The Ward

The Ward, 2010
Director: John Carpenter
Cast: Amber Heard, Mamie Gummer, Danielle Panabaker

Stage; home @laptop


The Ward in short:

A thriller centered on an institutionalized young woman who becomes terrorized by a ghost.

Preps: Again, this is the movie just playing in the theatres, drives attention of the younger audience. No recommendations, but also no critics.

Reality: The potential is extremely good. With the solid story and parallel personalities, split between reality and imagination. However, the delivery is very poor, unfortunately. Something in this piece is truly missing to make it a good thriller. Maybe not just in the cast, but also in the way things are presented to the viewer. The appearing of the ghost is appareantly inevitable in order to make things at least a bit dynamical. A lot of questions remain unspoken, even more unanswered.

The twist at the end makes it a bit more worth while seeing this piece, although I am not satisfied with the complete mask I am putting on for the hour and a half. Luckily, the movie is short and I don't have to suffer any longer than really necessary. All the scenes that should make a thriller, are highly predictable and very poorly executed. The only thrilling thing in this case would be a good imagination from the spectator's point of view. Just to put actors in a mental institution and provide music as background, just isn't enough. And the remaining riddles are ridiculous, also providing grounds to make a sequel out of this piece.

My personal rate: 2,0 (Although wanting to give it a straight zero, I changed my mind because of the last third of the piece. With some smart director input, it could really be a good piece).

The Ward on IMDB