fedor8 Horror fans are familiar with Carpenter's split personality: the great film-maker and the lousy/lazy film-maker. So who better to do a movie about schizophrenia? The snag is that the lousy Carpenter was in charge when this was made. Perhaps electro-shocks might have helped? Great film-makers can use huge plot-twists without lying to the viewer, whereas lousy film-makers can't.Meryl Streep's daughter is pretty much the least appealing, worst actress I've seen in ages. When Carpenter screws up, he screws up real proper, and casting his movies with nepotists and bland wallpaper is an integral part of the inept Carpenter. The film looks plastic and uninspired, with a dumb plot-twist reminiscent of "Identity". All the insane-asylum cliches are covered too. Carpenter doesn't even have the decency to show us any of the women's breasts in the shower scene, that's how far gone he is in his laziness and cluelessness. (I don't include Meryl's demonic offspring, she can stay covered as far as I'm concerned.)

Ascendingsun Carpenter's early films were not even half as scary as this film, as someone who was growing up with his films since the early 80's, to me The Ward is a triumph, even a few seconds of the score or just few images of the film can scare me to death, Carpenter hit something deep within the psyche of the collective consciousness., a truly powerful film setting the stage and an imprint for artistic expressions about the discovery of identity and its redemptive freedom within the theme of mental illness and fluidity of reality. The same like Halloween, there was Black Christmas and Texas Chainsaw Massacre before too, just like there were a few others before The Ward too within the span of 10 years, but all of them together are part of a new wave. Nothing comes along alone, or standing apart, everything always comes in groups, everything, all inventions, all new things are reflected by others wihout being aware of one another, because everything is connected in this universe. The Ward is a reminder of our inter-connectedness at a microscopic level, there's many lives and personalities inside of us, reflecting us, in our private universe as well as this wider universe.

Coventry I certainly don't intend to sound disrespectful towards Mr. Carpenter. After all, the man treated us with more than a dozen very good horror & cult movies during the 1970s and 1980s, of which a handful are even downright classic film monuments. But, like most directors from those glorious decades who are still active today, Carpenter isn't really at his place in the new Millennium. What he basically tried to achieve here with "The Ward" is a dark horror/thriller that thrives on sinister atmosphere and a mysteriously convoluted plot. Unfortunately, we now live in an era where those two qualities don't mean all that much anymore. Perhaps if the atmosphere would have been REALLY tense and disturbing, and the plot would have been REALLY original and unpredictable, then perhaps "The Ward" could still have been a modest genre favorite and a standout between the crowd, but everything about this film is frightfully average. Rising star (at least in 2010 she was) Amber Heard plays young Kirsten who gets submitted to a psychiatric clinic in Oregon in 1966, after she was found in a confused mental state near a farmhouse that she burned to the ground. She's placed under the care of the suspicious Doctor Gerald Stringer and resides in the all-girls ward together with four other patients. The headstrong Kirsten discovers that the ward is haunted by an evil supernatural entity; - the ghost of a former patient seeking revenge against those who wronged her. Why is this spirit also tormenting her? Why does Dr. Stringer act so secretive about Kirsten's mental condition? Why aren't there any investigations when the other girls go missing? Personally, I love horror flicks set in eerie mental institutions or vintage asylums, but frankly there are just two possibilities for the plot to unfold. Either the doctors and staff secretly abuse the patients and experiment with unorthodox & cruel treatments, or the entire film takes place in the imaginary world of the protagonist patient. I must state that, thanks to Carpenter's subtle and professionally suggestive direction, you cannot immediately guess the climax, but nevertheless the whole story feels derivative and formulaic from the beginning already. There are several reasons why I wished that "The Ward" was an 80s film rather than a 2010 release. For starters, because then the plot would have been much more innovative and leave a bigger impact, whereas now it's too similar to titles that were only released recently before "The Ward", like "Identity" or "Shutter Island". Another reason is because John Carpenter still swears by old-fashioned atmospheric tension building, for example though slow pacing, creepy music and off-screen killings. I am "old-school", so I can still enjoy this approach, but the newer horror generations grew up with straightforward and explicitly violent films like "Saw" and "Hostel", so they can't appreciate atmosphere anymore. Heck, even us dinosaurs are getting so used to extreme and plotless horror that we also look at these films differently and less patiently than we did 15 years ago.

stewoolley Just watch something else, trust me it's rubbish. ......................................