Home > Horror >

The Ward

The Ward (2011)

July. 08,2011
|
5.5
|
R
| Horror Mystery

Kristen, a troubled young woman, is captured by the police after burning down a farmhouse and is locked in the North Bend Psychiatric Hospital. Soon, she begins to suspect that the place has a dark secret at its core and she's determined to find out what it is.

...

Watch Trailer

Cast

Similar titles

Reviews

KnotMissPriceless
2011/07/08

Why so much hype?

More
GamerTab
2011/07/09

That was an excellent one.

More
Tobias Burrows
2011/07/10

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

More
Deanna
2011/07/11

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

More
fedor8
2011/07/12

Horror fans are familiar with Carpenter's split personality: the great film-maker and the lousy/lazy film-maker. So who better to do a movie about schizophrenia? The snag is that the lousy Carpenter was in charge when this was made. Perhaps electro-shocks might have helped? Great film-makers can use huge plot-twists without lying to the viewer, whereas lousy film-makers can't.Meryl Streep's daughter is pretty much the least appealing, worst actress I've seen in ages. When Carpenter screws up, he screws up real proper, and casting his movies with nepotists and bland wallpaper is an integral part of the inept Carpenter. The film looks plastic and uninspired, with a dumb plot-twist reminiscent of "Identity". All the insane-asylum cliches are covered too. Carpenter doesn't even have the decency to show us any of the women's breasts in the shower scene, that's how far gone he is in his laziness and cluelessness. (I don't include Meryl's demonic offspring, she can stay covered as far as I'm concerned.)

More
NateWatchesCoolMovies
2011/07/13

John Carpenter's The Ward isn't a particularly remarkable film, and it's certainly not a very scary one, but there are aspects that I really enjoyed, one of which being the excellent original score, which Carpenter actually didn't compose himself, for once. The film gets off to a great eerie start with opening credits that are the most evocative sequence of the whole thing, leading into the tale of one seriously disturbed chick (Amber Heard) who finds herself in a whacko mental institution, plagued by the ghost of a restless former patient. A befuddled Doctor (Jared Harris) knows more than he let's on, of course, and her fellow patients are similarly tormented by the phantom. Here's the thing: it's well plotted, acted and executed, save for one thing: it's never scary. Not once do the hairs on the back of your neck stand to attention, and a horror film should have that. I loved the psychological sudoku of an ending, but even there there was no creep factor to be found. Her fellow patients all have parts to play, including Danielle Panabaker, Laura Leigh Claire, Mamie Gummer and a standout Mika Boorem who steals the show from Heard right in the final act. Works as a thriller, padded with atmosphere here and there, but could have done with a better dose of chills to sweeten the deal.

More
BA_Harrison
2011/07/14

1966: after burning down a farmhouse, a mentally troubled girl (Amber Heard) is sent to a psychiatric hospital for rehabilitative treatment; there, she discovers that the spirit of a previous patient is stalking the building, seeking revenge on those who wronged her.John Carpenter proves further that his best days are well behind him with The Ward, a film that, while no means terrible, offers very little to enthuse about. Ghostly goings-on in a psychiatric ward offer plenty of opportunity for serious chills, but Carpenter seems to be going through the motions, delivering very little genuine suspense and terror but plenty of cheap scares (a CGI spook providing the frights), along with just a smidge of gore. It's formulaic and instantly forgettable nonsense, not helped by a bland performance from star Heard, whose acting skills aren't on a par with her looks.To further illustrate the lack of fresh ideas, Carpenter wraps up his film with a twist that recalls the John Cusack mystery/horror Identity, and closes with one more jump scare for good measure.5/10.

More
Filipe Neto
2011/07/15

Dark and scary places with ghosts, questionable therapies and some disrespect for it's patients humanity... usually, this is how we imagine an insane asylum. This recipe, which has allowed most of old sanatoriums to gain a reputation for being haunted, is quite visible in this film, which tells the story of a mental patient who is terrified by a ghost. Set in the sixties (it seems that John Carpenter truly enjoys this period, where his career began), the film quickly creates a positive tension and suspense. This is done by putting together these ideas and a plot full of unanswered questions. Some scenes in the beginning of the film are only understood in the end, as if they were clues for the public to find its own answer. Some of the movie's most intense scenes, unsuitable for the faint-hearted, resort to scary medical techniques that were top-of-the-line at the time. Amber Heard is the protagonist, and is OK in her character, fulfilling without surprising; Mamie Gummer and Danielle Panabaker gave life to the crazy colleagues I liked the most, as they are the opposite of each other but interact very well with Heard. Jared Harris has been convincing in the role of the doctor. So, this film is far from completely satisfying Carpenter's fans, but was enough as an appetizer for them.

More