John Carpenter, am begging you, please do not let this be your "final" movie. End with a bang, not a whimper.
'The Ward' is by far Carpenters worst movie. It's a generic horror thriller that lacks any suspense or atmosphere. Instead the move relays way too much on jump scares to the point it became irritating to watch. It also doesn't help that the twist-ending is just the worst.
Some of the performances were pretty decent; the standout being Jared Harris who is at least trying, bless his heart. However the other performances were pretty terrible; the standout being Amber Turd.
Overall rating: The one star is for Jared Harris.
Every time I watch a modern Carpenter film I am sorely disappointed. I think from now on whenever I'm tempted I'll just watch The Thing or Escape From New York again instead.
Hehe. To be fair to Slater though he was good in the series Breaking In. The pilot was pretty tight. Shame it didn't last more than 7 eps when so much other crap got picked up this season. Freaked me out though as I watched it after watching Heathers again and the age was really throwing me particularly as he had some JD mannerisms. Slater will be popping up all over the place in '11 & '12.
Whereas Carpenter has far more to attone for as he hasn't made a decent film since '86. He should have left on a high because I don't think he has it in him anymore and his woeful outweighs the gold.
It was interesting enough until the twist.
I thought it was decent, watched it last night on Netflix, not great, but not horrible. Kind of predictable.
Is this a... dumb movie?
It wasn't a bad movie at all, but as far as masks were concerned, it was pretty weak enough. On the other hand, it had an interesting story with a good resolution of the whole film, but except for the good story and the good resolution, there was not much to jump out of the skin, and also enough traps.
I dare say that I would count them on the fingers of one hand, I think there were only 5 of them, which would not matter so much if the plot of the film was more fun and exciting, but I still think that the rating of 6 out of 10 deserves and that especially for the end of the whole film.
Eh, I've definitely seen worse films, especially in the horror genre, which is fucking littered with trash. John Carpenter has the bar set for him so high because of what he's done in the past. The Thing, Halloween, and They Live were revolutionary genre masterpieces. So, I can understand how it would be hard to not look at Carpenter with high expectations, especially for a horror film from him, the madman himself.
It's definitely not anything great or anything, and it's not terrible. It's just painfully average, which is it's biggest problem. I like movies that are either entertaining as fuck and very good, cinematic masterpieces, or movies that are so bad, they're funny. There's nothing in the middle for me. If you're movie is average, it's a damn shame. I'd rather laugh at a bad movie than be bored. I want to either be impressed, or entertained, not checking my phone's clock, which happened quite a bit throughout the middle of this.
It feels like a made-for-TV movie made by no-name director, it's that bland. There are some okay performances scattered throughout, and I admit, the twist did get me a little bit, but it's nothing that would shock the hell out of me, like 'Sinister' or 'Drag Me To Hell' did. So, everyone the girl knew was just a made-up personality trait of hers. Big-whoop. I'd rather go watch 'Psycho', at least it offered something to enhance the genre it's in. 'The Ward' is a horror movie that wants to be other, better, and more successful horror movies that came out when John Carpenter wasn't doing horror movies. I could name so many things from this movie that it does, that I've seen other movies do much better.
I didn't realize who directed the movie until after I watched it, and when I found out, I was a little disappointed. I'm not going to say John Carpenter has lost his mind or anything, unlike Ridley Scott, but Carpenter, is old and he made a bland, generic movie. Nothing I'd get too upset over, just disappointed.
A surprisingly tame outing for horror master John Carpenter, The Ward plays more as a mystery/suspense film. It begins as a dark drama about a group of girls in a psych ward and then slowly shifts gears when a ghost seemingly starts stalking them. Starring Amber Heard, Danielle Panabaker, Lyndsy Fonseca, and Jared Harris, the cast is quite good and give fairly strong performances. The script however, is a little weak. By and large the story feels familiar and makes several obvious hints as to what the twists will be. Still, the plot comes together rather well and delivers a few chills. Though different from the typical Carpenter flick, The Ward has a bit of his trademark style and is a pretty solid psychological thriller.
You can see the plot-twist coming from 5 miles away making this movie an ordeal to watch. By the third victim I was wishing for the twist to be revealed so something would happen. Unfortunately for all it did not...
I was going to rate it with a 5 when a ghost is murdered with an ax... wtf. But I loved the resolution, when all of these girls were someone of her multiple personalities. And they killed her because they didn't want to die so the real Alice is killing them one by one to extinct them and be only one real person. But... they are coming back again. Cool.
Nothing here is in any way original, including the resolution to the mystery, which whilst improving a fairly generic ghost story has also been done before in better films. Having said that the film is very watchable and Carpenter still knows how to pull off some tense scenes and scares. It's just as shame that he can't apply these talents to a more original script.
Eh, Carpenter, the Christian Slater of film making.
Shout by EranumVIP 8BlockedParent2011-09-20T19:02:33Z
Well, better a bad Carpenter, than no Carpenter at all... Score: 5/10.