Woodyanders Review of The Ward

The Ward (2010)

Not quite the return to form John Carpenter fans are hoping for

[6/10 · 25 July 2013]

1966. Troubled young Kristen (a solid and sympathetic performance by the gorgeous Amber Heard) gets sent to the North Bend Psychiatric Hospital, where she winds up being terrorized by the angry ghost of a patient who vanished under mysterious circumstances. Veteran horror director John Carpenter begins the movie well, with a steady pace, a good deal of spooky atmosphere, and a vivid sense of the claustrophobic location. Alas, the rot-faced ghost just isn't scary, the tension eventually dissipates, the generic jump-out-at-you jolts don't pack the jarring punch that they should, and the unfortunate inevitable resorting to explicit gore smacks of desperation. While Carpenter's work is certainly competent and the visuals are stylish, one simply doesn't get the feeling that it's a true Carpenter movie because of his journeyman-like approach to the lackluster script by Michael and Shawn Rasmussen. Speaking of said screenplay, the flimsy plot doesn't possess the necessary substance to be effectively sustained by a feature length and the lamely obvious "it's all just in her head" twist ending comes across as both trite and predictable. Fortunately, the sound acting by the sturdy cast keeps the film watchable: Mamie Gummer as the mean Emily, Danielle Panabaker as the brash and abrasive Sarah, Laura-Leigh as the fragile and timid Zoey, Lyndsy Fonseca as the sweet Iris, Mika Boorem as the malevolent Alice, and Jared Harris as sincere psychiatrist Dr. Gerald Stringer. Yaron Orbach's glossy widescreen cinematography provides a sumptuous look. Mark Kilian's moody score does the pulsating ooga-booga trick. Not half bad, but one expects something much better from someone of Carpenter's sterling reputation.