The Ward

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

I'd been reading about John Carpenter's directorial return to the big screen for some time now, just today I read an article about it's impending release in American. So Imagine my surpise when I went to JB Hi-Fi after watching Soul Surfer to find this sitting on the dvd shelf, not even in the new release section. I must have missed this release.

Anyway that has been rectified. I've watched it now.

Carpenter's last films weren't well received. It's been a long time since he's done a feature. The straight to dvd release doesn't film me with much confidence either.

And like Wes Craven's recent outputs it's not really that successful. My biggest problem with a ghost like antagonist is there is no rhyme or reason established as to what the rules are. How can you hide from something omni-present? How can you kill something that is intangible one minute and thrusting surgical implements into your skull the next? Perhaps if I cared at all about the so-called "final girl" I might be more invested in these problems. The mystery surrounding her appearance wasn't that interesting either.

There are a few Halloween-ish moments, including a small tweek to hiding in the wardrobe that I liked but ultimately none of the scares worked. There is a jump at the end, along the lines of I Know What You Did Last Summer (I can't remember if it was 1 or 2... or both) that, while it will certainly make you jump, is kind of cheap.

I probably shouldn't say this but *SPOILER ALERT* there is a little twist ending that is basically Identity, just not done as well. *END SPOILER*

So while it looks nice and had some cool moments in the score there wasn't much I found interesting here. I like most of the actresses too but was never invested in anything.