The Ward Movie Review

Since Ghosts of Mars, The Ward is John Carpenter‘s most recent full-length film about a ward of psychiatric patients dealing with a ghost of a little girl.  This movie does provide some decent horror moments and an overall decent horror movie worthy of a watch.  However, the horror in of itself is a bit antiquated (that is, from the 1980s).

Cast

Amber Heard stars as Kristen, the runaway who is captured and brought to the psychiatric ward for counseling. Mammie Gummer stars as Emily, one of the psychiatric patients.  The other psychiatric patients are, as follows: Sarah is played by Danielle Panabaker; Laura Leigh stars as Zoey; Iris is played by Lyndsy Fonseca; and lastly, Sali Sayler stars as Tammy.  Doctor Stringer is played by Jared Harris.  Nurse Lundt is played Susanna Burney.  Lastly, Ghost Alice is played by Jillian Kramer.

Plot

In 1966, in North Bend, Oregon, runaway Kristen is captured by police officers and brought to the North Bend Psychiatric Hospital for counseling after she had committed the crime of burning down a farmhouse.  After the use of experimental therapy by Doctor Stringer,  Kristen begins seeing a ghost of little girl, Alice.  The ghost of Alice pursues each of the psychiatric patients in the hospital, torturing and killing each one until Kristen.

Review

This horror movie wasn’t half-bad, but it wasn’t fantastic either. If you’re a fan of 1980s horror movies, this film is a bit more enjoyable, but this horror movie does not present anything new.  Amber Heard and Jared Harris played their parts well.  The lackluster plot of this film is what ultimately brought it down however, but there are some jump-out-of-your-seat moments throughout this horror movie.  (On a side note, if you can’t tolerate the rest of the film, please watch the surprise ending.  It will make you surely jump, if just for that moment.)

Verdict (Out of 10)

This movie gets a 7 out of 10.  This film has sufficient entertainment and horror value to make it worth watching.  However, the plot and most of the horror elements are derivative.

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