The Ward (VOD)
| release date | June 8 2011 |
| studio | XLrator Media |
| director | John Carpenter |
| writer | Michael and Shawn Rasmussen, Jim Agnew, Sean Kelle |
| starring | Amber Heard, Danielle Panabaker, Mamie Gummer, Jared Harris, Mika Boorem, Lyndsy Fonseca, Laura-Leigh, Sydney Sweeney, Dan Anderson, Susanna Burney, Sali Sayle |
| site | thewardmovie.com |
| trailer 1 | Trailer #1 |
0 Comments
This movie is pretty much sucks. There is a decent twist at the end but all in all, it sucks
I’m sad that this is John Carpenter’s “return” to horror. The script is pure cliche, there’s no shocking twist..this has been done too many times in the past decade and way better. Watch Halloween or Prince of Darkness and remember the good ol days instead of this slop.
Not bad at all. I don’t understand the hate for this movie. But the fact is that I’m pretty sure that if it had another name than John Carpenter in the credit, it would have much better rating.
Great film. The end was mindblowing. I know thats not a review but i don’t wanna spoil anything. Go see it. Pay to see it. Support good HORROR films.
I really enjoyed watching this movie. It’s really not as bad as everyone’s claiming it to be.
i love movies about brain camp but for a horror flick set in a 1960s psyche ward, its incredibly lazy and unimaginative during its visit. it has a cool twist but that seems to be all this movie has. it goes from a to zzzz without even exploring the real horrors of 1960s mental illness treatments. its a bit of a wtf.
This movie was a mess – shoddy direction, a screenplay that felt strangely fractured and absolutely dreadful performances from every single person in the cast. I’d be willing to bet that the writers came up with the twist before they came up with the rest of the film.
I rarely go below a three out of ten when rating films, but this is truly deserving.
First off, that ward has got to have the worst security EVER. EVER.
This is a movie I wanted to like more than I did. I mean, John Carpenter! But… The acting wasn’t too stellar; granted, they weren’t given much to work with. It felt like the writers boxed themselves into a corner. There was really nowhere to go. The buildup for the villain wasn’t intense enough, making the scares go only skin deep. Pretty disappointing, but not bad if you don’t go in with any expectations.
For A Kinda Real Review…….
:::SPOILERS BELOW:::
This movie had its up and downs. Nothing is creepier then being in a locked room and knowing someone can get you but you cant get them. But that’s where the interesting ends for me. The ending could blow peoples minds if they never seen the movie Identity before. Which resulted in the same ending. People being killed and the twist being that the people are really other personalities of the supposed main character which also the main character is an identity herself. This movie wasent all bad though if you didnt see Identity (which many havent) then you might like this movie. Its fun for what it is and got me to maybe jump once. The most disturbing part was the credits at the beginning which could have been real pictures from mental hospitals…who knows….
The Ward = Identity ‘Nuff Said
This is one of those movies that you watch alone, late at night in the dark. While not the greatest (The Security really need to be FIRED), it has decent acting, a creepy atmosphere (Hospitals freak me out), and a killer twist. Not as bad as other may be trashing, it made me jump and is a solid flick if you can move past Carpenter’s renown.
Now this was an excellent movie, Scary and Awesome. At first it strongly resembled an episode from Season 5 of “Supernatural” called “Sam, Interrupted”. This does take place in a mental institution so there were some things that seemed typical. Such as the doctors trying to ‘help’ are only making things worse for the patients, but let’s talk about what the movie is. John Carpenter’s “The Ward” has one of the scariest faces in horror. Something is attacking the patients of the ward, doctors and patients are all quiet about the disappearances. It doesn’t always scare you in a typical way in fact it rarely or never does. Here is how I would describe the movie: It’s like a scary ride but at the end you are given $5, then a dollar is taken away from you. Though a dollar was metaphorically lost, it is still a great movie. Now the end of the movie, and I mean the last second not just ‘the end’, is GREAT! It is what takes that dollar away but it is so Unique! You NEVER, EVER, see the main actress do THAT. Have fun,…
It’s one of the best horror films of the year. Scary , supsenseful, surprising twist , gory death scenes, great ghost makeup.
I started this movie with the thought “OK, it’s John Carpenter, and the usual and definitely over done Mental institution setting.” But sadly, that didn’t prepare me for boredom, and sadly, I think that is how I describe this movie. With a jump moment here and there (literally only 2 I can remember) the rest of the movie is a couple of girls talking and yelling at each other back and forth, that leads to basically no gains in the story what so ever.
The ending is next to unpredictable based on the intro of the movie and the story line that follows. While being unpredictable, that is not to say it hasn’t been overdone, because it has, way to many times.
In short, this movie offers nothing new, and very few actual scare attempts. In the end, you will be asking “How was that possible” over any questions about the story you might have had. I am all for the “thinking mans” movie, but this just isn’t one of them, riddled with holes, and lack of scare attempts I give this a 2/5.
John Carpenter hasn’t made anything breathtaking since “The Thing”,don’t get me wrong I’m a huge Carpenter fan, Halloween is my favorite horror movie for God’s sake but he hasn’t made anything really good in a while. But I really enjoyed “The Ward”, Amber Heard did a pretty good job IMO and the other actresses weren’t bad either. The ghost girl was really creepy and there is a cool twist near the end. I recommend you watch this at least once.
Oh Johnny, johnny, johnny…… Why?
We expect better from you.
The Ward tells the story of a young, disturbed woman, sent to a mental institution for burning a house down and unable to remember much before that. As she interacts with her fellow patients, she begins to see that they are being haunted and killed one by one.
What seems like a simple premise, one that has been done successfully elsewhere, the Ward is best described as flatlined. Despite having the beautiful Amber Heard and Danielle Panabaker present, doing their best to act tough and sexy, the story itself is simply boring. The Ward is without a doubt one of the least scary films I have seen in ages. The violence is silly, the effects shots are cheesy and the ghost is totally ridiculous.
When the story is finally laid bare and we see what is actually occurring, I actually became sad. These actors and actresses, this director and the core story all should have combined to create an intense and creepy movie. Instead I saw something that likely should have debuted on Lifetime movie channel.
John Carpenter, much like Wes Craven, hasn’t been aging very well. The name hasn’t meant much in years and if the Ward was an attempt at a comeback, I would say it failed miserably. I do not recommend the ward at all. In fact, if you turn on the tv and it is there, don’t even waste time watching it.
Compare it all you want to the movie “Identity”, and, well, you’re kind of right. Except this one is a lot better. Enjoyed the mood and atmosphere of this film, and compared to what other greats like Wes Craven and George Romero are doing now, I’m glad to see John Carpenter perofmring better. More information here:
http://thewolfmancometh.com/2011/08/23/the-ward-2010/
What to say about this? It is neither good nor bad. It just kind of ‘is’. Which is its biggest problem. I didn’t hate this like some people did, but I couldn’t help but feel it was incredibly lazy at times. Carpenter simply doesn’t seem very interested anymore and it lacks the panache of his great work. The story itself isn’t much to worry about, but the movie does have a good cast and some fun set pieces. In the end though, something of a disappointment.
Carpenter, what have you done? :’(
Such a let down, especially considering this is directed by John Carpenter. And since I’m a fan of both Amber Heard and Danielle Panabaker, I was really looking forward to this. But, it’s boring, ridiculous, and not the least bit fun. Plus the graphics are really crappy. Direct to DVD written all over this. Can they just release All The Boys Love Mandy Lane already? I want a good horror movie starring Amber Heard.
I really wanted to like Carpenter’s comeback-flick… but I couldn’t. “The Ward” is a weak, boring, predictable and pointless ghost-story-with-a-twist, ripping off elements from “Shutter Island”, “Identity” and “Ghost Story” in really unimaginative ways.
Pros:
I love the creepy opening and the excellent-looking opening credits. I love the beautiful cinematography and the look of the mental hospital. The ‘ghost’ looks quite creepy and the few jump scares are all pretty effective.
Cons:
I hated how dull, slow-paced and unsuspenseful the whole movie is (was this really directed by Carpenter?). The acting is mediocre and every single character is annoying and unlikable. Furthermore, we get a cliché-laden and uninteresting plot, a stupid mess of a script incl. an incredibly unoriginal end twist, a few bland kills and a surprisingly lame soundtrack.
Final verdict:
“The Ward” is a huge disappointment. Carpenter should have stayed in retirement.
John Carpenter’s “The Ward” is an uneven cataclysm; a mess, a bore, and kind of a dud. I can’t say it’s terribly bad, but it’s a mood piece that has plenty of atmosphere and “jump scare” to boot, although the story is one that no amount of craft can support. Carpenter hasn’t really made a good film for a while now, and this is his first directorial feature since 2001′s “Ghosts of Mars”. Will the man ever recover from his coma of mediocrity, or shall he remain in it forevermore? Only time will tell, but from where I’m standing, the (genuinely negative) results appear conclusive. “The Ward” is just “meh”. Nothing worse and nothing better than just that. It’s an easy skip and a complete waste of time, although I wouldn’t go so far as to call it trash. It is far from Carpenter’s worst movie, but considering he’s also the guy who made the masterfully-directed “Halloween” and the remake/re-imagining “The Thing”, there’s plenty that he has to live up to, and “The Ward” doesn’t come anywhere close to success.
Kristen (Amber Heard) strikes a match and lights a farmhouse on fire, burning both the exterior and interior of the building as it stood. We don’t know why she did this, but the police find her in time and bring her to a psychiatric hospital, where she is treated for the problems that could have provoked her destructive nature on that day. Kristen finds it difficult to cope with these inexplicable problems, and her stress only makes her look less-and-less normal each day. She is helped by the head Doctor of the ward, Dr. Stringer (Jared Harris). During her stay, she also attempts to socialize with the other insane and emotionally disturbed girls around her (a few of which are portrayed by Danielle Panabaker, Laura-Leigh, Lyndsy Fonseca, and Mammie Gummer). She befriends a handful of them immediately, and in their moments of proper extensive dialogue, it is revealed that the spirit of a former patient haunts the ward from the inside-out. This is the ghost of the girl Alice, who has a connection to each of the girls in a peculiar way; each one different from the next…or the last.
As one would expect, the girls get curious since the adult characters consider them mad. They try to make peace with the ghost of Alice, although they soon learn that things just aren’t that simple. Regardless, their efforts take them to dark places, and by the conclusion, every fractured, loose-ended piece of the puzzle is put in place. Such a shame that it still feels incomplete and worst of all, rather inconclusive.
The film makes the mistake of focusing more on cinematography and mood alone instead of the more important elements such as characters and story. While there was certainly some potential in each of these girls, Carpenter makes no attempts to give them likable personalities. There’s a girl that is seemingly unable to let go of her childhood values and behaviors. I would have liked to know more about her and her origin story, even if she was mildly annoying at times, but no luck there. And when all is said and done, there’s little to actually CARE about. The characters, on top of the flawed storytelling methods, do not exactly make an entertaining film.
Technically, this is a 50/50 sort of film. It looks great in some scenes, and some of the shots set up some seriously moody and atmospheric moments (or at least what seems like one), but then other scenes are just visually…boring. Maybe I was too distracted by the film’s apathy towards its substance to accept its sense of style, which really isn’t all that bad. Carpenter still “has it” as a fine director of creepy scenes that take place earlier in the picture, but alas, he does not emerge victorious at the end of it all. There were some inspired elements to the films, but the absurd outweighs the entertaining and satisfactory and therefore, I can’t say I was interested whatsoever. “The Ward” is most likely to be the most boring film from this year that you’ll find hardest to hate. But then again, maybe not; I really had to – and wanted to – cut it some slack for having a few good parts in the midst of its lack of compelling drama and/or horror. This is not a bad horror movie. But it isn’t a good one either, and when ghost stories are ghost stories, this one is fairly average.
An interesting story, but not terribly engaging or scary. More like a Lifetime channel Halloween special.
not as bad as everyone has said, i quite enjoyed it love the directing and the acting wasn’t that bad it was quite good (they are playing menial patients), the only thing wrong with it was that i guessed the end 15 minutes in to it, it was not scary (but i have never seen a movie that is) so i liked it
I was expecting this movie to be lame but it surprised me and turned out to be pretty creepy. The theme wasn’t all that original but it still managed to keep me engaged. I liked it.
This film’s conclusion reminded so much of another film’s conclusion that it really took away the films credibility as anything special on its own.
was hoping for good things since it was John Carpenters return, but things werent meant to be
This had potential to be really spooky. I really didnâe(TM)t see it ending the way it did. And while it wasnâe(TM)t what I was expecting (and has been done before) it was interesting and I liked it. I didnâe(TM)t feel like I had been robbed or disappointed at all. On the other hand it was nothing great. Check out a more in depth review at my Horror Movie/Book review site @ ShiversOfHorror.com
Horribly boring and predictable. The story is a mess, the acting is poor, and the horror and thrills are—well, there aren’t any. Was hoping for some Carpenter magic of old, but not to be found in this bad film—what a shame.