[4.75/10] The Ward (2011)

The Ward (2011)

Brief review: Obviously, legendary horror director John Carpenter has ran out of ideas, as his latest horror film is not only lacking in originality and cohesion, but it shamelessly borrows ideas from many other movies, such as 2003's shocker "Identity", Jaume Balagueró's "Fragile", and, believe it or not, this year's "Sucker Punch" (without the action). Furthermore, "The Ward" also suffers from identity crisis - it tries hard to be a ghost story, a drama, and a mystery thriller all at once, but it fails miserably in its attempt to be all that, and instead, it ends up being a big fat mess, that barely makes any sense. Add to this a couple of spooky images, tons of cheap jump scares, unsympathetic secondary characters, and an anti-climatic twist ending, and you'll get "The Ward". I wish I could say that John Carpenter is back in top form, but sadly, his latest movie proves the exact opposite - the direction is surprisingly sloppy, the editing is sub-par, and the visuals, while atmospheric, are hardly impressive. The extremely underrated Amber Heard is this film's only strength - she give a confident and pretty solid performance as the confused, yet bold Kristen, determined to solve the mystery behind the ward, but the poorly-written script doesn't allow her to truly shine.

Overall summary: Despite Amber Heard's utterly convincing performance, and a few tense moments, "The Ward" is just a mediocre, messy, and unimaginative horror thriller, that delivers only a few chills, and fails to live up to its director's greatness.