38
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 70The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenThe Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenWhile by no means a masterpiece of the form, John Carpenter's The Ward is an economical period piece that still effectively demonstrates what a skilled technician can accomplish in a single location with a compact cast and sturdy old-school effects.
- 70Village VoiceNick PinkertonVillage VoiceNick PinkertonCarpenter does what he's always done well here: individualizing shorthand personalities in a group under siege. This is Carpenter's first all-female ensemble, and the inmates are uniformly well-played.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanAt least Carpenter the spook-meister knows how to goose you.
- 63Slant MagazineEd GonzalezSlant MagazineEd GonzalezIts ostentatious sense of horror -- think later-day Argento -- is far from suggestive, though some of its queasier moments effectively tap into our fears of not-so-bygone forms of invasive physical therapy.
- 60VarietyDennis HarveyVarietyDennis HarveyFans excited to see John Carpenter back in bigscreen action after nine years' absence will find limited cause for joy in The Ward, a horror opus that briskly -- maybe too briskly -- charts ghostly doings at a nuthouse.
- 42The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayNothing about The Ward's script or direction has much snap. The dialogue is never witty, the characters are indistinct, the story is set in 1966 for no relevant reason, and the scares are strictly of the "thing jumps loudly out of the shadows" variety.
- 40Boxoffice MagazineSteve RamosBoxoffice MagazineSteve RamosTypically, Carpenter thrives on modestly budgeted films like The Ward, but this one comes off as an amateurish misstep due to unoriginal storytelling from fledgling screenwriters Michael and Shawn Rasmussen.
- 33IndieWireEric KohnIndieWireEric KohnThe Ward succeeds mainly as a checklist that keeps it consistent with Carpenter's nearly forty years of work. It has none of the smart genre appeal that put him on the map, instead resembling a desperate knock-off by someone with far less talent. Carpenter either lost his groove or the will to use it.
- 30Austin ChronicleAustin ChronicleSo yeah, the great man is welcome on our screens any day. On the other hand, Carpenter's comeback packs very little of his usual cinematic flair. It's not even all that scary.
- 20Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfLacking a single serious scare or sly idea, the movie dies in ways that merely mediocre horror films can't even dream of.