THE WARD
3 out of 5 stars

hmm... in some ways, i thought this was better than sucker punch because 1) definitely scarier, more thriller-like 2) the overall story makes sense 3) amber heard might be a better actress than emily browning? ;)

so, the movie starts with a skinny blond teenager (amber heard) running through the woods, then setting a farmhouse in the oregon countryside on fire. the police apprehend her, and take her to this asylum, where a dr. gerald stringer (jared harris from mad men) is trying to treat her. turns out this girl’s name is kristen, and she learns that there are 4 other girls living in the same ward. they are: 1) emily: the weird one 2) iris: the nerd and artsy one 3) zoe: a girl who thinks she’s 5 years old 4) sarah: the seductive one. kristen tries her best to escape whenever possible, but as it turns out, a ghost named alice seems to be haunting and killing each girl, one by one... there seems to be a secret that the other four girls seem to be harboring, but kristen doesn’t understand why the ghost seems to want her. well, there’s a major plot twist towards the very end involving a traumatic event and delusions and well...you really want to know? i’ll just give you a hint: remember that movie with john cusack called identity? ;)

this was john carpenter’s first movie in a while, and it’s quite a comeback, IMO... i thought being that j. carpenter is considered “the master of suspense” that this movie was quite the thriller esp. trying to figure out why these things were happening to the girls and the real mystery behind alice. the final revelation is pretty awesome, which is why this 2 star movie gets an extra star from me! let’s just say this is no shutter island, mindyou, but it works for me. (hell, it makes waaay more sense than sucker punch) i think if they explained why alice’s mind fractured the way it did, this could have done well. plus, why market this as a horror movie when in fact, it’s really a thriller? SMH... :/