The Ward

(2011) **1/2

Kristen awakes in an asylum (circa 1966) with no recollection of her life before hospitalization or why she is being held against her will in a sprawling, creepy institution. A therapy session with a psychiatrist yields very little and when pressed by her doctor she is only able to recall that she does not feel “safe”. Soon she is given the grand tour by a Nurse Ratched type who introduces her to the four other denizens of the grim ward. The other women are useless when it comes to providing any information but Kristen eventually befriends them and soon learns that 2 former patients went missing not long ago. With little else to do she decides to investigate their disappearances. Soon the other women begin to disappear and Kristen uncovers a horrifying truth about the ward.



What in the world has happened to the horror “masters”? A peek at the past 10 years reveals a sea of terrible product from Craven, Romero, and Carpenter. Somehow the old guard has been unable to keep up with the times and what we’re left with is clichéd, unoriginal films with little to offer to the hardcore fans. You have to go way back in Carpenter’s filmography to find his last fun film IMHO (Big trouble in Little China, 1986).


I hope they don't notice that I lost my touch

The Ward has the usual trappings of a movie cliché with its portrayal of a mental institution. The patients are a stereotype of every patient you’ve seen in these kinds of films. There’s Iris the artist, Emily the aggressive one, Sarah the impulsive one and Zoey the one with PTSD. At the end of the day The Ward ends up being less a horror movie and more of a Breakfast Club for nut jobs.



Apparently The Ward was in “limited release”, which is why I never heard of it. Usually “limited release” means “We have a piece of crap on our hands” and this is exactly what the studios must have concluded when they viewed Carpenter’s first new film in nearly a decade. The movie is chock full of cheap scares including people who suddenly pop up onto the screen and loud “scary” music that goes nowhere. There are moments when the film rises above schlock and some of the old Carpenter flourishes can be glimpsed (e.g. some excellent tracking shots) but for the most part the story is formulaic and rather dull despite its tight, fast pace. If you are patient enough to get through this there is a nice twist near the end that is probably the most interesting part of this film, but my guess is that most of you will have aborted before getting there.