The Ward, John Carpenter’s first directorial effort in 10 years, is not an ideal hiatus-buster. The premise itself — a psych ward for young women is the site of a killing spree — is somewhat pre-Carpenter, and the toe-dip into torture porn feels a little desperate. But his budget-blond lead, B-movie mistress Amber Heard, is well-chosen, and the combination of an excellent supporting cast and a pliable theme work to offset the sizable debits incurred by the often rote direction and seriously iffy ending.
It’s 1966 when Kristen (Heard) is dragged off to a North Bend, Ore., mental hospital after she sets a house ablaze wearing nothing but a white slip and a dazed but alluring expression. Described as “confused and disturbed” by her suspiciously courtly doctor (Jared Harris), Kristen is no dummy, and jacks her way out of her cell on the second night. When she is intercepted and subjected to the Frankenstein-ish procedure of electroconvulsive shock therapy, one of the maybe-menacing orderlies (there is also an amusingly dead-eyed nurse) mutters his wish that they might “fry the crazy out” of all of the girls on the ward. Those girls include a sniffy redhead named Sarah (Danielle Panabaker), a pugnacious weirdo named Emily (Mamie Gummer, fully going for it), the sweetly functional Iris (Lyndsy Fonseca), and a timid regression case named Zooey (Laura-Leigh).
The strange, shady things Kristen sees when she enters the hospital are soon consolidated into the same, one terrible thing: A nasty female corpse who snacks on inmates at night. The…
Bali Rodriguez Bar Refaeli Beyoncé Bianca Kajlich Bijou Phillips Blake Lively Blu Cantrell
No comments:
Post a Comment