The Ward | Review
‘The Ward’ is another psychological film set in an insane asylum. If you’ve seen one film set in an insane asylum, you’ve practically seen them all. Director John Carpenter’s new horror film has a few moments of fun and terror, but in the end ‘The Ward’ is just another cliche horror film with a plot twist that’s far too predictable to even be a twist.
Amber Heard (‘The Rum Diary’) is Kristen, the protagonist of the film. She’s sent to a psychiatric hospital after burning down a house. At the asylum Kristen meets several other female patients, most of whom appear pretty normal. When strange things start occurring, Kristen believes there’s a dark secret the other patients or the doctors are hiding from her.
‘The Ward’ is one part psychological and one part ghost story. There’s some sort of ghost/demon with burnt body parts harassing and killing off the patients in the asylum. After experiencing the terror of this thing Kristen attempts to solve the mystery, as well as get the heck out of the hospital.
The part this film succeeds in is providing some fun and entertaining characters. The other patients are each different and interesting in their own light. However, everything else about ‘The Ward’ fails. The “scary moments” are too cliche, and they rely more on pop-out and sudden moments. More effective scary moments are ones involving suspense and moments left to the viewer’s imagination. ‘The Ward’ shows too much of this demonic creature that it becomes less scary after each time it’s shown. As for the dramatic plot twist of the film, it’s completely predictable within the first half of the film.
‘The Ward’ was supposedly meant to be a return-to-form for the famous horror film director John Carpenter (‘Halloween’). However, it ends up being just another bad and forgettable horror film. The film is too much like last year’s great ‘Shutter Island’, but without the suspense or powerful storytelling. And it’s even worse than ‘Sucker Punch‘, which also deals with young women locked up in an insane asylum.