#99 -- The Ward (2010)

Director: John Carpenter
Rating: 3/5

Directed by John Carpenter, this movie follows a young girl named Kristen after she is admitted into a mental facility. The first thing we see of her, she is setting fire to a house before being arrested and taken to the facility. It does not explain, at first, exactly why she did it or what drove her to insanity. In fact, she doesn't seem insane at all. But, there is much more to her than meets the eye. Inside the facility she meets her fellow "inmates": Iris, Zoey, Sarah, and Emily. These girls all suffer from different levels of insanity and each have their own little quirky personality. Iris is the smart one with a great artistic ability; Zoey is the innocent one who is afraid of the dark and clings to a little stuffed bunny; Sarah is the seductress, always trying to get it on with one of the guards; and Emily is the seriously bat-shit crazy one, who likes to sing and paint cake her mouth with clown-like make-up. These girls seem pretty normal, though, at least by insane asylum standards. We wonder exactly why they're there.



Oh, and there is another girl: Alice. Alice is a ghost, killed by the other girls (before Kristen arrived) because she was "mean to them." Now, she's back for revenge against those who killed her. Kristen must try to help the other girls, while trying to escape the asylum and stay alive. It's not easy, though, when they're locked up and kept under strict surveillance. There are some surprises. This isn't your average ghost story, and the girls at the institution really aren't what they seem. Kristen turns out to be a little crazier than she seemed initially, because she is traumatized from being kidnapped and tortured when she was a child. It plays like a ghost story throughout most of the movie, but once you get the whole story you'll realize it's actually not a ghost story at all.

While this isn't a typical ghost story, it does have the typical ghost story scares. There was one scare that wasn't typical, and I loved it. It was the good 'ol medicine cabinet scare with a twist. You know when someone opens the medicine cabinet, and when they close it, they see someone (or something) standing behind them in the mirror? It was effective, for me, because I was expecting it to be typical, but they turned it around and surprised me. That, I think, was my favorite part of the movie. It's not a big story point, no, but it was effective and different. Overall, it was a pretty good movie with incredible acting and nice spooks.