FILM: John Carpenter's The Ward (dir: John Carpenter, 2011)

"Enough!"

"You can't be serious?"

The real thrill of this movie is to see John Carpenter's name above the title (in that font!) of a new movie in a cinema, nearly a decade after the distressingly disappointing Ghosts of Mars. This is far from Carpenter at his peak, and in some ways feels closest to his own film In The Mouth of Madness - although nowhere near as good - but as director-for-hire on this job he acquits himself efficiently, using the deliberately limited locations to good purpose, and the sub-genre 'psychiatric hospital with a ghost' conventions are duly in place (every night has a thunderstorm!). The film is hampered by a deeply below-average cast and a lightweight by-the-numbers script, of which the central conceit is so blindingly obvious and familiar from the outset that waiting for the inevitable resolution becomes incredibly tiresome. The shocks are of the loud-and-sudden variety rather than creating a sense of real menace, although one early 15-baiting image does surprise. Welcome back, Mr. Carpenter - but next time, better choice of material, please.