John Carpenter's The Ward

[stu]

YouTube Trailer


So, it's been a while since Carpenter released anything in the theaters, and even longer since he made something that was badass to the core.

This one has Amber Heard as an arsonist who gets placed in a mental institution. Once there, she seems to be haunted by a former patient from the clinic. Looking at the trailer, the signature, old school Carpenter look seems to be in effect.

I'm lucky enough to live within a couple blocks of a theater playing this. Today there is only a single matinee screening. Hopefully,The Ward is still there tomorrow. Carpenter is maybe my favorite director, so I'm rooting for this one to be good.

[Johny Cee]

This is OnDemand now, as well...  Very nearly checked it out, but was hoping a guinea pig Good Samaritan would take the plunge first.  I still feel burned for having watched Ghosts of Mars in the theater.

[stu]

I'll be going to the theater on Sunday to watch it! I'll check back to let you know if it's horrifying good or horrifying bleargh.

[stu]

I just arrived back from this a bit ago (I even wore my Pork-Chop Express shirt to the theater). I'm bushed, so I won't blab too much, but I enjoyed the hell out of this flick. The Ward might not blow your mind, but it is solid, the way Drag Me to Hell was a solid horror movie from Sam Raimi. My wife was latching on to my arm often and I even caught myself putting my cap on and peeking up at half a screen, but I'm a horror-flick sissy anyways. She's a Korean-horror flick fan, so it was her style of movie for sure.

If you watch it On Demand, I suggest cranking up the sound.

[Margalis]

I kind of like Ghosts of Mars. It has a lot of good things about it. The casting of Ice Cube is not one of them and the bad guys looking like Kiss / Alice Cooper is also not one of them unfortunately. Those two thing basically ruin the movie. Pretty sure Ice Cube was forced on Carpenter - don't know the story of the directing/costuming of the bad guys. The movie doesn't work when the bad guys come off as ridiculous near-parodies. But if you can get past those things there is a lot to like.

Edit: I also really like Vampires.

These days Carpenter seems pretty disillusioned and mostly concerned with making money. It seems to me that the fire is gone and mostly he'll just do something if he gets a decent paycheck out of it.

[TheWalrus]

Slightly off topic reply.... I found Drag me to Hell great in some spots, but overall I was disappointed in it. I never could put my finger on what it was exactly but about three quarters through I just wasn't interested anymore. Could also have not helped that I knew how the whole button thing was gonna turn out. Oh well. I do look forward to this one.

[DraconianOne]

Slightly off topic reply.... I found Drag me to Hell great in some spots, but overall I was disappointed in it. I never could put my finger on what it was exactly but about three quarters through I just wasn't interested anymore. Could also have not helped that I knew how the whole button thing was gonna turn out. Oh well. I do look forward to this one.

Not sure why you've brought Drag Me To Hell up in this thread but... I think it would have been fine (and probably better) if Raimi had made it shortly after Evil Dead 2/Army of Darkness as it had some of that franchises sensibility about it. But he's grown up and moved on and trying to revisit that period but not being able to capture the feel or dynamic of it was what worked against the film.

But... back to Carpenter: I'm intrigued by this film but feel his work is so hit and miss that I may wait till I can watch it at home. I don't think Carpenter's really done much to write home about since the 80s with the notable exception of In The Mouth Of Madness (and Vampires to a certain extent).