The Ward (2010)

One of the things that I have learned over the years is that if you want to truly watch and enjoy (and possibly review) a film, it is better to look past all of the packages and histories of the project, writers or directors. To me, often movies are unfairly graded and reviewed due to who starred in it, or who directed it. By looking past that data and watching the flick (regardless of who worked on it) you should be able to truly get a better read than if you let that info cloud judgment. Look at the movie My Soul To Take by Wes Craven, it was terrible with or without his name on it, but did it get bashed even more because it did not live up to his previous masterpieces? Probably… With that in mind, I am watching and reviewing The Ward, who cares if it was done by the great John Carpenter.

Plot/ a young institutionalized woman is haunted by a mysterious and deadly ghost. As danger creeps closer, she comes to realize that this ghost might be darker than anything she ever could have imagined

Honestly, I had heard very little about this flick, and if I saw something, I pretty much ignored it, as I had no idea what to expect. What I found when I finally put it on was an interesting and entertaining movie. Yes, there were a lot of cliché moments with the characterization and storyline, but that was not much of a deal breaker. For the most part the acting was solid, the effects decent and the soundtrack was decently creepy (although, it was no way a classic Carpenteresque soundtrack).  Yes it has its flaws as this movie was nothing new, the pacing seemed a bit off and there was really no gore. However, in the end, I found it a creepy and enjoyable semi-supernatural, semi-slasher, complete with some decently tense moments (even if the ending was a bit blah). Sure it is not Carpenter’s best work, but if you watch it without thinking about previous John Carpenter works, you should at least enjoy it for what it is.