By Melissa Antoinette Garza
The great John Carpenter came back with a full length feature on a modest $10 million dollar budget. I would personally like to know why I haven’t heard about it until now! I don’t recall any mainstream advertising like for Sam Raimi’s horror comeback in “Drag Me to Hell” or even the power ads for the writing credits Wes Craven’s received on the mediocre “My Soul to Take.” Carpenter, who in my opinion has given more to horror than Raimi or Craven (both who I admire, respect and appreciate) seems to have been ignored on his latest big production.
Though receiving a small theatrical release in Italy, Ireland, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates, “The Ward” received nothing in the US other than a straight-to-DVD release this month. I haven’t even seen any Blockbuster ads promoting it, though this may be more to do with Blockbuster’s current financial crisis than a purposeful disregard to one of the Hollywood greats.
In the early 1960s, Kristen (Amber Heard) awakes in a psych ward for women. Unsure how she got there or why she is being held captive, she immediately searches for answers. The nurse not helpful or sympathetic to her needs, is cold and cruel and almost appears to enjoy torturing the girl.
Dr. Stringer (Jared Harris) though giving the appearance of wanting to be helpful also openly hides Kristen’s past from her. She begs him to answer but he ignores her request and responds only with her therapy which includes forced pills and electric shock therapy.
Her companions at the ward include Zoey (Laura-Leigh) who sparks a strong resemblance to Drew Barrymore. Zoey acts like a small child clutching a stuffed bunny rabbit and wearing her hair in pigtails. Also present is the flirtatious Sarah (Danielle Panabaker) who hides her insecurity behind acting over confident and as though the other girls are jealous of her beauty. Emily (Mamie Gummer) is quite the opposite and always in some sort of conflict with Sarah. She is shy, reserved and anxiety ridden yet protective over Zoey. Lastly is Iris (Lyndsy Fonseca) who believes she is being released from the hospital.
She meets with Dr. Stringer asking if she can leave but he tells her they can discuss it tomorrow. He flips through her drawings and holds up one of a ghostly figure in the hallway. She claims it was one from long ago and asks again to go home. She falls asleep in his office and when the orderly Roy (D.R. Anderson) comes to bring her back to her room, it’s apparent she has disappeared.
When the girls hear of Zoey’s disappearance, they fear the worst as each one of them has seen the dark figure walking the halls at night. Soon, the other girls are confronted by a hideous skeletal woman (Jillian Kramer) who has unparalleled strength and can throw them as if they were pillows.
As the hospital refuses to acknowledge the disappearances or tell Kristen why she was brought there, she decides her only way out aside from death is an escape. She enlists the girls and though Zoey is quite frightened she puts her trust in Kristen. It is then she learns about the skeletal figure walking the halls. Her name was Alice (Mika Boorem) and she was attacked and murdered by the other girls because she was ‘mean.’ The answer though couldn’t explain why Kristen was a target as well. She hadn’t arrived at the hospital when Alice was murdered.
All answers are revealed at what turned out to be a very fitting and surprising conclusion. Carpenter worked his magic and created a fantastic and fun horror movie that kept the interest throughout. Though, definitely not on par with “Halloween“ “They Live,” or “The Thing,” it definitely is an addition that Carpenter should be proud of and one that should have gotten a shot on the big screen.
The acting was fantastic.
Jared Harris was wonderful as the doctor. As not much is known about his past, Harris still ensured the character had depth. There was a sincerity about the performance which creates a level of understanding for the doctor even when the treatments used make one cringe.
I had seen Harris in other parts before. One of my favorites was in an episode of Law and Order SVU entitled Svengali. There he portrayed Robert Morten, a pretentious serial killer who viewed himself as an artist and had fans who worshipped him. The two roles are so unique and different from one another and really shows his versatility. He also has a very unique look and style. He is definitely leading man material.
Another SVU alum, Danielle Panabaker stood out as well. The character could have very easily been played as a one-dimensional clichéd slut, but instead Panabaker brought out the insecurity often felt by those who are overly flirtatious.
The lead, Amber Heard, was fantastic. As the film is set in the 1960s it was important to portray her in a manner believable yet still display the necessary strength for the protagonist of the dark force trying to destroy her. She did this well by staying away from the sassiness and fake bravado that is often shown in women in movies today. She instead made Kristen instinct-driven. Her strength was a result of a direct threat that without fighting she couldn’t win. There were times when she was sarcastic and times when she stood up for herself, but never in a way that took you out of the film or was out of character.
In fact, I would like to see more actresses today adopt this realistic manner of being in their characters rather than the stereotypical Paris Hilton wannabes with super human strength. A heroine need not respond in a clichéd masculine manner to be successful. She can use her wits and fists only when necessary rather than to jump a man with a chainsaw (ala Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2003). There’s this misconception in Hollywood that to be fair to women, we must make them into men. That in itself is sexist. The backlash from the 70s and 80s where women were damsels in distress and needed the brute strength of men to survive, created this new culture of Super Women. It’s more insulting than the former. To be told the only way to be a strong woman is to adopt the worst qualities associated with ‘being a man’ is demeaning, not believable, and ruins the horror genre. Women don’t always need to be running away and hiding, but if it’s the smart thing to do – the characters should be doing it (men or women). The difference is that in reality there is a stigma on men where they feel forced to defend the rights of their loved ones with violence and that stigma was truthfully represented on screen for decades. There really wasn’t that much wrong with it other than at times the female characters lacked any sort of depth and just became another cliché. Now, the reverse if often the case where men are forced into the roles of women (cowering and being afraid) and the women lacking any sense take on the bad guys with fists rather than their mind.
It is much more believable and complimentary to have women defeat the enemy with their brains as Nancy in the original Nightmare on Elm Street had. Why suddenly do we need women to repress the normal emotion of fear? It’s natural and to say that to be strong one must not feel fear is stupid. It’s understandable – even in this day and age – why men hide their fear in film which was exactly the point in movies created before. It wasn’t that men were unafraid but instead felt necessary due to society’s influence to portray this forceful demeanor which ultimately and usually led to their demise. It makes no sense now to have actresses feel compelled to take on this role as the stigma doesn’t apply to them. It makes more sense to remove the stigma from men with few exceptions and have the protagonist attempt to (and at times succeed at) out-thinking the antagonist.
More so, the worst aspect of this methodology, is that it ruins it for the audience because if the characters are unafraid – the viewers will be too. If the audience feels that the main characters have the bad guy under control and can defeat him/her or is even as strong as him/her, there’s nothing to fear. That is the core reason having any type of military group as the protagonist is unsuccessful. The military (especially in this day and age) have seen the worst of the worst and are accustomed to being in situations where death is a real possibility. Having monsters attack the military (ala Hills Have Eyes Part II 2007) is a bad idea in horror and is near impossible to do right.
Thankfully, John Carpenter is old-school. He’s not only a wise director but understands the importance of delivering relatable characters. I for one am very glad he is back and look forward to his next production, which hopefully will get an American Cinematic release as I will be there front and center.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7.5/10
