The Ward
Director: John Carpenter
Writer: Michael Rasmussen, Shawn Rasmussen
Cast: Amber Heard, Mamie Gummer, Danielle Panabaker, Laura-Leigh, Lyndsy Fonseca, Jared Harris
Part of: /slash Filmfestival

Plot:
Kristen (Amber Heard) is caught burning down a farmhouse and promptly admitted to a mental institution. There she is stationed in a ward with four other young women – and a ghost. The ghost starts picking off the girls one by one, but nobody believes Kristen that anything is happening at all. So she tries to stop it on her own.

The Ward had some good scares, but other than that it was an extremely unimaginative affair with one cliché after the other.

[REALLY BIG SPOILERS]

The whole thing really is pretty much a textbook example for a classic bad horror movie – it is that formulaic and really gives you every cheap thrill and fright possible. I mean, you know that they’ll come about 10 minutes before they’re actually there and you’ll still twitch when they happen because the soundediting is really good – but that’s about everything they do.

It hits every cliché and then finishes the whole thing with a freaking multiple personality plot twist?! I mean, seriously? Fucking seriously? There are so many movies who did this before – and they did it so much better.

And to keep in line with the general theme it features a lot of beautiful young women, most of whom can’t act worth a damn. I mean, Lyndsy Fonseca is great and Mamie Gummer has her moments but other than that… yeesh. Amber Heard has a mental breakdown on screen and it’s so involving that I’m wondering the whole time why nobody can give that girl a brush. That’s how good the acting is.

And to add insult to injury the movie runs really long, despite being shorter than 90 minutes.

Summarising: It is not entirely unentertaining, but mostly it’s just really average.