The Ward
Review By Sharon Foss
Images of mental institutions always bring to mind dark hallways, sterile rooms that can only be called cells, and nursing staff that has been turned away by all other mainstream hospitals—the degenerates of the profession. My mind conjures up these images because every movie revolving around these types of institutions feeds into that stereotype. John Carpenter’s The Ward is not unlike the other movies of this setting…but it is.
The Ward is set in 1966 Oregon. A girl is found setting fire to her home, or what we presume to be her home, and is promptly taken to the local institution. Kristen (played to perfection by Amber Heard from And Soon the Darkness) is taken to the ward, which is a section of the hospital designated for special cases like hers. She’s being housed in the ward with a few others girls who also appear relatively normal, but who Dr. Stringer (Jared Harris of Mad Men and Fringe) thinks he can cure with some experimental therapy. Electroshock therapy: A great therapy when drugs don’t work! It is the 60s, after all. No worries…if that doesn’t work, a zombified ghost girl will make it all better. Could this girl be former patient Alice Hudson?
Things begin happening on the ward, and girls begin disappearing. Kristen decides she needs to get out for good before something worse happens. What she begins to learn about the ward, however, is that it’s not the doctors you have to worry about, it’s that former resident that she should watch out for. Alice Hudson was a patient of the ward who was not so nice to the other girls, so the other girls took it up on themselves to teach Alice a lesson. Unfortunately for them, Alice has come back to pay back the favor.
The Ward could have been made into a typical movie of this style, i.e., bad things happen to some girls in a mental hospital. But what it really turned into was a whole lot more. I was relieved. I’m a big fan of John Carpenter. The way he and writers Michael and Shawn Rasmussen took a simple story and developed it through characters and music, leaving out the over-the-top effects other horror movie creators resort to, was refreshing. If the story is good, you don’t need fancy special effects. Carpenter masters this. A few good actors, a decent storyline, and a great soundtrack all make a movie worth watching. I wish others would take a lesson from the mastery of Carpenter.
