The Ward review

The Ward review

John Carpenter’s name is one that conjures up wonderful memories for serious fans of the horror movie.  He has some of the genre’s masterpieces to his credit, with The Fog and Halloween as two of the best-known examples.  Though Carpenter has also directed a lot of other films in other categories including comedy, romance and sci-fi, he got a reputation as the  ‘Master of Horror’, and that’s what his most ardent fans expect to see.

Those fans have been waiting for about eight years, during Carpenter’s self-imposed hiatus from film-making, for another masterpiece from the Master, and most of them expected The Ward to  be another jewel in his crown of frights.  Now it’s down to quibbling between some critics who appear to be tired of the whole psycho-drama scene but still have to admit that few can do it better than the Master, and the ones who are only willing to admit that The Ward is not quite perfect.

Starring Amber Heard, who actually manages to look truly distraught and disheveled some of the time, the film doesn’t have many surprises, though there are quite a few of the sudden, gasp-and shriek scenes so beloved of horror fans.  Jared Harris plays Dr. Stringer, head of the mental institution where an avenging ghost is picking off the inmates one by one.

The story is almost too twisty and convoluted, with too many unexplained side plots and ambiguous characters.  Amber is Kristen, the beautiful and terribly confused young woman who is dragged away to a mental hospital after burning down a house for no explicable reason.  Kristen is pretty sure she’s not crazy, but trying to convince Dr. Stringer and the rest of the staff is hard going, since she can’t remember anything about the arson episode, and after all she’s dealing with a malicious ghost.

Apart from the inconsistencies, The Ward does have that eerie, scary atmospheric Carpenter touch, and the camera work adds suspense in all the right places.  Good performances from the whole cast, and the film is never boring even though it’s rather predictable – a lot of twists but nothing really new in the plot or outcome.  Carpenter fans can still hope and expect to see another of his masterpieces, but this one didn’t make the cut.