Carpenter's early films were not even half as scary as this film, as someone who was growing up with his films since the early 80's, to me The Ward is a triumph, even a few seconds of the score or just few images of the film can scare me to death, Carpenter hit something deep within the psyche of the collective consciousness., a truly powerful film setting the stage and an imprint for artistic expressions about the discovery of identity and its redemptive freedom within the theme of mental illness and fluidity of reality. The same like Halloween, there was Black Christmas and Texas Chainsaw Massacre before too, just like there were a few others before The Ward too within the span of 10 years, but all of them together are part of a new wave. Nothing comes along alone, or standing apart, everything always comes in groups, everything, all inventions, all new things are reflected by others wihout being aware of one another, because everything is connected in this universe. The Ward is a reminder of our inter-connectedness at a microscopic level, there's many lives and personalities inside of us, reflecting us, in our private universe as well as this wider universe.

John Carpenter's 2010 horror film stars Amber Heard, Mamie Gummer, Danielle Panabaker, Laura-Leigh Claire, Lyndsy Fonseca, Mika Boorem and Jared Harris. This takes place in the 1960's focusing on young woman, Kristen (Heard) who is taken to a psychiatric hospital after setting a farmhouse ablaze. She meets Dr. Stringer (Harris) and patients, Emily (Gummer), Sarah (Panabaker), Zoey (Claire) and Iris (Fonseca). Kristen and the girls become hunted by a ghost of deceased patient, Alice (Boorem) and Kristen discovers the significance of her occurrence. This is OK, Heard is pretty good in it, there's gruesome make-up effects by Greg Nicotero & Howard Berger as usual and the film sort of resembles Carpenter's previous film, "In the Mouth of Madness." Carpenter or horror fans may want to view this at least once.

Dark and scary places with ghosts, questionable therapies and some disrespect for it's patients humanity... usually, this is how we imagine an insane asylum. This recipe, which has allowed most of old sanatoriums to gain a reputation for being haunted, is quite visible in this film, which tells the story of a mental patient who is terrified by a ghost. Set in the sixties (it seems that John Carpenter truly enjoys this period, where his career began), the film quickly creates a positive tension and suspense. This is done by putting together these ideas and a plot full of unanswered questions. Some scenes in the beginning of the film are only understood in the end, as if they were clues for the public to find its own answer. Some of the movie's most intense scenes, unsuitable for the faint-hearted, resort to scary medical techniques that were top-of-the-line at the time. Amber Heard is the protagonist, and is OK in her character, fulfilling without surprising; Mamie Gummer and Danielle Panabaker gave life to the crazy colleagues I liked the most, as they are the opposite of each other but interact very well with Heard. Jared Harris has been convincing in the role of the doctor. So, this film is far from completely satisfying Carpenter's fans, but was enough as an appetizer for them.

Let's state the obvious here: the main reason for me watching THE WARD was the presence of John Carpenter as director. I love Carpenter; man, he made some of the all-time classics in the '70s and '80s, so I have a lot of time for him. Sadly, this is another predictable and undistinguished movie which, like GHOSTS OF MARS, could have been directed by anybody. And I mean anybody - there's no trace of the old Carpenter magic here.Instead what we get is an oh-so-predictable mental institute movie that copies bits of GOTHIKA and even IDENTITY for effect. Amber Heard is pretty but vacuous as the lead, who gets sent to an asylum for arson and must learn the truth about her own murky past as well as the pasts of the strange girls she now lives with. Other than Jared Harris's efficient turn as the asylum doctor, there's little on offer for discerning viewers here.In terms of horror, the writers can't resist throwing in some CGI ghost antics, plus some more visceral scares in the form of electroshock therapy. The problem is that this is all very predictable, right down to the fight ending and the multiple twists which are well telegraphed in advance. There's nothing here the viewer's not seen before, and nothing to remember either.