After a long time horror movie master John Carpenter returns to the big screen with THE WARD. Needless to say it's a lot better than his last outing (GHOSTS OF MARS) but this isn't a HALLOWEEN.
On the plus side, the movie's atmosphere is effectively created via its location and music. Camera angles were very reminiscent of Carpenter's older works and this was a nice touch since the new "hyper-realistic" documentary style of today is getting overused.
On the negative side, THE WARD's main letdown is its predictability. As long as anyone knows enough horror movies, the plot isn't much of a shocker. The script felt bland and flat; the cast just said their lines, acted scared and that's it. The script was nothing memorable nor offensively stupid; it was just there.
In terms of scares, only a few scenes were effective in doing their job. The majority of the scare tactics were old-school and while some worked others didn't. Maybe it's because Carpenter's style IS kind of old and the new decade has ushered in new styles of scaring people or something or that the film was a homage to the old style of horror; whatever the case the scares were at most average.
In the end THE WARD is sadly just another horror movie; it would actually be kind of hard to make it stand out amongst the many similar horror movies out there in both the big screen and direct-to-DVD market if not for John Carpenter's name on the title and the obviously better budget. I was expecting a bit more if not a lot from John Carpenter but I wasn't completely disappointed. If John Carpenter (hopefully) decides to make at least one more film after this, I just hope it would keep the atmosphere of THE WARD but improve on the story and scares.
On the plus side, the movie's atmosphere is effectively created via its location and music. Camera angles were very reminiscent of Carpenter's older works and this was a nice touch since the new "hyper-realistic" documentary style of today is getting overused.
On the negative side, THE WARD's main letdown is its predictability. As long as anyone knows enough horror movies, the plot isn't much of a shocker. The script felt bland and flat; the cast just said their lines, acted scared and that's it. The script was nothing memorable nor offensively stupid; it was just there.
In terms of scares, only a few scenes were effective in doing their job. The majority of the scare tactics were old-school and while some worked others didn't. Maybe it's because Carpenter's style IS kind of old and the new decade has ushered in new styles of scaring people or something or that the film was a homage to the old style of horror; whatever the case the scares were at most average.
In the end THE WARD is sadly just another horror movie; it would actually be kind of hard to make it stand out amongst the many similar horror movies out there in both the big screen and direct-to-DVD market if not for John Carpenter's name on the title and the obviously better budget. I was expecting a bit more if not a lot from John Carpenter but I wasn't completely disappointed. If John Carpenter (hopefully) decides to make at least one more film after this, I just hope it would keep the atmosphere of THE WARD but improve on the story and scares.