I've been a fan of John Carpenter's ever since picking up a dusty old copy of Halloween on VHS in my early teens. Hell, probably before that too, as I'd long admired the video tape sleeve art for his flicks (Escape From New York anyone?). The man is a master of the Horror genre; The Thing, They Live, Village Of The Damned, Prince Of Darkness, etc. Even his lesser works are ripe with entertainment. And so it's with a great and bitter disappointment that I'm about to write a somewhat negative review for his latest effort, The Ward.
The Ward begins simply, with Kristen (Amber Heard) burning down a home for an unknown reason. For this crime, she is institutionalized at the North Bend Mental Hospital. In her new residence, she meets four other girls, each incarcerated for different crimes. Within hours, Kristin realizes that in the ward, not everyone is telling the truth, not everything is what it seems and at night, something relentlessly stalks the patients through the shadowy corridors. The initial problems with The Ward lay in it's script. The basis and structure for every motion picture, a good movie needs a good script. So early on, when characters deliver such horrendously written dialogue that it's almost laughable...well, you get the idea. There isn't a single scene devoted to characterization in any way, shape or form and the pacing is ramped up so high, you're barely given time to get to know these people. Combine these three script related problems and it's obvious the film was written by two completely inexperienced screenwriters (the Rasmussen brothers). I don't want to get into spoiler territory here, but to call the writer's choice of ending bad? Understatement of the century...
The absence of long-time collaborator, Dean Cundey, is evident in the modern look and feel to the flick. The set design and costume work is quite good, but it's somewhat swamped by the average, often blasé cinematography. What Carpenter and co. fail to realize is that a dark room with a few lightning flashes does not equal a creepy atmosphere.
Is everything about The Ward a missed opportunity? Not exactly. Giving credit where credit's due, Carpenter still manages to provide at least three decent frights and the gorehounds among the audience won't be disappointed, with pierced eyeballs, cut-throats and other ghastly grue on show. Another positive thing to note, the flick stars Jared Harris (of the upcoming Sherlock Holmes 2 and Mad Men) in the subtly creepy role of Dr. Stringer. He manages to keep his head above the mediocrity that is 90% of the film's cast. In the end, I don't want to shit on a John Carpenter film. And while it may seem like I hated the film, I didn't. The unfortunate fact of the matter is this; what could have been the glorious return of a genre maestro is instead a deflated, half-arsed ghost story. The best thing that could come out of this, is if Warner Bros. turns a small profit on DVD sales, possibly enticing the director back for another crack at greatness.
Director: John Carpenter
Starring: Amber Heard, Jared Harris, Lyndsy Fonseca
Running Time: 88 minutes
Certificate: 16 IRE / 15 UK
Released: Jan 21 (IRE)
