Carpenter's The Ward, yes his name is part of the title, back in April as a part of my Dallas IFF coverage. If you want my detailed opinion of the film, you can check that link below. Let me just cut it short and say that this film was a huge disappointment. I really wanted to welcome John Carpenter back into the fold of horror masters, but this isn't the film that will regain him my respect.
JC's The Ward is a predictable, boring, and ultimately very unscary mess. There is never a minute of suspense, and the film's twists are all telegraphed well in advance. I'm not saying every film has to be The Sixth Sense, but something in a horror film should make me jump or scoot to the edge of my seat, and The Ward, especially on a second viewing, does none of that.
Carpenter has shown in recent years that he still has the ability to shock and disturb. His entries in Mick Garris' Masters of Horror series were pretty solid, and the first one, Cigarette Burns, genuinely freaked me out in a way that none of the other episodes did. I'm also of the opinion that Carpenter's Lovecraft tribute, In the Mouth of Madness, is one of his very best, and so the prospect of a horror film set in an asylum and dealing with insanity would be right in his wheelhouse, but I guess I put too much stock in that hope.
I must say, in the name of fairness, that my opinion isn't the only one on the site. Todd reviewed the film at TIFF and liked it a bit more than me, and our Scott Weinberg seemed to like it in his review for FEARnet. That being said, this is my review, and the film stinks.
The Disc:
On the other hand, ARC Entertainment's Blu-ray disc of the film is very good. The picture quality is outstanding, and the image shows a healthy amount of detail, which is important since so much of the action takes place in the dark, which can be problematic. The sound is equally sufficient, but neither of these aspects are enough to make up for such an uninspired film.
The extras on the disc are slight. The only thing of any substance is a commentary track with Carpenter and actor, Jared Harris. The commentary track is enlightening in a way that I don't think the producers were expecting in that it seems to confirm Carpenter's boredom with the whole affair. He seems just as uninterested in talking about the film as I was watching it. The only other extra is a theatrical trailer.
If you are a Carpenter completist, by all means, pick this disc up, but I can't really recommend it to anyone looking for a solid thriller/horror film. Better luck next time, Mr. Carpenter.